Prop Shop Series

Regal’s social feeds were oversaturated with partner-provided content and it’s audience wasn’t engaging. Wanting to separate itself from competitors and diversify its content mix, the national exhibitor needed original social content that helped to form an authentic connection with movie-goers. Easy enough when you’ve got a building full of movie-lovers, right? While the need was original content that connected with their audience, the objective remained the same: promote upcoming movie releases.

Understanding that video content was a top-performer for the brand, and with a unique opportunity to leverage Regal’s in-house talent, we developed an experimental long-form episodic series that naturally aligned with the larger YouTube audiences interests and not just movie-lovers, but (our fellow) geeks, nerds, creators and cosplayers — movie super fans. 

We teamed up with expert prop maker Jon Douglas, who also just so happened to be a long-time Regal employee, to be our host along with other creators with a plan to bring movie props from the future movie releases to life. Leveraging Jon’s expertise, we developed an original video series, Prop Shop, documenting the prop-building process from design to assembly and providing step-by-step instructions for fans to make their own props at home. 

Developing episodes around the biggest movie releases of the year enabled us to support Regal’s need of sustained, ongoing content around popular films and capitalize on social interest and conversation surrounding these films. Beyond showcasing the build process on Regal’s social feeds, we achieved authentic connections with fans and influencers through activations and events involving the prop builds, providing fans with the opportunity to interact with the props in real time. The events and activations not only fueled additional content for the series, but also enhanced social media engagement surrounding the build and movie release.

Of the four builds, which each took months to plan, produce and execute, the most expansive originated from extensive research that revealed ways to tap into the robust horror film fan base. Jon meticulously recreated a life-size and screen accurate version of Freddy Fazbear from the ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ franchise and movie. After the build, Jon documented the road trip to New York Comic Con, stopping at Regal locations en route, and promoted the brand and series at the activation. The build was well-received by horror and gaming enthusiasts on social media, supported numerous marketing efforts and led to viral posts on Instagram and TikTok.

Beyond the fans, the series also garnered studio interest as well, as they offered the brand interview opportunities with directors, pitched future episodes and even offered access to their FX artists and props, which expanded the series and its ecosystem as a whole.