PARANORMAL PREDICTIONS CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

For

Glenda Gallone, Abi Smith & Heath Tyldesley

Paramount Pictures International | August 9TH 2011

By Firebelly

PARANORMAL PREDICTIONS

What if we gamify* the moviewatching experience using the scariest film of the year as our stimulus? What could position PA3 as a cultural phenomenon more than a pioneering piece of content that measures audience members fear levels, then invites everyone else to guess how they did?

*Details of Gamifying here: http://mashable.com/2011/07/18/gamification-marketing/

PARANORMAL PREDICTIONS - THE CONCEPT

This is a unique screening initiative designed to attract increased coverage for Paranormal Activity 3 (PA3) from opinion leaders (key journalists, bloggers) and increased buzz amongst audiences in each International territory. The opinion leaders are invited to a Monitored screening where their fear-levels will be recorded! The Predictions come into play when online audiences are invited to guess which of the opinion leaders was the most scared, with great PA3 prizes for the most accurate guesses.

PARANORMAL PREDICTIONS - THE CONCEPT

This helps sell the film on numerous levels:
By creating a screening event based around fear levels we position PA3 as a truly chilling cinema experience. Recruiting the involvement of selected journalists & bloggers (and making them the stars of this marketing idea) will guarantee enhanced coverage. The campaign is designed to be staggered over a 4 week period, from recruitment, to teaser activity, to the screening, to the prediction competition thus giving us an extended coverage period in key titles. This activity will generate footage of the audience jumping, screaming, covering their eyes all of which will be useful collateral for Online PR campaigns to sell in this competition, and the film at large. The predictions element of the campaign should resonate with horror audiences (who love seeing people jump and scream!) and mainstream moviegoers (who will enjoy the unique competition mechanic where they can win exclusive prizes). The prediction component will encourage people to bet amongst their friends, making this an inherently social piece of content (Social Plug ins will make it easy for players to update their walls when they have made their predictions) This will be a media first, as such local teams can aim for trade & consumer press about the event.

CAMPAIGN TIMELINE

PARANORMAL PREDICTIONS TIMELINE SUMMARY

PARANORMAL PREDICTIONS TIMELINE SUMMARY

The campaign activity can be broken down into 4 stages RECUIT PARTICIPANTS Select and invite key opinion leaders Brief the participants Phase 1 micro site live for participants to visit TEASER ACTIVITY Staggered info release ie participants profiles Social media tie in Users sign up and make early predictions based on participating opinion leaders MONITORED SCREENING Participants monitored watching PA3 All footage / data is centrally evaluated and put online. LIVE All participants reactions are online for user to vote on. Signed up users notified

RECRUITMENT

SELECT RECRUIT PARTICIPANTS

Local teams should create a long-list of key journalists and bloggers to target as potential participants in the Paranormal Predictions campaign.

Internal publicity teams and preferred local PR vendors will be the best placed to suggest opinion leaders who supported the first two Paranormal Activity movies.

RECRUIT PARTICIPANTS
In order to generate early excitement and buzz about the Paranormal Prediction concept, teams should consider novel ways of engaging opinion leaders.
We could for example create a short AV sizzle about the monitored screening, sending it to the opinion leaders on an old VHS tape with just their name written on the label. Local publicity teams should then follow up by chasing potential participants for confirmation of their involvement.

The up-sell to these opinion leaders is that they (and their publications) will be a central element of this exclusive PA3 marketing initiative, the likes of which has not been undertaken before. As soon as the opinion Leaders are invited, a holding Paranormal Predictions microsite will be live to foster interest and for them to blog / tweet etc

BRIEF PARTICIPANTS
Once the final 6 opinion leaders have been confirmed, they should be serviced with assets and instructions to help them promote their involvement in the campaign. Local teams should work closely with the opinion leaders to ensure that they are engaged, excited and active in the weeks preceding the screening. Local teams should ensure that the 6 chosen participants are regularly building excitement and awareness of the event in the run up to the screening by updating their social media pages with updates about the event as they receive them. A special hashtag (e.g. #paranormalpredictions) should be used by all participants in order to gain increased trending on Twitter in the run up to the event.

TEASER ACTIVITY

MICROSITE
The Paranormal Predictions microsite will be the hub of all campaign activity providing staggered information about the event and about the 6 participants as well as a large countdown to the launch of the prediction competition. Local teams should ensure that participants include links to this site in all of their coverage. As this happens, their followers will also be driven to the site and can sign up for whats to follow

PARTICIPANTS PROFILES
One of the key features of the campaign will be staggered profiling of the 6 participants, from the initial reveal about who they are (and who they write for) right up to specifics about their personality, favourite films etc.

PARTICIPANTS PROFILES

PARTICIPANTS PROFILES
In addition Local teams should ask each participant to create a short video clip where they introduce themselves and tell us a little about their lives. All of this information will be used to engage film fans so that they can start to make their predictions about how the participants will react during the screening of PA3.

SOCIAL MEDIA
As well as clear sharing links, the microsite will also include a twitter feed, which pulls in all tweets with the designated hash tag.

COMPETITION
Leading up to the day of the screening, the microsite will allow fans to enter a competition to vote on who they think the most scared participant will be. Once the screenings have taken place and the footage has been evaluated, the site will then allow fans to start making predictions on more specific variables, for example: Most Most Most Most screams/shouts times eyes were closed/covered flinches nervous laughs

EARLY PREDICTIONS
As visitors interact with the microsite, they will be able to make their prediction about which of the 6 participants they think will be the most scared at least 2 weeks before the screening event. This will provide the microsite with an ever changing bar chart which shows who the favourite is to be most scared! As the release of information about the participants is gradually updated, we will therefore find that the predictions change. This should maintain a healthy buzz about the event amongst social media and horror/film communities.

MONITORED SCREENINGS

HOW THEY WILL WORK

The scope and scale of the monitored screenings is entirely at the discretion of the local markets. There is no reason why the huge financial investment, are seated at the front of the footage is sent to the monitored screening needs to be a so long as the 6 chosen participants the cinema, filmed throughout it and UK for editing and analysis.

The monitored screening can therefore be part of the usual journalist screening programme if budget and time prevent a bespoke screening. That said, the more of an event the screening is, the more likely opinion leaders are to devote coverage to it. There is a wide range of ways in which the event can be hyped, from Paranormal Prediction posters, themed screening rooms, blindfolds etc to a special compre introducing the event! If local teams have decided to make their monitored screening an event in this way, they should consider filming the screening itself in order to syndicate the footage.

NIGHT VISION CAMERA

In order to capture the reactions of the participating audience, the local team will need to source a camera with a night-vision function. These have been used in many territories for audience reaction shots in the past (for example in the marketing of the movie Insidious).

HEART RATE MONITORS

In order to ensure maximum PR coverage for this campaign, we would urge local teams to use heart rate monitors. These will be supplied to each territory and simply need attaching to the wrist of the 6 participants. At the end of the screening the data can then be recorded and sent back to the central team for inclusion in the site.

EVALUATION
As soon as the footage of the 6 participants is captured, local teams send it to the UK where Firebelly will evaluateg the footage to count each participants total number of screams/shouts, flinches etc. This will be edited / incorporated into the micr0site in a visual way that the user can interact with later

If additional equipment such as heart rates monitors have been used this information should also be collated and provided. The UK agency will also edit together sizzler clips of the event, highlighting the biggest scares and most compelling moments.

LIVE

COUNTDOWN TO RESULTS
There will be a finite amount of time for players to make their predictions measured by a countdown timer on the site. Once the players have made their predictions, they must then await the moment when the results are revealed and the winners are announced!

Once the countdown have finished, the winners will be notified that all results content is live for them to see for themselves.

RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT
The announcement of the results should be treated as the exciting finale of the campaign, since this will be the moment when fans get to see how each participant reacted to PA3, watch the highlights of the screening (big screams and physical reactions!) and see if their predictions were accurate.

The results will be announced very close to the release of PA3 in each territory, as such the local publicity team should go into overdrive at this time to ensure that the participants are writing about the event and that wider PR coverage is being generated about the results and the winners.

WINNERS
Any players who accurately predicted individual categories should be rewarded with low-cost prizing, such as a wallpaper or exclusive clip unlock. These players will then be entered into a prize drawer for the more high end prizing. Any players who correctly predicted ALL of the outcomes of the screening should be entered into a drawer for the special prizes (e.g. Premiere tickets or signed PA3 merchandise).

PARTICIPANTS REACTION
If possible, it would be useful to capture the reactions of the 6 participants once they have found out how they fared during the screening. The feelings of the participants named most scared and least scared respectively would be of particularly high media value.

COSTS

COST OUTLINE

The following costs are based on the updated PARANORMAL PREDICTIONS concept. This will however need to be revised as / if the idea progresses
Build: 5 Weeks Design: 3 Weeks Creative / Planning Shoot AM Fees Total = 18,000 = = = = 10,800 1,000 costed separately 4000

(increased to allow for data capture and staggered info updates)

= 33,800

COST OUTLINE
The following costs are for Firebelly to undertake the filming of the screening in the UK .

Filming (1 camera, sound, set up) Editing screening footage Total Additional Costs Heart monitors Editing of country versions Analysis of footage per version

= 2650 = 770 = 3,420

= 55-120 per unit = 770 = 200

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATION
The following costs are not included and would need costing separately Additional sizzle origination Additional editing e.g of participants post screening videos Invitation creative Prizes

MONITOR OPTION 1
Timex T5G971
PROS Recall button makes the heart rate data readily available by displaying workout information. Accurately tracks and records: - average heart rate, - maximum heart rate, Data can be captured into a computer Chest strap included in price

CONS User reviews range from enthusiastic to dire.

55 In stock and readily available

More unreliable than the Polar.

MONITOR OPTION 2
Polar RS300X
PROS Measurement of average and maximum heart rate Data can be captured into a computer Highly praised for its accuracy

CONS More expensive than the Timex Chest Strap is additional cost 85 for watch 32 for chest strap In stock and readily available