The studio is being incredibly savvy about how it attacks the ever-changing media landscape, which Universal’s EVP of digital marketing Doug Neil acknowledges is changing at “Mach 9 speed.” Never was this more on display than over the summer, when the studio’s digital play—a combination of meme-inspired Snapchat geofilters; Periscoped red carpet premieres; and a VR stunt that let fans observe the feeding of an apatosaurus — helped Jurassic World, The Visit (above), Fast & Furious 7, Pitch Perfect 2, Minions, and Straight Outta Compton become the season’s biggest hits, pushing Universal into record-breaking history: It is the first studio to cross the $2.11 billion mark in domestic grosses in one year.
Universal devotes, on average, 20% of its entire marketing spend to its digital efforts. That’s about twice what other studios are allocating. On last year’s social media-themed movie Unfriended, Universal tipped the balance even more, spending 60% of its marketing budget on digital platforms. The awesome full story at Fast Company, here.