Love it or hate it, Jurassic World owned the box office this past weekend and shattered opening weekend records domestically and globally. The fourth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise debuted 22 years after the original film and 14 years after the most recent movie. Universal Studios turned to digital marketing to help bridge the large gap in time, and reinvigorate it’s original fan-base. These seven exceptional social media marketing tactics were employed with strategic precision and overwhelming success:
- Use consistent Branding
Every post you see on this blog has been branded with both the movie’s official hashtag, #JurassicWorld, as well as the logo. The Twitter post below clearly shows the branding in the graphic itself, in the post’s copy, as well as the platforms username and avatar.
- Create Native Content – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Jurassic World repurposes content across all social platforms, but they go a step further than repeating the same posts verbatim. Each piece of content is tailored for a specific channel and audience. For example, the Facebook post below uses a large graphic, the copy invites engagement and the platform allows users to interact with the post in a couple of ways, (like, comment, share, etc.).
By contrast, the twitter post below uses a tighter graphic with dimensions that better fit the platform’s content stream. Rather than asking users to interact with the post, which is more limited on Twitter, the call to action is clearly to purchase tickets at local theaters.
- Capitalize on emotional connections
The first Jurassic Park movie debuted in 1993 with the sequel following in 1997 and the third installation in 2001. Enthusiasts of the first three films have matured as an audience and now have even greater purchasing power than they did 22 to 14 years ago. Jurassic World used social media to endear this fan-base and forge nostalgic emotional connections between the first and fourth films.
The Jurassic World digital marketing team cleverly generated posts that highlight aspects of the first film along side aspects of the fourth film. This juxtaposition allows the audience to associate the two films and associate positive Jurassic Park memories with Jurassic World.
The post below features a Jurassic Park quote from John Hammond, owner of Jurassic Park and founder of InGen, superimposed over his statue from Jurassic World. Just beneath this is the quote realized in a scene from the fourth movie. This strongly suggests that all of Hammond’s hopes and dreams have finally come to fruition in the most recent installment of franchise. Jurassic World is an opportunity for fans of the first movie to experience the park as it was meant to be.
- Tie-into holidays and events
Every company on social media knows the value of tying its brand into pop-culture and significant holidays. Jurassic World did this in a way that felt natural, by capitalizing on Easter with the dinosaur egg graphic below. Not only did the eggs fit into the holiday well, the copywriting played on the word “hunt”, foreshadowing the fight for survival the protagonists experience in each of the franchise’s films.
- Build hype
All good promotional marketing builds to an event or launch, and Jurassic World did strong work when it came their digital marketing. The film’s Instagram account featured a countdown in the days leading up to the movie’s premier that included the following post.
Additionally, the digital marketing team teased aspects of the park using social media. The Facebook post below features two attractions: a safari tour or gyrosphere ride through the Gallimimus Valley. The Gallimimus Valley is an iconic scene from the first movie, but the gyrosphere introduces a new method of transportation in the park and leads audiences to question what other improvements they can expect to see in the film.
- Incorporate video
Video is a key component to successful digital marketing campaigns. If you don’t want to take my word for it, read these articles posted to Marketing Tech Blog, Forbes, and Facebook for Business.
Jurassic World communicated it’s brand brilliantly using video across all social media platforms. Two of my favorite examples of this are in the videos below. The first, posted to Instagram, and the second, posted to Twitter, announced the movie premier with attention-grabbing video clips.
- Make it engaging
Nearly all of the content posted to Jurassic World’s social media channels was interesting, entertaining and easy to engage with. With users sharing, retweeting and commenting, the digital marketing team was able to expand the reach of their posts exponentially.
Rather than posting to each platform every day, the team focused on quality over quantity and hit an out of the park homerun. While every post used in this blog illustrates the engaging nature of the social media strategy, here’s two last post for you to consider:
If you liked this post, check out past blogs in the archive below.