Recently, movie production teams have implemented different approaches to promoting new movies – like Vince Vaughn’s free stock photos featuring himself and costars, and a sci-fi film’s fake profile on Tinder.

However, we are curious to know if these actually work in reaching campaign objectives, do they help with engagement and are they worth the risk?

But first … a little background on the campaigns themselves:

• Vince Vaughn poses for stock images: Vince Vaughn’s newest film, “Unfinished Business” is about a work team on a routine business trip that goes completely wrong in every possible way. To help promote the film, Twentieth Century Fox teamed up with Getty Images to create stock photos and take advantage of the hilarious potential these photos have with their rather cheesy poses. People could download the images for free to use in their next business presentation. The response was extremely positive – thus creating more buzz around the movie.
• Tinder users meet a sci-fi film’s newest character: At this year’s SXSW, Tinder users were meeting and interacting with a young woman on Tinder who was near the festival. What these young men didn’t realize was that this woman, Ava, was also the main character in a new sci-fi film, “Ex Machina,” which happened to be premiering the same weekend as SXSW. Ava engaged with any person who “swiped right” on her Tinder profile picture and offered her young gentlemen callers to view her Instagram profile. However, her Instagram profile was actually for the movie and linked to its website. Understandably, the men who engaged with Ava were rather upset, feeling as though the movie had played with their emotions. While the “Ex Machina” gained a following and attention through this campaign, they weren’t all positive.

Brand promotions on platforms like Tinder or Instagram are still relatively new. When planning campaigns on these platforms, we must ask ourselves if the platform is an appropriate place to be promoting the brand. Before planning such a distinctive promotion, make sure to listen to your audience and be cognizant of the possibility that you may actually be hurting your brand and fostering negative conversations rather than positive ones.

How do you feel about out-of-the-box promotions? We’d like to hear from you on our Facebook page.