To promote the horror film Longlegs this summer, indie studio Neon didn’t take out a single TV ad.

Instead, it bought a billboard in Los Angeles displaying a phone number that, when called, played an audio message from the film’s serial killer played by Nicolas Cage.

The number received more than 250,000 calls in the first 48 hours—and Longlegs, which notched $22.4 million in the US in its first weekend, went on to become Neon’s highest-grossing release of all time.

Longlegs isn’t the only horror film to do well in the last year. Another Neon horror film, Immaculate, released in March, was briefly the studio’s biggest opening weekend for a film domestically ($5.3 million), before Longlegs; it went on to make over $28 million at the global box office. Meanwhile, this summer’s M. Night Shyamalan horror film Trap raked in more than $80 million at the international box office.

As moviegoers flock to theaters to see horror films, some advertisers have turned to in-theater ads to target the audiences those titles attract, who, cinema advertisers told us, can be harder to reach through other channels.

“As it typically is in media, the advertisers follow the audience, and the fact that we’ve seen audiences really flocking to these smaller indie horror films—the advertising dollars are following,” Christine Martino, CRO at Screenvision Media, a company that sells ads on national and regional movie-theater screens, said. “Those horror films, those indie horror films, have really become these water-cooler cultural moments that we have the opportunity to allow advertisers to follow their consumers to.”

Continue reading here.—JS

Fall is for spooky movies, comfy sweaters, and hot apple cider. Oh, and marathon training.

With the Chicago Marathon in October and the New York City and Philadelphia Marathons in November, to name a few, it’s a big season for running brands, according to Zipporah Allen, chief business officer of exercise tracking app Strava. And it’s also a big time for Strava, which has become a must-use resource for many runners in training (and, perhaps, athletes looking to show off their exercise habits to friends).

As the app gains popularity, especially among younger runners, the platform has grown into a marketing vehicle for brands looking to reach a young and engaged audience. Allen’s team works closely with partners to cocreate activations including branded run clubs, and brands like Chipotle, Cash App, and Adidas have worked with the platform to sponsor challenges that invite users to compete to cover a certain amount of distance, time, or number of activities.

“Every brand wants to recruit that next generation…and we’re seeing that population come to Strava,” Allen told Marketing Brew. “Our fastest-growing cohort on Strava is Gen Z. They are uploading runs, in particular, at a much faster rate than any other generation that is on Strava right now, so I think there’s a cultural thing happening where we are where the consumer is right now.”

Read more here.—AM

Tired of rewatching The Rocky Picture Horror Show for Halloween? The horror streaming service Shudder is here to help.

On October 25, AMC Networks’s horror streaming service reopened its Halloween Hotline, a phone number that users could dial to reach Sam Zimmerman, Shudder’s VP of programming. Between 1pm and 3pm ET, Zimmerman provided callers with “personalized film recommendations for the Halloween season.”

The Halloween Hotline is part of Shudder’s broader programming event called Season of Screams. While Shudder may primarily offer horror content, AMC Networks is promoting Shudder across its broader ecosystem and putting marketing firepower behind it throughout the year, not just around Halloween, in an effort to reach new audiences.

Scream queens: Season of Screams features new content premiering on Shudder, like the latest movie in the V/H/S franchise, V/H/S/Beyond, and older horror offerings now streaming on Shudder. The streamer is hosting live watch parties every Friday night during Season of Screams that feature different movies or shows each week. The event runs from September 13 to December 13 this year. Season of Screams happens at a time when both casual horror audiences and horror fans are activated, according to Zimmerman.

“This year, you had perfect bookends of a Friday the 13th in September and a Friday the 13th in December,” he said. “So we were able to say, ‘This is the season. This is really what we want to market toward, and show you that it’s not just about October. We have all of this incredible programming in September and October and after that, too.’”

Continue reading here.—JS

Stories we’re jealous of.

• Bloomberg Businessweek wrote about Skelly, Home Depot’s 12-foot-tall plastic skeleton, and how its release created a new category of oversized Halloween decor.
• Businessweek also profiled Baseball Bat Bros, a YouTube channel whose stars have reshaped the billion-dollar baseball equipment business.
• The Walrus wrote about living through “the golden age of garbage clothing.”