What went absolutely 'right' with 'The Fault in Our Stars' to make it this huge success?

Till now most us have been thinking about how the movie ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ had such a big wave of fame. Some of you might be thinking it is because of  the book, the trailer, the actors, and of course the emotional story line. Though partly correct there was a major role played by a marketing firm into making this film a success.

Though the movie was thought of to be self-promotional, it was sparked by this work from Instagram Influencer Marketing Firm, Amplify.

The company makes a technology called 'SharedRank' which is an algorithm that provides strategic analytics and advanced audience targeting.

Working with 20th Century Fox to promote their recent film, The Fault in Our Stars. In advance of the film’s release date, the Amplify selected five key influencers within its entertainment affinity to attend a screening of the film.

The influencers were selected based on their likelihood to have an affinity for the film and, after viewing the film chose told  to organically share their experience.

Though the Amplify won’t share the identities of its influencers — for obvious reasons — it’s clear the overall talk about the film on Instagram is huge. One movie-related hash tag encompassed 1.6 million posts, while another accounted for 20K posts, at the time of publication.

According to Amplify, from the five Instagram influencers, the campaign saw more than 3,50,000 engagements on Instagram, through a combination of likes and comments, ultimately reaching a claimed 16 million people. To-date the film has grossed nearly $170 million at the worldwide box office.

Of the campaign and the technology behind it, Amplify CEO Justin Rezvani said, “As the first and only Instagram marketing firm to use technology to understand key influencers, we were able to conduct extensive analysis in selecting the best influencers to reach the most desired audience of this film. By incorporating data-driven research and a native approach to marketing on Instagram, we were able to make true connections between the film and moviegoers, which in the end moved the needle in box office ticket sales.”

The film was surely a success because of this really innovative strategy. That and the fact the film is an intense emotional roller coaster about young love and loss designed specifically to appeal to the young, movie-going audience. But let’s not let that little bit of obviousness detract from the campaign’s success.