In June 2020, the global pandemic forced the Brooklyn Film Festival to go entirely online for the first time in its 23-year existence. Which meant we had to get people to watch an entire independent film festival of 144 movies online.

But after 4 months of home isolation, the world was tired of staring at screens.

And to cap it all off, we had a budget of $3,000. Besides, with the lockdown, we had no way to shoot anything safely anyways.

After months of isolation, we knew the films in the festival could teach us how to be human again. Which, by that point, we had all pretty much forgotten.

So we didn’t shoot a single second of footage for our campaign.

Instead, we delved into the shortlisted films, and re-edited some of their most moving, most human moments.

And paired with a design system that was unique to each lesson, we created short refresher courses on humanity.

Because we’d all forgotten how to be human. Something the Brooklyn Film Festival could help us all relearn.

We knew where our audience would primarily be. It’s where everyone in the world went during the pandemic: onto social media. But we knew we needed a more convincing argument than “watch more movies.” After months of lockdown, the world didn’t need more movies.

So we used our idea as a call-to-action. Giving people a compelling reason to engage with the 144 films in our festival. With each film as a post, driving to the Brooklyn Film Festival.

Our design and typography caught people’s eyes.

“Watch 140 films for free” told them what they could do.

And “Relearn how to be human” reminded them why they needed to.

This pro bono client had little to no production budget and a paid social/PR budget of $2k to promote their BFF’s first all-online film festival.

So we leveraged their owned social media channels, TV media donated to the festival, digital placements, and wild postings to maximize our impact.

Our social media plan ran across had our films and social posters coincide with key festival moments, like opening night or the announcement of awards.

We ran two :30 TV spots that drove people to the festival, as did our web banners and wild postings.

And we continued to re-engage with our audience by adding new lessons and posters throughout the entire two-week run of the film festival.

Despite the pandemic, the 2020 Brooklyn Film Festival was their most successful edition ever. 30,249 new registrants signed up to watch the films, with viewership up 233% from 2019 – including viewers from over 137 different countries.

And based on the success of the 2020 season, Brooklyn Film Festival will continue to host the festival online in some capacity moving forward.