The Boxtrolls wasn't just a movie about underground makers, it was also a movie for makers, so we created a fully integrated campaign to encourage families to not be just passive watchers, but inspired makers as well.

The first teaser trailer we made featured LAIKA’s custom animation and mobilized whole families to meet the unconventional family of tinkering trolls. Our second trailer turned the lens on the makers themselves and cast their talented hands as the real stars.

Next, we created an interactive experience for families to build their own Boxtroll characters, with the winning design being made into a real puppet. The official movie site invited modern families to join the Boxtrolls and make their way through an interactive adventure together, introducing audiences to the world of the film in a gamified way.

We created a series of handcrafted influencer kits and sent them to equally crafty people, interactive magic mirrors that introduced kids to Boxtrolls in theater lobbies, and featurette films championing the makers at LAIKA and their mind-blowing artistry.

And to get families even more involved, we designed custom Nike shoes and invited everyone to win them in a Twitter contest by making thousands of their own cardboard creations.

The Boxtrolls became the highest-grossing LAIKA film to date, with the third-highest opening weekend for any stop-motion film ever, reaching over $100 million worldwide. That, and it helped transform passive audiences into active families of makers with The Boxtrolls as their reason.

The first teaser trailer we made featured LAIKA’s custom animation and mobilized families to meet the unconventional Boxtrolls family. Our second trailer turned the lens on the makers themselves and cast their hands as the real stars with a modern cover of a famous children’s song.

Next, we created an interactive experience for families to build their own Boxtroll characters. The official movie site enabled kids to actively explore different levels of the story in a gamified way and immerse themselves behind the scenes.

We created a series of handcrafted influencer kits and sent them to equally crafty people, interactive magic mirrors that introduced kids to Boxtrolls in theater lobbies, and featurette films championing the makers at LAIKA and their mind-blowing artistry.

And to get families even more involved, we designed custom Nike shoes and invited everyone to win them in a Twitter contest by making thousands of their own cardboard creations.

LAIKA measured the campaign by how many butts we helped put in movie seats. And butts in seats we overwhelming sat. The Boxtrolls became the highest-grossing LAIKA film to date with the third-highest opening weekend for any stop motion film ever, reaching over $100 million worldwide. That, and it helped transform passive audiences into active families of makers with The Boxtrolls as their reason.

Not only that, year long social campaigns successfully inspired everything from homemade costumes at Halloween to cosplay at Comic-Con, resulting in thousands of likes, comments, reposts, fan art and new followers.

The average time spent on the official movie site was over two minutes with close to a million total visitors, and well over 3,000 Boxtroll characters were designed by kids and families on the Build Your Own Boxtroll site.