2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) showcases everything from independent and regional short films, to cultural features and international blockbusters. Last year attendance rates were lower than expected with people preferring mainstream movies at the cinema than attend the festival. People were not relating to DIFF. And we had to convert these cinemagoers into festivalgoers.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

The truth about film is that everyone sees it differently. And we wanted to use this problem of perception to our advantage. Inspired by this, we teamed up with acclaimed Clinical Psychologist Dr. Raymond Hamden to create: 'The DIFF Film Personality Test'. A series of credible Inkblots developed to build interest for the festival based on genuine film-related psychometric results. What people interpreted determined the film genre they may be interested in before the festival actually begins.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Since YouTube videos can be embedded on external social media websites, the video test was simple to take and easy to share – meaning all your friends could watch your trailer without even taking the test. The DIFF YouTube Channel received 1,150,400 views compared to 160,000 views from last year. Almost 10 times more than the previous year. - Record number of ticket sales with attendance up 35% - Total package sales up 88% - Student attendance up 50% - Facebook/Twitter fans doubled to 34,765 & 30,861 - DIFF website received over 100% unique visits - DIFF mobile site received over 950% unique visits

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

We wanted to give everyone the opportunity to take the test. Since YouTube is the main hotspot for people to watch movie trailers, we gave them the chance to engage through a unique video test purposely designed for this medium. Once you enter, there are a total of five Inkblots. When the first appears, a series of words soon follow. You click on the word you think best represents the Inkblot, and then the video jumps directly to the second Inkblot. After all five, in just five clicks, you get your film genre preference and the trailer of a film you may be interested in watching at the festival with the option to buy tickets.