Audiences were welcomed back to Derry in IT Chapter Two, the nostalgia-fuelled horror blockbuster featuring some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Highly publicised during its theatrical release and with no access to the film’s cast or crew, our role was to take the film into peoples’ living rooms and onto the media’s news agenda whilst celebrating the Loser’s Club. Dialling up its mainstream appeal and key psychological themes, our strategy centred around fears because everyone is scared of something, right?
What We Did
We crafted a campaign that spread fear across both print and digital platforms aiming to cut through in a competitive Christmas period. Looking to answer the many questions around the psychology of fear and the human response, we ran a workshop attended by media, with a psychologist trained in helping people to overcome their fears.
In addition to this we targeted a younger audience by teaming up with a selection of lifestyle influencers to curate our very own ‘Losers Club’ in which they came face to face with their own phobias. This activity was complimented by a rich social campaign which subverted traditional Christmas and New Year themes utilising the iconic character of Pennywise.
Impact
Our fear focused fun delivered major support on air, in print and on digital platforms. The Influencer activity delivered a reach of over 1.1m people across multiple social channels generating over 12.5k likes and 624 comments.
The fear workshop ensured Pennywise infiltrated mainstream media with coverage in print including a double page spread in the Daily Star, on air on TalkSport and online with major sites including Metro and the Daily Mirror. The result was a campaign that ensured Pennywise would linger long in the living rooms of the UK into early 2020.
