HOW WE HELPED DOCTOR SLEEP REIMAGINE THE TRAILER
Marketing Campaign
39 YEARS LATER, THE SHINING GOT ITS SEQUEL. BUT SOME THINGS COULDN'T CHANGE.
The Shining and Doctor Sleep share much more than backstory.
(And we're not talking settings like The Overlook Hotel, where things remain as creepy as ever.)
No, we're talking DNA. As a franchise, this is one that makes a sport out of genre-bending innovation, which meant its campaign not only had to reexamine its own artifices, but blaze new paths toward launch.
Honoring The Shining’s heritage as a signature, genre-evolving moment in cinema, we set out to reimagine the movie trailer 106 years after its creation for today’s audiences.
Four goals drove the project:
- 1) Instead of one-size-fits-all, can trailers be built custom to fit a channel’s functionalities?
- 2) Can we boost recall and engagement by turning passive trailers into interactive experiences?
- 3) How can a portrait mode asset deliver a more cinematic, polished experience?
- 4) Where can assets for social be optimized for ever-distracted, on-the-go audiences?
In pursuit of a campaign that honored its innovative IP, we rebuilt a new interactive trailer for Doctor Sleep that blended innovation with interactivity, and the cinematic with the snackable.
Client Warner Bros.
Project Doctor Sleep
What We Did
- Social
- Strategy
- Video
THE INTERACTIVE TRAILER
Rather than a passive experience, we built an interactive one, leveraging the brand's 'chalkboard' key art to call on the user for help by clicking into the experience.
Taking advantage of the fact Instagram Stories remain in portrait mode even if a phone is in landscape orientation, we then used ‘rotation’ into Abra’s mind to echo visuals in the film, when Danny “slides” across a room physically – ultimately laddering up to a climactic ending tied to our call to action.
DARE TO GO BACK?
As a bridge leading up to the interactive trailer, we created two mini-interactive assets to prime users and set the tone for the larger interactive asset to come.
ICONIC VISUALS FOR INSTA
Channeling nostalgia for The Shining and The Overlook Hotel, we used iconic doors from around the hotel to set up moments that would generate buzz and traction for the larger "choose your own path" interactive trailer asset.
