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Summary
Nordisk Film partnered with VG Partnerstudio on three major projects that all had the same goal: to promote three new huge Norwegian movies: ‘Birkebeinerne,’ ‘Bølgen’ (The Wave) and ‘Solan og Ludvig - Herfra til Flåklypa.’ The movies all became three of the most popular movies in Norway. ‘The Wave’ was a finalist for three awards, both nationally and internationally. This case study will focus on ‘The Wave.’ The campaign launched on August 2015.
Mission
To promote and create interest for all three movies by Nordisk Film. The specific goal for ‘The Wave’ was to sell 500,000 tickets which had not been achieved by a Norwegian drama film since Kon-Tiki, a movie that earned an Academy Award nomination in 2012.
Creative idea
To create premium articles around the concept and content of each movie on Norway’s largest media website, VG.no.
In terms of clicks, reading time, and social engagement, the results far outperformed even the most ambitious projections.
Solution
VG Partnerstudio developed long premium articles for each movie and published them with uniquely identifiable URLs. Each premium article was custom made to fit the content and the story. Behind the movie ‘The Wave’ was a truly interesting, though tragic, story. The 1934 Tafjord disaster killed 40 people when a rock slide created a tsunami in one of Norway’s fjords. The disaster inspired the filmmakers to dramatise: What if this type of disaster happened today?
After a summer of intense work from all parties, expectations were high when the article went live on the front page of VG.no on August 12, 2015.
It quickly became apparent that “A Norwegian tsunami” was a success. In terms of clicks, reading time, and social engagement, the results far outperformed even the most ambitious projections. See the article in Norwegian .
Size of team involved
Six internal and three external.
Platforms: Online, Facebook, Twitter.
Results
• The article was live on VG.no for 36 hours and achieved 330,000 page views – 11 times more than promised.
• 35% of the readers scrolled through the whole article.
• 25% of the traffic came from external channels (Facebook, Twitter).
• 3,748 shares, likes and comments on Facebook.
During 36 hours of live exposure on VG.no, more than 300,000 click-throughs were generated — a staggering number in a country with just 5 million inhabitants. This was 10 times the number VG guaranteed to Nordisk Film.
Trailer for the way, Nordisk Film
As important as the number of clicks, the reading time spent by users was four times higher than VG’s previous best native advertising case. Also, a high number of social media shares meant more than 10% of the total traffic came from Facebook and social media.
In the end, Nordisk Film surpassed its goal of selling 500,000 tickets. More than 800,000 people bought a cinema ticket to see the movie. For VG, this was one of the several experimental projects that led the company to create its branded content department, VG Partnerstudio.
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