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The marketing and advertising industry has evolved dramatically since its inception, often out of necessity. Direct mailers worked until everyone’s mailbox became over saturated with junk mail and they started throwing offers away without looking. Email marketing changed that but led to unmanageable inboxes, causing consumers to favor the bulk delete action in their inbox. Today, targeted ads stalk consumers like their worst nightmare, which has pushed brands to hire influencers that now (at least temporarily) act as undercover brand advocates, a shady practice that is sure to change as influencers are forced to label themselves as the advertising fronts they are.
At this point in history, advertising has invaded every private space that previously existed, leaving consumers in a state of heightened anxiety by making it impossible to avoid it even if they try. This has pushed consumers to the only solution left: word of mouth, the only place they have any privacy left and feel they can trust. Because of this, word of mouth has become more important than ever, which means it’s time to stop wasting energy and money on spam-vertisements and start investing in the audience your brand already has: the people who already care and will share your story for you. Just a couple months ago The League and a third-party company partnered to set the bar for what such an experience might look like.
A first-of-its-kind, integrated experiential campaign, a third-party company and The League paired up to create a singles movie-watching night to help their audiences find romance while simultaneously promoting a smart, funny film about finding love, starring A-listers like Zoey Deutch, Glen Powell, Taye Diggs and Lucy Liu.
Instead of spending thousands of dollars on banner ads, email marketing campaigns or other mediums that return a fraction of a percentage of the investment, these two companies invested in kick-off parties at premier rooftop bars in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago that also included a full digital takeover of The League’s in-app concierges, social media handles and main homepage feed. This enabled them to reach new audiences in unprecedented ways and allowed members of The League to connect in a unique way no dating app has offered before.
Artificially intelligent bots acted as concierge service agents for the experience. The League’s local interest-based chatrooms encouraged people to organize offline meetups, which was complemented by free memberships and upgrades, among other offerings, to users who got together to watch a film in groups of three or more people.
Additional offerings included an invitation to join a Global Viewing Party event in the app, included in each user’s Daily Batch, the option to chat with other people interested in setting up a live viewing party in their city, complimentary three-month League memberships once they posted on social media for users who watched the movie in groups over the weekend and an invitation to watch the trailer on their homepage after voting on their prospects that day.
Far from a standard ad campaign, The League and a third-party company utilized their large user bases and unique platforms to create a partnership that manifested itself as “a healthy intersection of the affiliated company and The League’s value propositions,” which allowed both companies to “give our users a meaningful offline experience,” according to The League’s CEO and founder Amanda Bradford.
This was not only a more fun, interactive way to experience the brands but also a smart business move for both parties. For them, who does not typically work with movie theaters, it was a unique way to reinvent how movies are promoted, launched and discussed. For The League, users were capable of connecting in real life at an event that made an otherwise awkward situation fun and low-commitment.
As The League expands into more online- and offline-integrated experiences, Bradford feels there is a lot of opportunity for the company to partner with those in the media and entertainment industry who prefer to promote their content in creative and unconventional ways. And they couldn’t have been more excited to demonstrate how this might happen than with a third-party company.
