The Problem.

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is Melbourne’s premier foreign language and art-house film festival. Our brief was to drive engagement, advocacy and overall film festival attendance for 2015. The real challenge though, was to get people to see films they’ve never heard of, starring people they don’t know, in a language they don’t understand. All on a considerably limited budget.

The Insight.

Film has the incredible power to make us feel. Since the great depression, movies have been a cultural vehicle for escapism and a quest for meaning. But with 44 of the 50 top grossing films at the Australian Box office based on familiar stories, popular novels and sequels to other films, Australians have a strong desire to know how a film is going to make them feel before they see it. Within this insight lay the challenge and opportunity.

The Challenge.

MIFF showcases films in over 60 languages that most Australians don’t speak, and stars actors that people don’t know. This is a tough sell when people are generally reticent to commit to the unfamiliar.

The Strategy.

Bring to life the emotions of each film so that a prospective audience can experience the way that a movie will make them feel, despite not knowing anything about the directors, actors or plot.

The Execution.

Using the universal language of emotion, we created a custom Emotion Simulator to simulate the emotional journey of every film at the Festival.

To feed the simulator, we captured the emotional DNA of each film by monitoring the way prominent film critics responded to each film through biometric sensors and a custom app. The emotional data map from each film was then fed into facial electrodes in the Miff Emotion Simulator, allowing participants to feel 6 key human emotions: happiness, fear sadness, disgust, surprise or anger. The emotional map was condensed into 1 minute, and the filmed experience of each participant was then turned into an Emotional Trailer for each film. These trailers could then be shared and viewers could book tickets directly from them.

Trailers were promoted through social, cinema, direct and outdoor advertising, and the Emotion Simulator was activated at the Festival.

The Creative Effect.

The Emotional Trailer campaign turned an art-house movie festival into a blockbuster event. The campaign broke every record MIFF measured: attendance, membership, revenue, exposure and digital metrics. The Emotion Simulator experience sold out in less than two days and The Guardian described it as “the number 1 attraction of the festival.”