When the global pandemic hit in 2020, the Gothenburg Film Festival was forced to close its theatres for the first time in over 40 years and let the festival go completely digital.

So how do you create awareness for yet another digital event when everything else is already digital? Including attracting international attention to the festival and be ranked as one of the top ten in the world?

Through inventive and non-traditional media channels, we were able to create ways for festival goers to engage with the campaign on every imaginable platform.

Situation:

When the global pandemic hit in 2020, the Gothenburg Film Festival was forced to close its theatres for the first time in over 40 years and let the festival go completely digital.

Brief:

How do you create awareness for yet another digital event when everything else is already digital?

Objectives:

Avoid the festival going down, an incredibly challenging task during a pandemic.

Instead of seeing the effects of isolation as a problem, the film festival chose to embrace them. When the festival theme “Social distances” was launched in the autumn of 2020, The Isolated Cinema was also launched. An isolated cinema at the far end of the sea in one of Sweden’s most barren, windswept and exposed places – Pater Noster. The film festival then challenged the world to apply for the only festival pass available. And the world accepted the challenge. By storm.

Our PR strategy needed to target a broader audience than the usual festival goers. As the pandemic threatened the very existence of the festival, the strategy was activated on as large a canvas as possible to awaken media’s curiosity beyond the cultural verticals. In each of these, we then got massive repetitive exposure over 6 weeks in a row, globally.

The hero location for the campaign is an isolated lighthouse called Pater Noster on the edge of an island archipelago, which is one of the most barren and windswept locations in the North Sea outside Sweden.

Out of more than 12,000 applicants from over 65 countries, the chosen one was Lisa, a film enthusiast from Skövde who has worked hard as an emergency nurse on the front line in the fight against Covid-19 during the past year.

Anyone could follow Lisa’s experiences on the island through a video diary published daily from her arrival 30 January until Lisa’s return on 6 February.

With zero media budget, the festival run all-time record with 300 000 virtual festival visits. (108% above objective)

Over 3000 articles were published during the project, including CNN, BBC, New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, Fox News, People Magazine, Variety, The Economist, Al Jazeera, The Guardian – just to name a few. (3000% above objective)

MEDIA REACH (with zero media spend)

- 8.5 billion media impressions

- $84.8 million in earned media

(Source: Meltwater)

ENGAGEMENT

- 12 000 applications from 65 countries

- 300 000 virtual festival visits (all time high record)