For the new Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice movie, Warner Bros. tasked us with a unique challenge: to reintroduce the quirky, chaotic character to both long-time fans and a new generation of moviegoers. The goal was to create an immersive, engaging digital experience that would reignite the Beetlejuice fandom while driving real-world ticket sales.
To achieve this, we crafted the Beetlejuice: Escape the Afterlife experience on Roblox, blending gaming and cinema to fully immerse players in the iconic, bizarre world of Beetlejuice. By partnering with popular Roblox games, we transported millions to the Afterlife Hub, where they navigated thrilling escape games, explored recreated movie sets, and interacted with characters in new ways.
The experience was designed to be fun and engaging, offering exclusive digital rewards and the ability to purchase real-world movie tickets directly within the game. Our strategy was to keep players invested in the experience while building massive buzz that drove movie sales.
The results were astounding. The campaign garnered 25 million visits in just 8 weeks, 261 million impressions, and 150 million trailer views. Over 250,000 players entered the Fandango box office, a groundbreaking feat for digital marketing. Ultimately, the campaign helped propel the movie to #1 at the box office for three consecutive weeks, proving that blending entertainment, nostalgia, and gaming can create a powerful marketing tool for the film industry.
Plan of Action: We began by conceptualizing the Beetlejuice universe through a digital lens. Given the movie’s larger-than-life characters and outlandish settings, we needed an experience that was equally bold and unpredictable. Roblox, with its vast audience and highly interactive platform, became the perfect venue for this. The experience needed to resonate across generations, so we aimed to balance nostalgia with new features. The solution was an adventure that included recreating movie sets, incorporating beloved characters, and offering immersive, game-like mechanics.
Execution: We partnered with top Roblox games, integrating the Beetlejuice brand within popular existing worlds and driving traffic to our custom Afterlife Hub. Players were able to explore the quirky and bizarre afterlife universe, completing escape-style challenges in meticulously designed settings that closely resembled iconic movie scenes. A central feature was the ability to directly purchase movie tickets within the game itself via a partnership with Fandango. This was groundbreaking—gaming and cinematic experiences rarely intersected in such a seamless way before.
Exclusive digital rewards and Easter eggs were sprinkled throughout the experience, encouraging players to explore every corner of the Beetlejuice world. This not only kept players engaged but also enticed them to return, maximizing exposure for the movie. We utilized the popular escape room genre on Roblox, which naturally lends itself to collaborative play, and added multiplayer elements to elevate social interactions.
Challenges and Overcoming Obstacles: One of the primary challenges we faced was balancing the nostalgia factor with an experience that felt fresh and relevant to younger players. The Beetlejuice brand, while iconic, had to be reintroduced in a way that felt exciting to a new generation without alienating older fans. Our team carefully navigated this by drawing on the film’s most beloved aspects—characters like Beetlejuice, Lydia, and the Maitlands—while adding new game mechanics, digital rewards, and updated visuals that appealed to both fanbases.
Another major challenge was seamlessly integrating the movie ticket sales into the experience. To ensure this was not only functional but also unobtrusive, we worked closely with Fandango to create an in-game store that didn’t break immersion but instead felt like an organic part of the experience. This was a first-of-its-kind feature, blending digital gaming with real-world commerce in a way that hadn’t been done before in Roblox.
Key Features:
The results of the Beetlejuice: Escape the Afterlife experience exceeded our team's objectives and set a new benchmark for how digital experiences can drive real-world outcomes. Our primary goals were to reignite the Beetlejuice fandom, engage both nostalgic and new fans, and ultimately drive movie ticket sales in a novel way.
The campaign was an undeniable success. We achieved 25 million visits within just 8 weeks, surpassing our expectations and ensuring widespread awareness across both old and new audiences. The experience garnered 261 million impressions and 150 million trailer views, proving that the immersive, interactive gameplay resonated deeply with players. Most importantly, over 250,000 players entered into the in-game integration with Fandango, a first-of-its-kind feature that bridged the gap between gaming and cinema.
The #1 spot at the box office for three consecutive weeks was a direct testament to the effectiveness of our approach, showing how an innovative digital experience could not only build buzz but also convert excitement into ticket sales. The overwhelmingly positive 93% like rating further validated that players found the experience both engaging and memorable.
By blending nostalgic elements with new gameplay mechanics and seamlessly integrating a direct path to ticket purchases, we redefined how movie marketing can evolve in the digital age, ensuring that the Beetlejuice brand continues to haunt new generations while paying homage to its loyal fanbase.
