Mortimer Moves

Film festivals during the COVID-19 pandemic suffered greatly. Not only are these events immensely publicised, but receive international attention pre- and post-event. The aim of this brief was thusly to generate an outdoor and podcast campaign with social media as a supplementary medium for an event-based promotion that could not occur due to COVID-19.

Objective

This campaign aimed to direct local traffic to the Labia Theatre during Halloween, which hosts SA Horror Festival's annual Zombie Walk. This event is vastly popular amongst Capetonians with the route ending at the Labia's wrought-iron archway. The objective was to gamify online user experiences with an outdoor initiative and a supporting audio medium, which was a podcast titled, 'The Undead Dread'.

Insight

The crucial insights are that Zombie Walk combines two unmistakeable human truths - that a philanthropic brand is favoured over a non-ethical brand, and that humans are deeply, grossly fascinated by the undead. Additionally, a strong consumer insight is that with every zombie movie, the apocalypse survival is a reward - similarly to winning a game.

Concept

The concept is #MortimerMoves which is a dapper zombie that has lost time and his way to a double-feature, horror film date at the Labia Theatre. Mortimer is stuck in Cape Town City Bowl Area on Halloween and needs the consumer's help to find his way.

Executions

#MortimerMoves is a hashtag that will be used on Instagram, with a gamified story to enhance the interactions between followers, and @SaHorrorFest brand account.

Gamified Instagram Stories

These tappable stories were animated GIFs, leading the interacting user to the inevitable entrance of the Labia Theatre.

Podcast Scripts

The podcasts were satirical and imposing the notion that the world has become exclusive to zombies, even after the pandemic which mysteriously infected a majority of the population. The script follows storylines of trends and gripes amongst zombie citizens.