HubSpot - <creepy Nic Cage voice>

Mid-June, 2024. A full page of indecipherable glyphs runs in The Seattle Times, with the only clue a typewritten-style note at the bottom: “Printed at the request of LONGLEGS.”

A week later, a user named Mr_Downstairs leaves strings of glyphs in the comments on Letterboxd.

Billboards pop up; a partially obscured face peers down at drivers. In large red type, there’s nothing more than a phone number and a date. 458.666.4355. 7.12.

It was all part of an eerily good marketing campaign from indie film distributor Neon, and it racked up a respectable $22 million for Longlegs’ opening weekend in July. Arguably — don’t come for me — the campaign itself was more provocative than Nicolas Cage’s madman serial killer.

I asked five HubSpot marketers: What made Neon’s campaign so effective, and what tactics can we bring to our (hopefully) less macabre marketing efforts?

Today's thrills and chills:

5 takeaways from Longlegs’ marketing campaign
50 more ads to inspire you
How to nail first-party data strategy

MEET THE MASTER

Name: The marketing campaign behind Neon’s Longlegs film

Job: To terrify and frighten (and sell movie tickets)

Claim to fame: A multisensorial, multichannel, multifrightening experience

Fun fact: The Blair Witch Project walked so that Longlegs could run. Back in 1999, Artisan Entertainment (now Lionsgate) ran a multimedia campaign — including “missing, presumed dead” tags on the actors’ IMDB entries — for a solid year before The Blair Witch Project opened. Many moviegoers left theaters thinking they’d just seen the found footage of three disappeared student filmmakers instead of a low-budget horror flick.

Longlegs took it even further than Blair, and our five spookiest marketers share their takeaways from the summer's creepiest campaign:

Lesson 1: Build a continuous journey for your audience

“The Longlegs campaign brilliantly invited people to step into the narrative, transforming them into active participants rather than a passive audience. By threading suspense and curiosity throughout its progression, the campaign ensures a dedicated and engaged audience eager for what's to come.

“For marketers, this approach offers a clear lesson: Aim for more than just a single peak of interest — build a continuous journey that keeps your audience engaged and eagerly anticipating what's next.”

—Carly CHILL-iams, director, media monetization

Lesson 2: Lean into your imagination

“I'm a huge horror fan, and I was really impressed at how Neon took an entirely fictitious threat (Nicolas Cage’s Longlegs) and brought it into our dimension. (The nonfiction threat of Nic Cage himself predates the movie industry.) It’s a creative and immersive way to gain fan attention and build curiosity for moviegoers.

“What I take away from this frightful marketing campaign is that the more imaginative and immersive your marketing team gets, the more you stand to gain from letting your viewers unravel the mystery or story.”

—Tristen Tay-LORD of the UNDERWORLD, Service Blog editor and marketing manager

Lesson 3: Unite analog and digital marketing strategies

"I love how the film's marketing united the analog and digital worlds. People could see the billboard with its eerie imagery and move along, but if they called the phone number displayed, they could actually experience it.

“This strategy brought them into the movie in a way, and made its value more of a reality. It’s not difficult for marketers from all backgrounds to mimic this with the use of URLs and QR codes."

—Ra-MOAN-a Sukhraj, principal marketing writer

Lesson 4: Don’t underestimate the power of interactivity

“What made this campaign so effective is that people were given a lot to work with — ciphers to decode, numbers to call, backstories to explore — but none of it gave people what they really wanted: a face reveal. You could only get that by watching the movie, which made people eager to show up.

“Longlegs’ marketing is a lesson in the importance of interactivity. Giving your audience something to do that relates to your product or service makes them want to engage. And pre-engagement makes a product reveal, launch, etc., all the more exciting.”

—GORY Needle, senior marketing manager

Lesson 5: Cultivate suspense and plant breadcrumbs

“I think the marketing was effective because it cultivated a sense of suspense by planting breadcrumbs. Neon lets its target audience fill in the rest with their imagination, which can be the most powerful tool in both horror and marketing.

“Marketers can encourage people to actively engage in your marketing campaign without them even realizing it. Give new information with each iteration of your campaign, and you’ll have your audience yearning for more.”

—DYIN’ Zhong, senior marketing manager

A HELPFUL RESOURCE

Ads that will outlive the zombie apocalypse

If you already own a trusty swipe file: just tuck these right in, and they’ll fit great.

From Dove and Fenty to Wednesday Addams and a Burger King trio, here are 50 top social media ads to inspire your next champion of a campaign.

We made it crispy, colorful, and a little bit creepy. Grab it for free.

50 excellent ads

OPEN TABS

🎃 Dive into the BOO-tiful world of first-party data: My colleague Curt talked to Christophe Combette, a director of product management at Google, to learn how first-party data can help you crush your marketing goals and preserve your customers' privacy
👻 O-U-I-J-A: The true story of how an entrepreneur merged spiritualism and capitalism to create a multimillion-dollar brand. GOOD BYE
😱 The call is coming from inside the house: Brands are digging into their own archives and reviving old Halloween ads

This bewitching email was brought to you by Laura M. DROWNING. 😱 Editing by Caroline GORE-sy🩸 and Curt del PRINCE of DARKNESS. 😈

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