Saturday morning, Cincinnati’s Esquire Theatre introduced little-known movie Moonrise Kingdom on Facebook. Saturday evening, from my observation, both showings of Moonrise Kingdom appeared to sell out. As my husband and I, who aren’t particularly ardent film buffs, took our seats in the crowded theatre, we discussed how glad we were that the Esquire’s Facebook page alerted us to this movie we were sure to love (and which we did!). For the Esquire, these sold out shows represented a huge Facebook marketing success.
Kathy Parsanko, PR Director for the Esquire, Mariemont, and Kenwood Theatres, agrees that Facebook marketing played a role in the film’s success:
“We don’t often sell out, so Moonrise Kingdom‘s performance was impressive. I believe its success came from a combination of factors, including our Facebook promotion, trailers playing before our other films, really great reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and word-of-mouth. Many of our Facebook fans responded to the posts with shares, likes and comments.”
For casual film fans, Facebook might have been the only way to learn about the first showings of this movie. If you weren’t at the theatre to see the preview and don’t often check Rotten Tomatoes, a smaller movie like this might pass you by. Without these casual fans, Moonrise Kingdom probably wouldn’t have sold out.
When I ask Kathy what methods she used to get the word out on Facebook, she says:
“I used the ‘Promote This’ feature for this Facebook post. It was a reasonable cost, and many Facebook fans responded. We received 49 Shares for this post– which was extremely unusual.”
Here’s the moral of this story. Facebook marketing of interesting content like this:
Can help businesses achieve results like this:
