Challenge
Heartland Film (HF) has been running an international film festival for 29 years. In 2018, HF approached Bohlsen Group (BG) to help develop an additional film festival to add to their slate, one that featured short films, which are defined as 40 minutes or less
Solution
Dubbed Indy Shorts International Film Festival, BG developed a unified marketing plan that included event brand development, earned media, digital strategy and grassroots elements. Developing the overall event look and feel included the creation of a spokesperson, Iggy. Iggy, a garden gnome, was given the personality of a fun-loving film fan micro-influencer and was used to develop short witty social videos, organic social graphics and on-site promotion. Iggy became the face of the festival which led to him being used in the 2nd annual Indy Shorts International Film Festival in a micro-influencer grassroots campaign, BG created a flat Iggy that was sent out globally that encouraged the recipient to post on their social media an image of them with Iggy with the campaign hashtag and then pass along the Iggy to someone new in the hopes to create an organic share. BG helped to increase ticket sales for the 2nd annual festival by 30% year over year.
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