«Warner Bros. Contagion»
Challenge: When Warner Bros. asked us to promote the movie "Contagion," on a $15,000 budget, we knew we needed to do something viral.
Insight: Strategically, we decided to focus on the fascination and fear of rapidly spreading microbes, like the ones featured in the film. We created giant petri dishes, inoculated them with fungi and bacteria, and mounted them in storefront windows. Over the course of several days, the microbes grew, spelling out the name of the film. A video of the growth was posted on YouTube.
Results: Within one week of the video's release, it had registered millions of impressions, including over 210,000 views on YouTube, coverage by the CBC, The Today Show, the Wall Street Journal, The National Post, The Ottawa Citizen, and the Montreal Gazette among others. Contagion won its opening weekend, taking in three times its closest competitor at the box office.
