The Campaign

To reach and appeal to a bigger mainstream audience, SASC’s pre-screening ad had to engage in a way that would naturally draw massive interest. True to its subject, the producers got people to want to see the film by letting them participate in the film’s crime solving, giving them a peak into the ultimate mystery of the genre: Who did it?

Creative Execution

Users created their own unique experiences depending on their responses to his questions. The bot responds negatively to lies, and refuses to disclose his own information. He threatens and is prone to bursts of anger. And in some instances would send messages to users in the middle of the night. Giving the users the feeling of unease from violence that hides in plain sight. Users who respond with honesty, care, and concern are those are rewarded by the bot with a richer experience and one of the “good endings.” Users who are abrasive or rude to the bot are led to one of the “bad endings.” All users are rewarded for the experience by being allowed to look closer into the film through exclusive deleted scenes that reveal small details about the film that enrich the experience of the film.

-3962 unique users -33% play through rate -Hundreds of interaction

Through the use of the Facebook messenger bot, we found an innovative way of going beyond the bot's functional qualities to create a real-life chilling experience with the movie's antagonist (a serial killer) beyond trailers and cinemas.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

To talk to the audience about fear, corruption, and violence that the film’s serial killer represented, we let the serial killer speak for himself. We created the Killer Chatbot. A chat bot that talks, acts, and behaves like the film’s serial killer. We launched the bot on Messenger on the SASC's page, a digital platform already inhabited by and easily accessible to the film’s larger potential audience. Queries sent to SASC's page are routed to the chat bot who responds in the voice of the serial killer.