TikTok Proves a Hit at Box-Office for Lionsgate via LiveRamp

The Challenge

Lionsgate operates the largest independent motion picture company globally, home to beloved franchises such as John Wick, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Saw and Now You See Me.To promote the new UK release of the horror film Imaginary, Lionsgate joined forces with TikTok to create a buzz amongst their audience for awareness, consideration, and, ultimately, impact on box office sales. As the attribution required went beyond just the platform, LiveRamp was brought in to demonstrate the value of TikTok’s audience ad exposure and how engagement drove cinema ticket sales and sales uplift across audiences. Lionsgate also sought to test the impact of various creative approaches, from creator-led content to TikTok native assets.

The Solution

To capture the attention (and imagination) from the very start, Lionsgate leveraged multiple high-impact creative ad formats across TikTok. These included the ‘TopView’ ad placement, offering full-screen, sound-on visibility the moment users open the app, and ‘Video View’, targeting users on their ‘For You’ pages to deepen engagement. As creativity was central to the campaign’s success, TikTok’s ‘Creative Exchange’ teamed with creators to produce bespoke, authentic content designed to resonate with TikTok audiences.

Lionsgate also worked with TikTok to partner with LiveRamp to track the direct link between advertising formats, multi-exposure, and the impact on box office ticket sales by running a sales lift report through the LiveRamp Data Connectivity Platform. Lionsgate launched the campaign before the film’s release to understand the correlation between pre-release engagement, ticket sales, and post-release.

The Results

LiveRamp proved the value of the TikTok audience versus a non-exposed audience. The campaign achieved;

• Incremental box office sales of +52%
• The 45% of the audience who saw multiple adverts over different formats accounted for 82% of the incremental revenue, proving the effectiveness of including multiple formats in campaigns.