Throughout history, filmmakers have realized the importance of marketing cinematic films before their release in theaters, through attractive and interesting advertising campaigns, in order to attract the largest number of audiences to watch films in cinemas, ensuring a high profit rate. Since the beginning of the film industry in Egypt, new works have been promoted through print media such as newspapers and magazines or audio like television and websites.
With time and the advent of modern technology, filmmakers had to rely on more sophisticated methods to achieve innovative advertising for new artworks. Under the wide use of social networking sites, especially among young people, the most targeted group for watching new films in cinemas, production companies have resorted to using social media mainly in advertising for films. Filmmakers are competing to devise new ways to attract the audience. Moving away from the traditional and recognized form of marketing. They were able to exploit the audience to participate effectively in the advertising campaigns for the new films, as the audience is no longer just a recipient of the propaganda, but rather has become involved and interacted with it, which increases their desire to watch those films.
In the following lines, we will review with you a group of films that were able to attract the audience through new and innovative advertising campaigns.
I am buying a Man!
The crew of the movie “I am buying a Man!” resorted to an unexpected way to publicize the movie by provoking controversy among the pioneers of social networking sites on a thorny topic that the Egyptian people were not accustomed to discussing openly. The work makers created a page on the site “Facebook” bearing the film’s name. Then, they announced a woman who wanted to have children and requested a sperm donor in exchange for a sum of money. Which received a great reaction from the public, whose opinions differed on this subject because of the boldness of the idea. Then the film’s leading actors came out, announcing that the issue was no more than a plan to promote the work and that that page appeared in one of the scenes within the film’s events.
We are buying a man starring Nelly Karim, Mohamed Mamdouh, Lotfi Labib, and Laila Ezz El Arab, written by Enas Lotfi, directed by Mohamed Ali.
Al Arif
The makers of the movie “Al-Arif” claimed that their personal accounts on social networking sites were hacked and hacked to promote the basic idea of the movie. The beginning was when Ahmed Fahmy, the hero of a movie, announced an attempt to hack his personal account on Facebook, through a post in which he said: “This is a very old trick, I still have this Amazon hack link, he said, He will hack me like this, I’m Baba, come on.”
A few minutes later, his personal account has already been hacked. Which sparked a state of widespread controversy, especially after his wife, actress Hana Al-Zahid, confirmed this matter and wrote on her personal page: “Oh people, a hacker stole Ahmed Fahmy’s page, and he is not responsible; for anything that will be posted on his pages.” Minutes later, the profile picture of Ahmed Fahmy’s page and Hana Zahid was changed and replaced with another, accompanied by a comment: “I’m getting to yo… whose turn is next?”
The filmmakers completed the funny trick they resorted to. The same action was repeated with the rest of the film’s heroes, as their personal image changed in the same way, accompanied by the same comment. The film heroes were keen to reveal the truth on the same day by publishing the movie’s promotional promo on their accounts.
The movie “Al-Arif” starring Ahmed Ezz, Ahmed Fahmy, Mahmoud Hamida, Mustafa Khater, Carmen Basibes, and Ahmed Khaled Saleh, written by Mohamed Sayed Bashir, and directed by Ahmed Alaa El-Deeb.
Secret Men’s Club
The movie “The Secret Men’s Club” makers used an innovative way to advertise the movie through the movie’s Facebook page. Where the page management asked its followers to join the men’s club by changing their personal account pictures to the membership card, sending a “screenshot” of it, and promised to conduct a draw through which the winners would have an opportunity to attend the special screening of the movie, and meet its leading actors.
The movie “The Secret Men’s Club” starring Karim Abdel Aziz, Majed Al-Kadwany, Bayoumi Fouad, and Ghada Adel, written by Ayman Wattar, and directed by Khaled Al-Halafawi.
200 LE
An innovative and distinctive idea that the family of the movie “200 LE” resorted to provoke controversy and achieve good publicity for the work, as a group of the film’s heroes, through their accounts on social networking sites, published personal photos of them from their daily lives, accompanied by a 200-LE banknote, imprinted with the name “Aziza El-Sayed, one of the main characters in the film. The pictures were accompanied by funny comments from the artists, led by Mahmoud Al-Bazzawi, who commented on his picture, saying: “I lost 200 pounds. This is written on it, Aziza Al Sayed, whoever finds it, should keep it.” Esaad Younes also commented on her photo, saying: “It is a good gift, but it is a little late… But, Who is Aziza Al Sayed? The propaganda created by the film invaded social media, prompting a large number of the public and media professionals to take their photos with the 200-LE banknote and share the photos on their personal accounts.
The movie “200 EGP” starring Esaad Younes, Ahmed El-Sakka, Laila Elwi, Mahmoud El-Bazzawi, Bayoumi Fouad, Ghada Adel, Ahmed El-Saadani, and May Selim, written by Ahmed Abdullah, directed by Mohamed Amin.
Mousa
Unlike what is usual, the organizers of the movie “Musa” refused to provide any advertising campaigns for the movie, as director Peter Mimi published the movie’s promo on his personal page on the “Instagram” website, and commented on it, saying: “Tomorrow is the first screening of Moussa’s movie. I said I will announce it to you on my page because you will not find banners in the streets or advertisements on television.”
The leading actors sufficed with sharing the propaganda posters of the film, where each leading actor of the film issued a single poster that he published on his personal page on social networking sites. Remarkably, the special screening ceremony of the movie “Musa” witnessed the appearance of the robot around which the story revolves, on the red carpet as one of the film’s leading roles, and as a kind of innovative advertising, which drew the attention of the audience and the media.
The movie “Musa” starring Karim Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Iyad Nassar, and Asmaa Abu Al-Yazid, and written and directed by Peter Mimi.
March 30
The heroes of the movie “March 30” were keen to promote it in their own way through social networking sites. Where they published a picture of a personal card belonging to one of the film’s characters, which was cut into several parts, and published each part on the personal page of each hero on the “Facebook” site, and asked the audience to assemble the complete picture of the card to get free tickets to attend the movie and an opportunity to meet its heroes.
The movie “March 30” starring Ahmed El-Fishawy, Dina El-Sherbiny, Khaled El-Sawy, Ahmed Khaled Saleh, and Asmaa Abu El-Yazid, written by Hamid Al-Madani, directed by Ahmed Khaled Moussa.
My bride.
The movie “My Bride” created a new form of advertising for the work, which was represented in a dialogue held by three famous social media figures through their personal accounts on the “Instagram” site. They are Marwan Younes, Muhammad Mawla, and Saif Zahran. They exchanged different stories about the idea of salon marriage, which is the main idea of the film. In addition, each of them also expressed his personal opinion on the subject. Thus, the filmmakers took advantage of the audience and viewer’s interaction to promote the film differently.
The film is starring Ahmed Hatem, Jamila Awad, Sabreen, and Mahmoud Al-Bazawi, written by Mustafa Al-Barbari, and directed by Muhammad Bakir.
122
The family of the movie “122” decided to promote the work with several innovative advertising campaigns, which began by publishing a competition for the audience on social networking sites revolving around predicting the meaning of the movie’s name, with a prize for the winners. Then they used the film industry’s Facebook pages and the Sarcasm and Comics pages to provide paid advertising for the film. However, the intense publicity campaign did not stop there, as the makers of the work postponed its showing more than once, and the producer of the film came out to confirm that the postponement was to present the film in the best way, which some considered one of the ways to promote the film by exciting the audience and arousing their enthusiasm and curiosity.
The movie “122” starring Amina Khalil, Tariq Lotfi, and Ahmed Daoud, written by Salah Al-Juhaini, and directed by Yasser Al-Yasiri.