Brief:
- Sony Pictures and video-sharing platform TikTok partnered on a campaign to promote the thriller movie "Escape Room" among international audiences, according to an announcement. The companies hosted an event in Madrid that challenged social influencers and creators to record their experiences of teaming up to solve puzzles that unlocked escape rooms like those shown in the movie.
- The invitees included 30 influencers from more than 17 countries, and eight TikTok creators from the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand, Malaysia and Spain. The groups created more than 75 pieces of social content to share with their followers on TikTok.
- The event ended with a scavenger hunt among Madrid's landmarks, with the winning team earning a special fan screening of the film in their local markets. The TikTok creators included the magician Magic Singh, comedian Karol Konk and makeup artist and body painter Vicky Banham.
Insight:
Sony Pictures' promotional campaign with TikTok is one of the strongest indications that major marketers are working with the video-sharing app on their campaigns. Owner Bytedance has claimed TikTok has 500 million users worldwide, which positions the company to compete with more established social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube. TikTok recently dipped its toes into advertising with a five-second ad for GrubHub.
The global promotion for "Escape Room" harnesses the power of influencer marketing to reach audiences in a variety of markets while providing entertaining content tied to the movie, which is about about six strangers who must get out of deadly escape rooms. Sony Pictures promoted the U.S. release of the film with a banner ad that led to a 360-degree experience based on the movie. The immersive activation showed themed rooms from the movie that audiences could explore and try to escape by solving step-by-step puzzles.
TikTok's popularity has pushed Facebook to start testing similar features to boost its popularity among younger audiences, like Lasso and a new feed called "LOL" that features videos, GIF-like clips and memes. ByteDance last year bought lip-syncing app Musical.ly, which had gained a big following among U.S. teens before leveling out, for $800 billion and merged it with TikTok. With a valuation of more than $75 billion, ByteDance is the first Chinese internet company with a significant and engaged global following, The Verge reported.
