CASE STUDY

First Brand Integration in a Fortnite Creative Game

Immersing Players in a Scary Movie
on Fortnite

1.4M

Gameplay Sessions

55 Min

Average Session Length

£2.5m at the box office (significantly above expectations)

A second Talk to Me movie is already in the works

Client Challenge

Despite a YoY increase in cinema admissions in 2023, the industry continued to battle the longstanding effects of the pandemic. Each theatrical release is make or break for a distributor. Heightened for small, independent distributors that don’t benefit from the financial backing of blockbuster studios that the likes Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox and Disney do. One such UK independent distributor facing dwarfed budgets by this level of competition was Altitude. The release of horror movie Talk to Me in July 2023 really was Altitude’s make-or-break moment… their one chance to win.

Despite its gripping storyline, Altitude faced a tough market for Talk to Me – competition from Barbenheimer, no cult followings of recognisable talent like Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), and it was squaring off with other popular horror franchise releases at the time (Meg and Insidious). Unlike the competition, Altitude started with an awareness base level of zero. Deploying traditional marketing strategies would fail for Talk to Me.

Campaign Objective

Drive Buzz: Generate conversation across gaming and social platforms around Talk to Me amid a competitive marketing landscape for cinema.

Immerse Gen Z+A in Talk to me: Authentically engage 18-29 horror fans with a very strong gaming affinity and attract the same massive audience to the cinema. As per TGI’s Q123 report, this group consists of 45% of horror fans.

Boost the Box Office: Transcend the boundaries of traditional marketing by developing an experience so scary and engaging that it drives movie viewership and box office sales.

Execution

Now is when we should ask… Ever wondered what it would be like to be immersed inside your favorite scary movie… as the main character?

That’s where the idea for a first-of-its-kind Fortnite activation for the hit horror movie Talk to Me came from. Altitude, Gamefam, Havas and Livewire, dropped players worldwide into the worst nightmare by putting them into the middle of Talk to Me’s gut-wrenching story that is centered around a mysterious embalmed hand that allows the holder to communicate with the dead – with terrifying consequences.

The limited-time activation took place inside Gamefam’s popular Fortnite game, Deadpines: Zombie Survival – where players face hordes of bloody zombies. To date, Deadpines had accumulated 22 million play sessions and previously ranked among the top 5 Creative mode games on Fortnite.

The Talk to Me game in Deadpines had players battle through torrential rain & lightning to enter a haunted house and confront a terrifying fusion of supernatural horror and fight-to-survive combat. Players were transported to notable movie settings like the Séance Room and Hospital, which were recreated in meticulous detail within Deadpines.

Launching ahead of the film’s premiere (Jul. 17-Aug.13, 2023), the Fortnite experience not only set the stage for players to learn about and get excited for Talk to Me, but ultimately leading to smash records at the box office.