In the Columbia/Sony Pictures Home film Eat Pray Love, Julia Roberts’ character Liz Gilbert embarks on a globe-trotting journey of self-discovery. While in Rome, a local acquaintance tells Liz that every person has one word that embodies their personal philosophy. After careful consideration, Liz selects the Sanskrit word antevasin, which translates to “one who lives at the border,” as hers.
To promote the Blu-ray & DVD release of Eat Pray Love, Mammoth had to conceive a strategy worthy of a film with a message that is nearly sacred to its ardent fan base. We believe we have met this challenge with an original Facebook application called Word Cloud. This app, which lives on a custom Facebook tab, invites users to enter the word that best describes their philosophy. When a word is submitted, users are invited to share it on Facebook and Twitter, and are then shown their word inserted on highlighted tile within the cloud grid. Users are allowed to submit and share as many words as they like, and can click on previously submitted words to see how many other users chose them as their own.
With this app, we are utilizing a set of complex data and displaying it with fluid elegance. The design aggregates, selects, and displays thousands of individual words in a whimsical, unpredictable way. The functionality connects with the spirit of the film so well, that Sony Pictures Home has made Word Cloud a cornerstone of their marketing campaign, supporting it with both paid media and internal promotion.
Facebook Promotions Are Back
In recent days, Facebook sales reps have been contacting media buyers about impending updates to Facebook’s promotional guidelines. Previous to the announcement, marketers had to obtain Facebook’s express written approval to use any part of the social platform in contests & sweepstakes. As a condition for approval, Facebook also required a minimum media spend to support the promotion. With the coming changes, these two stipulations will no longer apply.
Facebook’s old guidelines effectively eliminated promotional opportunities for smaller campaigns, as the required media spend wasn’t feasible within a limited budget. As an alternative, Mammoth often recommended Twitter as a hosting platform. While Twitter is a more than serviceable tool for this purpose, it doesn’t boast the same traffic–or development opportunities–as Facebook. The news that Facebook is now providing a free and instantaneous platform to host contests & giveaways might not change much for top-tier campaigns, but it is an absolute boon for more modest ones.