Campaign Timing:

Mid-March, 2013 to April 4, 2013

The Challenge:

How to attract attention and build an audience for a niche film festival in the cluttered and highly competitive Toronto entertainment scene? This challenge would be daunting on its own—but it becomes even more so when the client, the Toronto Silent Film Festival, has only a shoestring marketing budget to work with.

The Insight:

The kinds of people who would go to a silent film festival are movie fanatics. They live and breathe the art form. We knew that if we could find a way to capture their interest in film in a unique and creative way, not only would they react, but they would also eagerly share the message among their close-knit community of movie devotees.

The Plan:

The agency decided to use the highly visual social medium, Instagram, in a way that had never been used before. By using the slideshow view mode offered by this popular mobile app, they were able to simulate a classic flipbook effect, giving filmgoers a sneak peek at three of the films that were featured at the festival. Once in slideshow mode, Instagram users were able to quickly flick through the festival’s feed—frame-by-frame—creating a motion picture effect.

In fact, the agency created a trailer of our own, bringing the films to life and drawing a great deal of attention to the festival. We felt the inventive use Instagram was entirely appropriate as a means of promoting the silent film technique, especially considering that back in the day, silent film was every bit as ground-breaking and innovative as digital platforms are now. The message struck such a chord with film-goers and tech-watchers alike and it virtually exploded across the social media network.

The Results:

Marketing and advertising trade magazines, as well as technology publications and bloggers around the world, hailed the campaign as the first-ever Instagram film experience, confirming that Cossette is on the cutting edge. As a matter of fact, the agency invest a considerable amount of money in Research and Development in order to stay on top of the latest trends and align our clients’ needs with current realities. Within weeks, the campaign was talked about and viewed across the social media network, resulting in 2,077,106 impressions and counting.