The movie marketing razzmatazz: Buckle up for the digital ride

Forget the red carpet. The new Hollywood is a virtual playground where Gen Z enjoys the ride with their beloved movie characters to their heart’s content. Warner Bros is leading the charge, turning ‘Beetlejuice 2’ into a Roblox adventure. 

Is this the future of movie marketing?

Digital-first isn’t just a trend, it’s the new norm. With Gen Z leading the charge, traditional movie marketing rules are out the window. To captivate this tech-savvy, digitally native audience, studios and movie marketing mavens must rethink their strategies and embrace a new era of engagement.

Warner Bros Pictures is at the forefront of this shift, recently teaming up with Roblox to promote its upcoming movie ‘Beetlejuice 2’ through an immersive virtual experience. This innovative partnership not only allows fans to explore a haunted mansion inspired by the movie, but also offers the unique opportunity to purchase tickets within the game. It’s a groundbreaking approach that taps into the vast, young user base of Roblox, blending entertainment and marketing in a way that’s never been done before.

But what does it really take to connect with Gen Z and drive box office success in this digital-first world? Adgully dives into the future of movie marketing, where virtual experiences and online gaming platforms are rewriting the rules of engagement. As studios like Warner Bros embrace these new tactics, they’re not just selling tickets – they’re creating buzz, building anticipation, and reaching audiences where they live: in the virtual world.

Virtual all the way

But what does it take to truly connect with Gen Z and drive box office success? Let’s explore the future of movie marketing in a digital-first world.

Film studios and marketers can leverage virtual experiences and online gaming platforms like Roblox to create immersive and engaging promotions for their movies.

“Movies need to sell tickets. Therefore, the key objective of movie marketing is to get the message across to the potential target group of that film. If the audience is the youngsters, one needs to find places where the message can reach out to them. Creating a virtual game, integrating the movie characters into it and rewarding them with tickets is one of the ways to do this. This creates a win-win, while Roblox gets an engagement opportunity with its users, Warner Bros gets to reach their target audience in their favoured environment and the users get free tickets and the resultant buzz about the activity generated interest in the movie and ticket sales,” says Naveen Chandra, CEO, 91 Film Studios.

Virtual experiences and online gaming platforms certainly have the potential to become a significant component of movie marketing strategies, says Parth Arora, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, The Salt Inc.

“By creating immersive experiences, within existing cult platforms like Roblox, film studios can tap into a vast audience, particularly Gen Z, a demographic that marketers are increasingly targeting due to their influential online presence. Gen Z is digitally savvy and proactively vocal, they are the trendsetters, making them the ideal target for a movie campaign’s overall success. Additionally, the opportunity to emotionally connect to the audience is a lot more profound than conventional mediums. Virtual experiences allow advertisers to offer a deep dive into the movie’s world, into the movie’s story, enabling a far more efficient way to engage the audiences,” Arora adds.

Sahaan Suman K, Founder, Bubble Network, feels that virtual experiences on platforms like Roblox are shaping the future of movie marketing.

“These platforms let studios create immersive, interactive worlds that go beyond traditional trailers, allowing fans to dive deeper into the film's universe. The benefits are clear: you can reach younger, tech-savvy audiences right where they are, make the promotional experience more memorable through interactivity, and even simplify ticket sales directly within the game. Plus, the buzz created by these experiences often spreads organically on social media, amplifying the film's reach,” he adds.

The Challenges

Marketing movies through virtual experiences and online gaming platforms offers innovative ways to engage audiences, but it comes with its own set of challenges. What are the key limitations movie marketers face, including the difficulty of creating authentic, immersive experiences, ensuring brand alignment within diverse gaming environments, and navigating the fragmented digital landscape?

First off, Parth Arora says, the execution can be pretty demanding, it requires significant investment in technology and talent, but it’s certainly worth the effort.

Additionally, to maximise impact, marketers must have a thorough understanding of the technology, the chosen platform, and the story that they’re trying to build. Often, marketers get too excited about new technologies and forget the most important thing, the story.

“If the virtual experience doesn't fit with the movie's overall narrative, it can actually hurt the marketing campaign. To make it work, marketers need to make sure that the virtual experience complements the movie's story and that the selected platform aligns with the target audience,” Arora adds.

According to Naveen Chandra, the key challenges include the prevalence of fake profiles and fake engagement created by virtual operators, which leads to wasted resources. A major limitation of social media marketing is that the young, disengaged audience, often with short attention spans, typically lacks disposable income to buy tickets. As a result, this type of marketing often fails to achieve the desired outcome of filling theatre seats.

Sahaan Suman feels that the main challenge is ensuring the virtual experience feels connected to the movie’s theme. “If it feels off, it can confuse or disengage users. There’s also the technical challenge of making sure the experience runs smoothly across various devices, and figuring out how to measure the campaign’s success in a meaningful way. To overcome these challenges, marketers should work closely with game developers to keep the experience true to the film. Thorough testing across devices can prevent technical issues. And using analytics to track user engagement and conversion rates will help gauge the campaign’s effectiveness.”

The Measurement Angle

How can the success of movie marketing campaigns through virtual experiences and online gaming platforms be measured, and what metrics or indicators can be used to evaluate their effectiveness in reaching and engaging target audiences?

Number of tickets sold is the only metric that matters for movie marketing, points out Naveen Chandra, adding, “While it’s good to create buzz around a movie and there are some indicators to measure that, there needs to be a mechanism to measure tickets sold through virtual marketing efforts.”

One of the biggest advantages of digital initiatives is the ability to measure its effectiveness, says Parth Arora. “Unlike traditional marketing methods, which can be difficult to quantify, interactive campaigns offer a wealth of data. For interactive campaigns focused on direct ticket sales, the ROI is relatively straightforward to calculate. But for engagement based interactive campaigns, we need to be more strategic. It’s essential to map the campaign’s contribution towards ticket sales throughout the campaign. This ensures that every aspect of our marketing efforts is contributing to the overall financial success of the film,” he adds.

Success can be measured through a mix of engagement, conversion rates, social media buzz, user feedback, and repeat visits, says Sahaan Suman. “Key metrics include how many users participate and how long they stay, how many tickets are purchased through the platform, and how much the campaign is discussed and shared online. By analyzing these factors, marketers can get a clear picture of how well the campaign is connecting with the audience and make adjustments for future efforts,” he concludes.