Annotated Movie-Trailer Videos Connect With First-Time Homebuyers

Buying a home. It can be romantic. It can be dramatic. And it can be scary. To capture each of these three emotions for Canada’s RBC Royal Bank, Entrinsic developed a first-time homebuyer campaign which consists of three movie trailer-like videos, each of which center on one of the three emotions experienced when buying a home.

The videos — directed by now-we-know-where-he-is filmmaker Jeremiah Chechik, the man behind National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Benny and Joon — promote three fictional movies that follow a couple going through the ups and downs of buying their first home and illustrating just how different the journey can be for each individual.

The campaign, which uses YouTube annotations, allows viewers to click through to get pre-approved for a mortgage or to book an appointment with an RBC mortgage specialist. Embedded tracking codes allow the bank to adjust annotations in real time, measure performance and optimize the campaign on the fly.

Of the use of annotations, Entrinsic Founder and President Eli Singer said, “The annotations are a key part of our strategy. We wanted to go one step further in leveraging this innovative approach to better provide our clients with expert advice and solutions. No matter where our clients are in their home-buying journey, every annotation drives them directly to the relevant information and advice they’re looking for.”

The videos are being heavily promoted on Twitter as well as with :30 pre-roll ads on YouTube and a promotion that offers the chance to win $25,000 towards a mortgage down payment.

Additional support includes full page movie poster-style ads in newspapers, mock “coming soon” blog posts promoting the movie trailers on relevant websites and blogs, in-branch advertising, wild postings, in-cinema advertising, interactive banner ads and social content and influencer outreach to further extend the conversation.

The use of varied content — nor the faux movie trailer — to connect with consumers in differing mindsets is not new. But for a bank, typically at the bottom of the innovation barrel, it’s quite impressive. And the use of annotations brings some smarts to the entertaining content.

Campaign Overview

Movie Trailers

Movie Posters

Credits

Title: “The Mortgage”
Client: RBC Royal Bank
Marketing Head, Personal Financing Products, Canadian Banking, Royal Bank of Canada: Larry Jacobs

Agency: Entrinsic
Executive Creative Director: Anthony Wolch
Copywriter: Kyle Carpenter
Art Director: Christina Pinto
Agency Producer: Rea Kelly
Executive Director Client Service: Carolyn Contois
Account Executive: Maegan Thomas

Production Company: Revolver Films
Director: Jeremiah Chechik
Producer: Rob Allan
Executive Producers: Luc Frappier, Richard Cureton
DP: Doug Koch

Post Production: Rooster Post
Editor: Dave DeCarlo
Assistant Editor: Drew Stevenson
Executive Producer: Melissa Kahn

Colour Transfer: 1188
Colourist: Hardave Grewal

Online: Fort York
Flame Artist: Andrew Rolfe

Audio: Boombox Sound
Music Supervisor: Roger Leavens