On people and snails – a promotional campaign like no other in Romanian film industry

Marketing, Media

MEC Romania (media agency) and Transilvania Film made together the integrated campaign to promote the movie “On people and snails”, a spectacular and atypical production directed by Tudor Giurgiu.

The campaign aimed to increase movie’s notoriety and attracting different age categories of public in cinema. Also, the campaign aimed to change public’s attitude towards Romanian movies.

Campaign’s impact was determined by a mix of traditional channels (outdoor, online and press) and by online and on TV viral activations. Online is the the most important communication channel and used a mix of websites with relevant traffic (yahoo.ro, libertatea.ro, hotnews.ro, trilulilu.ro), but also specialized websites  (cinemarx.ro, cinemagia.ro).

The movie also has a strong and active presence in social media and attracted, in the first 4 days, a volume of conversations five times higher than in the week that preceded the official launch.

Despre oameni si melci - photo source: http://on.fb.me/QBK1Sx

After this unprecedented promo campaign for a Romanian movie, “On people and snails” already attracted 19,612 viewers. Among the total number of viewers, the screenings and the 1st week-end cinema audience attracted 13,929 people. The performance of the movie in the 1st week in cinemas puts it on the top of Romanian movies premiers in the last 10 years, surpassing “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days” and “If I want to whistle, I whistle”. The comedy had the national premiere on September 14th and reached, in the first week, in 19 cities and on over 40 cinema screens.

The action of the movie directed by Tudor Giurgiu takes place in 1992, in Campulung Muscel, at ARO car factory. The public has access to a comedy with Romanians that know how to get by and start a real adventure. In “On people and snails”, the cast includes well known and loved Romanian actors such as Andi Vasluianu, Dorel Visan, Monica Birladeanu, Andreea Bibiri, Valeria Seciu, Ovidiu Crisan, Ion Grosu, Clara Voda or Alina Berzunteanu, along with Jean François Stevenin and his son, Robinson Stevenin. Movie’s script was written by Ionut Teianu, while Vivi Dragan Vasile signs the image and Vlaicu Golcea is movie’s music composer.

“On people and snails” is distributed in cinemas by Transilvania Film and Ro Image, with the distribution supported by Ringier, Grand Cinema Digiplex and Baneasa Shopping City. In the campaign to promote the movie were involved companies such as Vodafone, Kiss FM, Ringier, Grand Digiplex Baneasa, Baneasa Shopping City, Fan Courrier, Carrefour, Olay, Fertilia, Petrom and News Outdoor. The list of media partners includes Cinemagia, Evenimentul Zilei, Zile şi Nopti, Cinematique, Cinema Rx, Cinefan, Film Reporter, Hip Mag, B365, Metropotam, Feeder, TPU and Mixtopia.

The viral snail

The period that preceded the official launch of the movie was one in which Romanians had appearing in their lives a snail: he crossed busy streets, was at Red Hot Chilli Pepper concert and even got at the seaside, in Vama Veche, appearing out of the blue and making the audience curious. There weren’t any doubts that “he promoted something”, but many were wondering what was.



Besides the star snail, the team behind “On people and snails” also gives for adoption about 20 snails that were involved in the campaign, in a contest that will last until September 25th. The ones that want to have a chance to adopt the snails must post a convincing comment on movie’s Facebook page. Besides having the chance to get a special friend, the contest will also offer 3 kits consisting in a tshirt, a painted deco snail and a poster with autographs from Monica Birladeanu, Andi Vasluianu and Tudor Giurgiu.

And a glimpse of the movie: