Finding the real audience behind the hype
AUDIENCE STRATEGY
February 2026
Meta, YouTube & TikTok
Belgium
For arthouse-commercial titles, cultural hype rarely converts on its own. The Belgian release of A24’s Marty Supreme arrived Gen Z-coded and loud — but awareness alone doesn’t sell tickets. So we built the campaign as a set of hypotheses, not assumptions: testing audience segments on Meta to find the real buyers behind the buzz, then giving every platform a single funnel job — from absorbing organic momentum to converting it into measurable showtime exits across Flanders and Wallonia.
Audience Strategy
February 2026
META, YouTube & TikTok
Meet the team
Overview
CLIENT: Independent Films
MARKET: Belgium — Flanders & Wallonia (theatrical, 41-day release window)
GOAL: Drive measurable showtime exits across both the Flemish and French-language markets — turning awareness into paid conversions, not just buzz.
The Challenge
Marty Supreme arrived loud. Star power, awards momentum, A24 pedigree — and a wave of organic Gen Z buzz already circulating online. The obvious move was to pour budget behind that hype.
But hype is not the same as a ticket. For arthouse-commercial titles, the audience generating the most noise is rarely the one buying seats. Backing the wrong demographic would have burned the conversion budget without moving a single showtime exit.
The real challenge wasn’t building awareness — it was finding out who would actually convert.
The Strategy
Step 1 — Test the audience, don’t assume it We built the campaign as hypotheses, not assumptions. On Meta, we ran the film’s actual subject — sports & competition (table tennis, ambition, rivalry) — against the standard arthouse default of urban cinephiles. The thematic segment won outright at an 11.1% showtime interaction rate. The category-fit audience underperformed.
Step 2 — Give every platform one job
No channel was asked to do everything. Each got a single funnel role and was measured against it:
TikTok + Pinterest → top of funnel. Absorb the hype volume, turn passive buzz into reach.
YouTube → mid funnel. Hold premium attention with long-form creative, qualified at a 75% completion threshold (48% quality VTR).
Meta → conversion. Retarget the 75% video-viewers and layer in first-party historical buyer data to push intent into purchases.
Results
The release carried strong Gen Z momentum — but testing told a different story. Women aged 35–54 emerged as the true ticket-buying audience, accounting for over half of all landing-page arrivals and engaging at nearly double the rate of younger viewers.
Cultural buzz, converted into cinema intent — by targeting the audience most likely to convert, not the one making the most noise.
When a campaign is built to convert the right audience, not just reach the obvious one, it drives real business outcomes — measurable conversions, smarter targeting, and growth you can repeat.
