Alison Brie and Dave Franco have been busy sharing fries a la Lady and the Tramp and drinking each other’s sweat—but if that’s not enough to pique people’s interest in the duo’s new horror film Together, the out-of-the-box online campaign just might.
To drum up hype for the movie, which explores a codependent relationship through a body-horror lens and was produced by and stars the real-life couple, distributor Neon pulled a couple of stunts online, including releasing a night-vision video using special tech to track how a viewer’s pupil dilated during the film’s most eye-popping moments, offering to pay for the wedding of someone who proposed at a movie theater, and offering free couples’ therapy to anyone who felt the film’s themes hit a little too close to home.
The free therapy offer was in partnership with online mental health provider OurRitual, which supplied a free couples’ counseling session to fans who saw the film in theaters. Eran Yorkovsky, VP of marketing at OurRitual, said the partnership brought in high engagement rates, and he is hoping this campaign is only a piece of how the company can collaborate with the entertainment industry.
“[The film] aligns very well with what we are trying to help couples with,” Yorkovsky told us. “Although it’s a horror movie, and our goal is to make sure your life is not a horror movie, it felt right.”
Tell me how you really feel
Yorkovsky said Neon first approached OurRitual to collaborate, but admitted that the cold reachout “[almost] fell between the cracks.” The studio, he said, had initiated contact via OurRitual’s online support form, and while staffers found the message “strange,” Yorkovsky quickly took the call. After meeting with Neon’s team to discuss the potential partnership and watching an early version of the film, he was on board.
“I felt this is something crazy enough that it might work,” he said.
To participate in the giveaway, moviegoers were required to upload a photo of their movie ticket to OurRitual’s website before getting a free session. The company capped free sessions at 50 people, and Yorkovsky said while there were a few no-shows, a majority of those selected to receive a free session followed through. Though the company is still waiting on full results, Yorkovsky said the campaign led to several people converting their free session into full subscriptions.
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“They leveraged the taste that they got from the campaign and stayed after for a longer time period,” he said. “People saw that opportunity and seized it.”
OurRitual’s investors were also “very happy seeing us at the forefront and as a brand that is recognized and that other brands want to partner with,” Yorkovsky said.
OurRitual promoted the giveaway primarily on its own social media alongside Neon and the actors’ own accounts, and it didn’t dip into paid media. Yorkovsky said he felt it resonated even without any ad dollars because it supplied the audience with something they actually wanted.
“When something provides value, it works regardless,” he said.
This isn’t OurRitual’s first time working with Hollywood behind the scenes: it already has an existing relationship with the Showtime show Couples Therapy, as the show’s host, Orna Guralnik, also holds the company’s chief clinical officer role. But this campaign was the first time OurRitual had partnered with a movie studio, and Yorkovsky said he’s gotten the itch to see what else is out there in entertainment partnership–land.
“We have our general collaboration agenda, which is mostly around influencers in the space of mental health,” he said. “This was kind of a surprise and a very ad hoc one, but it gave us an appetite to do more things…in a similar way.”
Amid a sea of several summer horror releases, Together’s unexpected offerings have also prompted some fans to recognize Neon’s broader marketing approach. As one Instagram commenter put it, “Every time I think the marketing team can’t keep this up, you all deliver. Kudos to the whole team.”
The film, which hit theaters on July 30, has so far raked in more than $21 million at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo