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chevron-downThe Walt Disney Company France
Promoting a film release with augmented reality ads on Facebook and Instagram
CASE STUDY
To boost awareness of a film launch, the family entertainment company ran video ads plus new augmented reality ads on Facebook and Instagram and saw a 29% lower cost per ad recall.
27-pointlift in ad recall when running augmented reality ads plus usual video ads
13-pointlift in campaign awareness when running augmented reality ads plus usual video ads
29%lower cost per ad recall when running augmented reality ads plus usual video ads, compared to video ads alone
THE STORY
Leader in family entertainment
The Walt Disney Company is organised around several business segments (Studio, Media, Parks, Experiences and Products, Direct-to-Consumer and International). The company creates real experiences for people through its brands (Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, Searchlight and 20th Century Studios), activities (the cinema, Disney+ video-on-demand platform and TV channels) and a wide range of products bearing the images of its various brands and characters.
THE GOAL
Spotlighting an animated film release
The Walt Disney Company wanted to drive awareness about the release of a new animated movie, Wish.
“
We enjoy working in multiple placements and testing new formats. Meta gave us the opportunity to test this new feature that allowed us to communicate about the film in a different and original way. We were excited to test Meta’s innovative and interactive augmented reality ads for the first time. The campaign reached our target audiences, and also drove great brand metrics.
Thomas Caramelle
Digital Marketing Studios Manager, The Walt Disney Company
THE SOLUTION
Running augmented reality ads
Disney France wanted to build awareness about the launch of its new Christmas movie Wish, which revolves around Asha, a strong-willed 17-year-old girl who makes a wish upon a falling star. Wish is inspired by Disney's 100th anniversary, and ties together a common theme of many Disney films: wishes coming true.
To attract moviegoers, Disney, Meta and We are Simone – a Meta Business Partner – worked together to bring Wish and the Wish soundtrack to new fans across France with a campaign featuring augmented reality ads. The advantage of this interactive ad format is its ability to reach incremental audiences with fun participatory experiences.
The augmented reality ads showed animated characters from the movie, along with a text overlay: “Ready to sing the song “All the stars”?” The ads included a Try in Camera button that, when clicked, opened the camera on the ad viewer’s mobile device and loaded the AR filter effect.
The filter effect showed special characters from the film and invited the viewer to film themselves singing the movie’s lead song, “I’m a Star” karaoke-style with the protagonist, Asha. They could then post the video on their Facebook or Instagram Pages, and invite friends to also film themselves singing along.
To see how well these ads worked in practice, Disney France ran a multi-cell test that compared the performance of:
- Cell 1: its usual video ads delivered in the Feed, Stories and Reels placements across Facebook and Instagram
- Cell 2: video ads plus the new augmented reality ads delivered across the eligible placements for the AR ad format: Feed, Stories and Reels on Facebook and Instagram, as well as Instagram Explore
Disney France showed the ads to French adults aged 18 and over, including families and parents.
THE RESULTS
A campaign wish come true
The Walt Disney Company France determined the results of the November 23–December 28, 2023 augmented reality ad campaign using a Meta brand lift study and a Meta multi-cell brand lift study, which revealed:
- 27-point lift in ad recall when running augmented reality ads plus usual video ads (Meta brand lift study)
- 13-point lift in campaign awareness when running augmented reality ads plus usual video ads (Meta brand lift study)
- 29% lower cost per ad recall when running augmented reality ads plus its usual video ads, compared to video ads alone (multi-cell brand lift study)
Products used
