The assignment from Gothenburg Film Festival was to reach out to a much broader audience than the usual festival goers and film media relations – with a 100% PR driven communication strategy. 'The World's Most Claustrophobic Cinema' is primarily a creative activation to awaken curiosity about the festival in media that extends beyond the usual cultural and local media. With a clear PR strategy to reach out broadly and internationally, and through only deserved attention and zero media budget, we achieved all-time-high results.

Streaming apps, tablets and mobile phones have replaced the big screen experience. People are staying home, and cinemas are struggling to survive. In the age of Netflix, the Film Festival needs to turn movie-streamers into moviegoers.

The brief was to come up with a creative and sensational idea strong enough to break through the international media noise while offering something unique that cannot be experienced either at home or at other festivals.

The objective was to attract international attention that positions the festival in an innovative and creative context and by that get more visitors to the festival.

Göteborg Film Festival decided to offer something Netflix don’t. Introducing: The World’s Most Claustrophobic Cinema. The highlight of the festival was Nobel Prize winner Harry Martinson’s end-of-the-world movie, Aniara. Like the film’s characters, we wanted the audience to feel claustrophobic in deep space. The comfy theatre seats were replaced with 8 coffins. Each coffin was constantly monitored and equipped with a panic button.

We decided to offer something Netflix don’t. Introducing: The World’s Most Claustrophobic Cinema - that became the key message pitched to media, a trigger phrase to early awaken curiosity and newsworthiness in headlines.

The creative initiative was to spark media attention about the festival, extending beyond the cultural verticals, with a clear PR strategy on reaching out to much broader media by merely deserved attention and zero media budget.

We started teasing about the upcoming activation by leaking dramatized images of the claustrophobic cinema, and then follow up and hyping up the news with a film trailer about the unique screenings. The usual media target audience for film and culture was obviously important, but the strategy was to reach a brand-new audience: not just the usual festival goers, but also those difficult to win over – the “Netflix addicts”.

The PR campaign started during the first days of 2019, and continued to the festival ended February 3.

Main assets: a film trailer of the event, dramatized images, and a press release.

To get your hands on a ticket, you had to register on a unique website where tickets for the 28 screenings became available for some lucky ones.

The limited sarcophagi screenings were also introduced to selected media, leading to even more live PR and reporting from the actual screenings.

Tier 1:

This became a global news event with over 500 shared articles and great engagement on social media. The initiative got an over 1.2 billion reach and a media value of over $13,533,532. During the first launch days, an estimated one tweet every three seconds was published about the event.

Including articles from The Times, CNET, People Magazine, AV News, as well as reports and articles in major Swedish media outlets. The event got through to the Hollywood entertainment sector media such as Hollywood Reporter, Perez Hilton X – a major achievement and the first ever for the Swedish festival.

Tier 2:

New target groups that had never before visited the festival began discussing the campaign and planning their upcoming visits on global digital forums and social channels such as Reddit. Media mentions for Gothenburg Film Festival increased with 30% compared to previous years.

Tier 3:

The sarcophagi screening were globally one of the most trending festival events on one of the world’s largest trend sites (Trendhunter) and featured on Google News.

All 28 screenings sold out in record time and the festival had All-time high visitor numbers since the start 42 years ago.