Sing 2 Social Media Marketing Strategy
Introduction
Promoting a new film has changed drastically over the last decade. Marketing, in general, has shifted to make social media marketing a more centralized part of all marketing plans. It has become even more important to have a strong, targeted social media marketing campaign in place for in-theater movie releases. Social media makes it easy for brands to directly market products to their desired audience. It also allows for upcoming films to generate buzz with their audience. “72% [of moviegoers] post about movies on social networking sites after watching a film, while 20% post before and 8% during” (Godley). The animated film, Sing 2 needs to have a strong social media campaign to dominate the competition at the box office when it is released on December 22, 2021. I will outline a social media campaign that will extend from fifteen weeks leading up to the release (September 8, 2021) to six weeks after the release (February 2, 2022). The campaign will cover the pre-release, during, and post-event stages of the film release and aim to drive box office sales by generating buzz and engagement opportunities.
To do this successfully, we must outline specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and trackable goals (SMART Goals). SMART Goals will help the campaign stay focused and to maximize the campaign’s success. Our SMART Goals for the campaign are as followed:
- SMART Goal #1: Generate a Following -Attract 100K likes on Facebook, 50K followers on Instagram and Twitter, 25K on TikTok and YouTube before the campaign ends on February 2, 2022.
- SMART Goal #2: Posting Goals- Twitter: Until December 1, 2021, post at least 2 times a day, reply at least 5 times a day. Starting December 1, 2021, post at least 4 times a day. Facebook, Instagram: Until December 1, 2021, post at least 2 times a day. Starting December 1, 2021, post 10 times a week. Instagram Stories: Post 2–3 times a day with at least 1 engaging story. YouTube: Post once a week. TikTok: Until December 1, 2021, post 2–3 times a day, 3 days a week. Starting December 1, 2021, post 2 times a day, every day until release.
- SMART Goal #3: Engagement- Increase engagement on all platforms by 25% by film release.
Campaign
Giving Sing 2 coverage on different social media platforms will maximize the reach among its target audiences. The more the film is exposed to its target audiences, the better chance that the audience will want to see the film in theaters. This campaign will aim to create a relationship with the target audiences and the film brand by generating a following, posting frequently, and engaging the audience. The platforms involved in the campaign are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat.
Facebook is the most used social media platform with 2.89 billion active monthly users. The largest age demographic is 18–34-year-olds (Statista Research Department, 2021a). Facebook allows a multitude of sharing and posting capabilities. “Sharing posts” is one of Facebook’s most used functions. This allows for posts made by other accounts or users to be shared thousands of times. Posting videos and photo content to be shared would be an excellent method of word-of-mouth awareness.
With about one billion active monthly users, Instagram also offers multiple ways to experience and share content; Stories, Reels, and posts (Statista Research Department, 2021). Instagram also boasts a wide age group of 13 years and older (Statista Research Department, 2021). On Reels, Sing 2 can showcase their star-studded cast recording the soundtrack or voice lines for the film, giving the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the film. This can also create more of a connection between the brand and the audience. Using Stories, Sing 2 can get the audience involved by using engagement stickers multiple times a week. Not only will this get the audience excited and engaged with the brand, but it will also give us an idea of what content is working with the audience and what isn’t. We can also produce a Sing 2 filter that users can post onto their own stories. The filter could include augmented reality (AR) character filters for the user's face that includes music that the characters sing in the film along with the movie’s release date. When the filter is shared, other users will have the opportunity to use and share it. Finally, Sing 2 can make promotional posts on its Instagram account comparing the celebrity to the character they play in the film.
TikTok
TikTok is good at sharing content with millions upon millions of people a day. TikTok’s ability to create viral trends impacted society on social media and off. This is especially true for the music industry. Songs used in TikToks or with hashtag challenges tend to go viral. TikTok users range from ages 10–50+(Wallaroo, 2021). This wide range encompasses most of Sing 2’s target audience. Using TikTok, the campaign’s content would engage all target audiences and more. Creating a Sing 2 challenge with a song from the soundtrack would help our audience get involved and hopefully achieve virality status among the app’s users.
Twitter has over 353 million active monthly users. 80% of Twitter’s global population is from ages 13–50 and, of the US population, 65% of Twitter’s most active users are women (Sehl, 2020). However, Twitter has become very important to the film industry. According to a study conducted by Twitter and Neilson, Twitter users see movies in the theater 25% more than the average moviegoer and they are twice as likely to see a film within ten days of its opening (Robehmed, 2015). Brands tend to turn to Twitter to define their online persona. Using Twitter to create a personality for Sing 2 will help users feel more connected to the brand. Sing 2’s Twitter handle can interact with the stars in the film and create a dialogue for the audience to see. The Twitter handle can also reply to users that interact with its tweets. Tweets can be as frequent as possible to stay relevant to current trends.
Snapchat
Snapchat has 500 million active monthly users (Rodriguez, 2021). User ages range from 13–50 years old, but the largest age group is the 25 to 34-year-old age group with 115.3 million users, and 54.4% of their global users are female (Kemp, 2021). Snapchat is used to communicate with other users via pictures. Sing 2 can produce filters and AR tools for Snapchat users to engage with and share with friends as a form of “word-of-mouth” awareness. Snapchat has a similar effect on the movie industry as Twitter. Snapchat users are “1.7x more likely to see a movie on premiere weekend compared to non-users” (Hutchinson, 2021).
YouTube
YouTube has over 2 billion active monthly users and is most popular among people ages 15–35 years old (Dean, 2021). YouTube allows people to learn more about things they’re interested in. For movies and films, YouTube is where trailers are hosted. Sing 2 can also use YouTube to show interviews with the actors or animated music videos.
Voice and Tone
The Sing 2 social media marketing campaign should have a clear, consistent tone and voice that represents the film across all platforms. The tone and voice should be upbeat and fun. The film is an animated, family-friendly comedy, and the social media messaging should reflect that in its communications. The themes in the film focus on positivity and freedom to be oneself. The voice should be goofy, silly, optimistic, and authentic.
Hashtags
Hashtags are a useful tool for our audience to communicate with each other and the Sing 2 brand about how they feel about the film. Hashtags are a very easy way for our audience to find more information about the brand or other like-minded individuals. Hashtags should be easily identifiable to the Sing 2 brand. We will primarily use #Sing2, #Sing2Movie, and #Sing2Film. Other hashtags that might be included are #NewMovie #ChristmasRelease, and #AnimationFilm. The names of the stars in the film can also be included in the post that is relevant to their character.
Influencer Marketing
Sing 2 has a plethora of stars that can serve as influencers for the film. All celebrities in the film have followings of all ages and demographics. Stars active on social media include Tori Kelly, Reese Witherspoon, Nick Kroll, Bono (and U2), and Halsey. Partnering with these stars and others in the film, to post on their personal accounts will help Sing 2 acquire more of its target audience. Having the A-list celebrities in the cast list interact with the brand, and each other will help target audiences find and engage with the film
Since the film is based on music, Sing 2 can also partner with music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora. The Sing 2 characters can have a personalized playlist on each service. The Sing 2 cast can also release holiday songs exclusively on certain services since the film is released two days before Christmas.
Conclusion
Social media has become a huge part of a movie’s release strategy. With so many different platforms available today, it is important to understand each platform and how to use them to their full potential. With the growing relevance of social media in film release marketing plans today, the more platforms will evolve to make our strategies more efficient. Movie releases might be a big day in the theaters, but its success started months before with social media.
