Film production company Fox Searchlight Pictures is calling consumers to the movies with a new partnership with mobile advertising firm Boost Mobile, a wholly owned division of Sprint Nextel, and car maker Acura.
The first campaign in the partnership is promoting the release of the film Street Kings, through the new Boost Mobile advertising platform. Banner ads for the film will appear on Boost Mobile’s BoostLIVE and Web site, followed by photo ads for Acura’s new 2009 TSX. Amobee, Boost’s official ad-selling and ad-serving partner, will handle the back-end and serve up the ads.
“The new mobile ad platform is for brands that want to engage with our audience in a more interactive way,” said Lowell Winer, director of emerging products for Boost Mobile. “The objective is to drive awareness around the film launch and increase ticket sales.”
Boost has about 4.6 million users, most of whom are under 30, and many of whom live in cities and urban environments across the US. Users of the free, opt-in service can visit the Boost mobile site to interact with content and the BoostLIVE storefront where customers can purchase digital content such as ringtones, wallpapers, music and games.
“The film is an action about police officers and Fox Searchlight is looking to appeal to this audience,” Winer added. “The Boost brand speaks to the irreverent, aspirational aspects of this young urban crowd, which ties into the action movie audience.”
While consumers will not be able to purchase tickets directly at this point, Boost is working on this and some other additions to the program.
“In the future we hope to include rich media such as videos for movie trailers and ticket transactions,” Winer said.
