In order to maximise awareness of National Cinema Day with a broad range of audiences, we syndicated a press release and executed an extensive outreach programme to all national and regional print, broadcast and online channels. Media coverage combined achieved over 254m UUMs as the event received coverage on huge outlets such as BBC’s The One Show, BBC Radio, Heart, LBC, The Sun, NME and Time Out amongst many others.

We also identified and engaged with film outlets, high profile film journalists and spokespeople to raise further awareness - posts from popular accounts such as Letterboxd, Edgar Wright, Mark Kermode and Empire resulted in a combined social reach of over 4m followers.

On top of this, Substance created and sent a National Cinema Day themed media drop to a curated list of 14 engaged entertainment journalists and influencers, all of whom posted the content to their social channels with a combined reach of 1.8m. The media drop included a giant personalised Millie’s Cookie, Joe & Seph’s popcorn, a National Cinema Day branded popcorn box and drinks holder and a National Cinema Day ticket style insert.

In the weeks leading up to the day itself, we executed a social media campaign across various platforms to build a supportive connection between cinemas and studios, and generate hype amongst film fans of all generations and ages.

We shared a number of assets such as celebratory montages, branded assets with campaign messaging and fun collaborations. Demonstrating the united and celebratory nature of National Cinema Day, one of these assets was an Instagram post featuring employees from different cinema chains passing each other a popcorn bucket.

As well as posts on the NCD channels, we worked with influencers Joseph Clarke and Morgan M-James, who shared content to their TikTok and Instagram accounts. The content saw huge success, generating over 11 million views and support from their fans.

Using National Cinema Day’s fun, bright branding, we created a suite of assets that were consistent throughout the campaign and highlighted the excitement leading up to the big day. From countdown cards to snappy, branded video assets, we created social-first content to allow audiences to connect and engage with NCD on social media, as well as adapting these assets in formats native to all channels.

Utilising features such as Instagram’s “Add Yours” stories, we also created a static frame covered in National Cinema Day stickers to encourage cinemagoers to share their experience and make NCD a celebration.

Our content was well received as social sentiment surrounding the event was incredibly positive - the affordable, inclusive and fun nature of the campaign was echoed throughout as commenters excitedly discussed their love for cinema, favourite films and the cheaper tickets.