It’s a thumb stopping idea that told our audience to GET LOST. Launched on Twitter to specifically target film fans (where 71% of users are interested in films/cinema) we used a hidden ‘easter egg’ competition to drive engagement and multiple views. We used three heroes from the world of film as ambassadors for the campaign - Jake Scott, Sir Ridley Scott and John Boyega (just after the launch of the latest Star Wars film) along with a host of social media influencers to talk about the power of cinema. The result? Record breaking reach, engagement and ticket sales.

Vue Cinemas is a cinema chain with 90 cinemas in the UK and Ireland. They champion the pivotal role of cinema in people’s lives and invest heavily in the best seat, screen and sound to create a fully immersive entertainment experience.

Vue believes that, in a world of entertainment multitasking and constant swipes, likes and notifications, it’s never been more important to switch off your phone and get lost in a great story.

The trouble is 16-34 year olds really LOVE being on their phones - so how do we get them to stop watching social media ‘stories’ for a bit and lose themselves in a really great story at Vue?

We wanted to convince small screen addicts about the unique power of the big screen... while they’re on their small screens…and get them off their phones and into Vue.

A thumb-stopping campaign idea that told people to GET LOST.

We made a 2 minute love letter to cinema with true film heroes who stopped our fans in their tracks:

Jake Scott, a filmmaker so steeped in cinema they appeared in Alien as a kid.

John Boyega, superstar fresh from Star Wars 9.

Sir Ridley Scott, one of the most successful living film directors.

We stuffed the film full of ‘easter eggs’ (hidden film references) and challenged our fans to find them to win a year of free cinema. People watched to the end... multiple times. We created 160 different social assets delivering the same point of view in 15 seconds or less and retargeted people across all social channels. And used an #OutOfInstagram influencer mechanic to spread the message even further. Finally, we linked the activity with a PR campaign showing the health benefits of Getting Lost at Vue.

Today, moments of pure focus and entertainment are rare. Our audience, 16-34 years olds, ‘entertainment multitask’ checking their smartphones every 9 minutes. The only times they don’t are while sleeping or when at the cinema.

The cinema plays a vital role in providing a break from their phones to get lost in a great story - if we can get our audience to recognise the true value of this experience, we can drive them to Vue more often.

We chose Twitter as that’s where film fans are. There are 35m UK tweets about film each year. 71% of users are interested in film / cinema and they are twice as likely to post about film online. With ‘First View’ and our ‘easter egg’ competition we made it the first film every UK Twitter user saw that day, maximising brand exposure, engagement and creating a launch moment online.

Pre-launch we ran 24 hour teaser countdowns on Facebook and Instagram.

We then launched with Twitter First View on Friday 10/01, optimising different tweets and copy across the first 24 hours depending on which were performing best. John Boyega shared the campaign across his channels to get film fans talking.

Over the launch weekend we ran a social competition to spot the hidden film references or ‘easter eggs’ and to tweet their answers using #GetLostInGreatStories. This drove engagement, multiple views and got the hashtag trending.

We created and retargeted 160 assets delivering the same message in 15 seconds or less across all social platforms and formats, which ran until February. These were geo targeted around cinema locations, while the full film continued to run on Facebook and Youtube.

We then followed up with influencers and an #OutOfInstagram amplification mechanic to promote switching off and getting lost at Vue.

From 1 hero film, we created 160 social assets. These, along with the linked PR campaign, generated 2.6 billion impressions - beating our target of 40 million by 6500%. The film totalled 12.6m views. The content saw 1.5 million engagements thanks to the social ‘Easter Egg’ competition that kept fans guessing and watching multiple times. Not only did they find every easter egg in the first morning (and some were preposterously difficult), they spotted some that weren’t even there....

The press campaign achieved 119 pieces of press coverage front cover of The Times, The Daily Mail, Mail Online, The Standard, Sky News, The Metro, The New York Post, LBC, Stylist, Yahoo, Tyla.