In August 2016 Flow Communications was tasked with developing a PR strategy to launch Ster-Kinekor film The Shallows. The challenge (apart from the usual)? We were given an extremely short time frame – only a week – to generate media interest for the film.
And the pleasing results make it look like we had a lot longer to roll out the PR.
“When the client asked us to do PR for this movie just a week before its release date, I thought to myself, ‘Two online publications and two community newspapers covering this movie would be an achievement.’ I had no unreasonably high expectations, but knew we had to fight smart to get the media writing and broadcasting about this movie,” says Flow PR account director Chuma Siswana.
The movie has a great storyline (a mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming a contest of wills) with a South African connection, but it was not an easy sell as the release date was communicated to the media just three days before the film became available in cinemas. This meant missing the deadline of some publications around the country and missing out on radio and TV reviews.
Although it seemed too late to get much favourable media traction, smart work by Flow PR saw the film receiving coverage in four magazines – You, People, Grazia and Huisgenoot – as well as online coverage on IOL, themovies.co.za and Channel24.
The big media coverage came from newspapers, with 11 titles publishing articles about The Shallows. These included reviews in The Star, The Citizen, City Press, Rapport, Sunday Tribune and The Independent on Saturday. SABC3’s Expresso and DStv’s Vuzu also covered the film.
The AVE (advertising value equivalent – the cost of buying media space for a particular article had the article been an advertisement) received for The Shallows was just less than R1-million. This amount was achieved in just one week.
“It’s really amazing to have achieved this success for this movie in such a short period of time; it kind of makes us feel like superheroes who saved the day,” says Chuma.
Flow PR recently finished assisting with PR on another film called Sausage Party, starring Seth Rogen, and is currently working on The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt.