In the social media age, chucking out a few posters to promote your upcoming film doesn't cut the mustard – you need something that stops scrollers in their tracks. Nailing this brief is the latest campaign for Rental Family, an upcoming comedy-drama movie that's blurring the line between reality and fiction.
Along with dropping some of the best movie posters I've seen in some time, the playful campaign adopts realistic guerrilla marketing tactics to immerse its audience in the film's bizarre world. If lead actor Brendan Fraser wasn't already enough to convince me, consider me thoroughly invested.
The film campaign first caught my eye when I saw a series of adverts for 'Family Rental Agency', the movie's fictional Japanese company that doles out rentable relations (including a special edition all-American pal played by Brendan Fraser). With each charming ad so cheesily pasted together, I could only assume they'd ripped off his likeness for free promo. That's when I fell down the rabbit hole.
I soon discovered an Instagram page for Family Rental Agency, posting eerily authentic ads and customer reviews that pulled me into the film's bizarre premise. Cleverly using footage from the film, a fake ad for the company doubled as a trailer, supposedly giving us more insight into the plotline (although honestly, I'm still slightly confused).
I'm loving the recent trend of upcoming movies embracing guerrilla marketing – it's much more exciting than plain ol' static poster campaigns (I'm looking at you, Wicked: For Good). For more immersive advertising, check out the terrifying Alien: Romulus campaign that made me frightened to leave the house.
