Directed by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, Yesterday tells the story of small-town-musician Jack (Himesh Patel) who wakes up from a cycling accident only to find out he is the only one who remembers the Beatles and all of their hits – suddenly, the word is at his feet.
We teamed up with Universal Pictures on both sides of the pond to create some star-studded content to promote the film’s theatrical release across the globe.
For our EMEA territories, we focused on pushing recognisable key talent, Lilly James and Himesh Patel. By tying together talent day photography and the EMEA brand look and feel, we were able to create a whole range of fun stop-motion videos that celebrated the film, including critic accolades, quote videos and mindshare content.
Further pieces highlighted Jack’s rise-to-fame narrative to draw audiences’ attention to key messaging and themes. By integrating fun illustration and animation and into key moments from the film, we not only made our content stand out on social feeds but created a strong brand presence that was instantly recognisable to our international audience.
Creating a clear point of difference and stopping our time-poor audience in their tracks, our US content immersed them in Jack’s transformation storyline. We created a suit of interactive and in-universe content that gave them the impression that Jack’s story was part of their world.
Our ‘Tap to set up the show’ Instagram Story integrated popular Story sticker functions to give the audience control of Jack’s performance as they raised the lights and turned up the mic, while fake shoppable ads made it look as though all his merchandise had sold out.
The film gained the number 2 spot in the UK box office in its first week of release and managed to hit the top 5 percentile of box office performances in the US – and we were honoured to be a part of it.
To check out the full campaigns head to the Yesterday Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages.