The Campaign

We pitched three films to Hollywood heavyweights. What they didn’t know is that these films were existing French cinema masterpieces. They rejected the pitches as they thought these ideas didn’t match their criteria of what can make a successful film.

Creative Execution

We created a series of humorous videos that captured the cautious and negative reactions of these Hollywood professionals. These videos were shared

Results

By demonstrating that you can make great films without following Hollywood formulas, this campaign helped change the perception of people who think Hollywood films are the ultimate form of cinema and showed them how French films offer a completely different cinematic experience. The campaign created lots of buzz in the social media and made the headline in the new channels like Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, The Independent and The Times. Starting with the journalists, soon people across the world including Hollywood celebrities and other film professionals started discussing about the necessity for cultural diversity. In the end, the campaign actually attracted 43% more non-French people to book tickets for the French Cinema screenings.

In Asia, people tend to prefer Hollywood blockbusters when they go to the cinema. The objective of this campaign was to attract non-French audience to watch weekly French film screenings at Alliance Française theatres. Our campaign directly led the audience to the Alliance Française website from where they could buy tickets for the screenings. Which they did. As a result of the campaign, Alliance Française theatres saw major boost to its ticket sales and recorded massive footfalls as 43% more non-French audience lined up to watch French films.

We needed to position French cinema as a very distinct cinema experience compared to Hollywood cinema. To do so, we decided to demonstrate that you can make great films without having to follow the Hollywood usual formulas and that’s all what French Cinema is about.