IMAX Melbourne’s "20 Years of IMAX" Campaign Targets Core Audience: The One Percenters

The Campaign

On May 22, 2018, IMAX Melbourne Museum turned 20. To celebrate, they launched a year-long integrated brand and publicity campaign that focused on a tip shared during the 2017 GSCA Marketing Symposium: the importance of engaging with and acknowledging your core audience, your “one percenters.” Plus, they threw a huge party. Winner of the GSCA 2018 Best Theater Marketing Campaign, Melbourne's #20YearsOfIMAX suite of eye-catching assets is bold, creative and has cut through in all markets.

Strategy

The ultimate goal in developing this yearlong campaign was to mark 20 years of IMAX Melbourne and to excite current and new audiences for years to come. In order to do this, Melbourne’s tactical goal was to secure statewide publicity and strong social media activity by utilizing 20^th anniversary brand assets and leveraging associated brand partners. The idea was to roll out a completely integrated campaign using all available owned, earned and bought channels—with a budget of less than $10,000.

IMAX Melbourne focused on a tip shared during the 2017 GSCA Marketing Symposium: the importance of engaging with and acknowledging your core audience, your “one percenters.” Melbourne’s IMAX Big League Members are their biggest fans, those who know everything about IMAX and IMAX Melbourne and are the strongest advocates. So these one percenters were a target audience for this campaign.

Tactics and Implementation

The #20YearsOfIMAX campaign featured pop-art-styled eye. Eye for IMAX. An animated eye. The eye is how we experience and immerse ourselves in the IMAX experience. 20 years ago IMAX Melbourne was owned and operated by World’s Largest Screens, whose logo was an eye. The concept is bold, adaptable and timeless. Think Warhol, Lichtenstein.

#20YearsOfIMAX came to life as a still image and an animation across all of Melbourne’s onsite channels, digital assets and film campaigns, capturing new and developing audiences out in the streets, online and by word of mouth and making memories with every single visitor to IMAX Melbourne.

The public relations campaign included traditional media relations, including the dispatch of a press release and direct media outreach, which resulted in three radio interviews and numerous online stories.

But PR is not just about traditional media outreach! Melbourne wanted to create industry chatter and did this by engaging its brand partners within the Victorian cultural sector, including Arts Centre Melbourne, City of Melbourne, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne Museum, Museums Victoria, Scienceworks Museum and Immigration Museum.

Melbourne looked to create conversation online by reaching out to a group of influencers they call their “Friends of IMAX”—individuals with dedicated and engaged followers on social media—and gave them branded assets and a hashtag (#20YearsOfIMAX) to share.

Melbourne asked the 1%ers to mention the theater online for a chance to win IMAX tickets. Melbourne also invited the 1%ers to a special 20^th anniversary screening of MacGillivray Freeman’s Everest (the first film ever screened at the theater), debuted the brand new #20YearsOfIMAX campaign on the giant screen that night, and invited them to a party after the screening, which the 1%ers tweeted about it! Melbourne wanted its 1%ers to feel the love they deserve.

Melbourne’s BIG eye-dea was to launch the “eye” concept at the 20^th anniversary party on May 22, 2018. Party guests included media, Friends of IMAX (social media influencers), IMAX Big League Members (the 1%ers), the who’s-who of Melbourne, marketing and publicity representatives from our brand partners, museum members, film industry friends, ex-IMAX staff, senior museum representatives and Melbourne staff’s own friends and family. They wanted people who would start conversations with “Hey, did you know that IMAX Melbourne is 20 years old?” That night there were 800 guests through the doors.

Melbourne used every available channel to introduce the eye concept to the 800 guests. They looped short-form eye animations on the digital foyer screens, projected a giant version of the eye animation onto the exterior façade of the IMAX building, and debuted an extended version of the eye animation and similarly branded and completely updated welcome speech onto the IMAX screen.

A giant version of the eye animation projected onto the exterior façade of the IMAX building

Melbourne also reached out to Everest Director Greg MacGillivray and asked him to make a short welcome video. Greg obliged with a fantastic video acknowledging the 20^th anniversary of both the theater and the film, which was screened in front of Everest at the anniversary party.

Most Successful Part of the Campaign

The most successful part of the campaign was the development and delivery of our #20YearsOfIMAX suite of eye-catching assets that were used across all owned, earned and bought channels. The campaign is bold, creative and has cut through in all markets that speak directly to the targeted audiences.

IMAX Melbourne PR & Brand Manager Kate Piasecka and General Manager Richard Morrison with their GSCA 2018 Achievement Awards for Best Theater Marketing Campaign and Big Idea.