Awareness

Universal Pictures dominates the Christmas box office with inspiring trailers

Universal Pictures

By making their trailers a source of inspiration for the holidays, Universal Pictures boosted awareness of their film before Christmas.

After releasing a new, romantic Christmas movie, Universal Pictures stepped into the busy holiday season with a two-fold objective: boost awareness of their movie and attract more people into cinemas.

Running video ads on Pinterest enabled Universal Pictures to meet the public’s high expectations around gift-giving and ornament ideas, while also introducing people to their new Christmas movie. The campaign delivered excellent results in terms of brand awareness and box office receipts.

Key results

+27%

in movie awareness¹

+21%

in purchase intent²

The magic of Christmas
Universal Pictures decided to tap into the spirit of Christmas cheer to shine a spotlight on their holiday feature film and reach an affinity audience in search of inspiration.

Pinterest’s strategy centred around turning Universal’s creative assets into trailers that were just as appealing as they were inspiring. For example, Universal created a video demonstrating the top five rules for a successful Christmas based on clips from the movie. This allowed the brand to introduce themselves to Pinners at the most appropriate time, thereby connecting with their target audience when they were at their most receptive.

Ultimately, Universal Pictures were able to turn their romantic comedy into a must-see movie over the holiday season, while also meeting the expectations of Pinners.

The Pinterest campaign helped Universal Pictures achieve a significant impact in terms of overall awareness of their movie, as well as purchase intent.

After implementing a Brand Lift Study, Universal were able to measure the effectiveness of their video ads. Ultimately, the brand achieved a 10.5% video completion rate, which helped to progressively strengthen awareness of the film over the 4-week campaign.³

Tips for your next campaign
Try these Pinterest best practices to get more out of your ads:

1.
Adapt your message to the highlights of the year, as well as the specific needs of your target audience. This is a unique opportunity for you to get noticed without interrupting Pinners as they search.

2.
The earlier you get started, the better! Pinners use the platform to plan for important moments in their lives. If you're trying to communicate about the upcoming holiday season, start interacting in September.

3.
Use Pinterest's creative video campaigns. They’re a great way to diversify your ad formats while offering content that your target audience is actually looking for.

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