Globally awarded and winner of 3 Cannes Lions, including Gold for Creative Use of Data. We collected data from film critics, deployed the human face as a technology display and created live movie trailers that allowed people to feel a film before they saw the film: The Emotional Trailer for the Melbourne International Film Festival.

We all feel the same basic emotions: fear, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness and happiness. And no matter where you are from you don’t just see a film, you feel it. So using the human face as a display, emotional data collected from film critics and an innovative use of technology, we created movie trailers that spoke every language, The Emotional Trailer.

To do this we first held special preview screenings with movie critics to capture the 6 key human emotions of fear, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness and happiness for every film at the festival via our custom mobile app and biometric sensors. This data created an Emotional Script condensing an entire 2 hour film into under one minute. The data was then fed via electric stimulation into the facial muscles of willing participants to act out the emotional arc of an entire film, using the human face as a display. Before each film at the festival, audiences experienced the Emotional Scripts in a custom-built movie chair we called the Emotion Simulator. The simulator sessions sold out within two days. These experiences were filmed, creating Emotional Trailers for every film at the festival, that the audience in the cinema, watching the live stream or on social media, could book tickets directly from.

The highest ever sales results in MIFF’s history. The Emotional Trailers drove an 800% increase in social shares. Tickets to preview films sold out within two days. The excitement around the Emotion Simulator and Emotional Trailers drove the following festival records. 800% Increase in social shares for the festival Biggest ticket sales in MIFF’s 65 year history $30,165,012 in earned media Number 1 attraction at the festival 14 million people reached 40% Increase in mobile traffic to website

As most ticket sales now occur online, social media and through personal devices, the Emotional Trailer is the perfect multi media idea and channel amalgam. Audiences could book tickets direct to the Melbourne International Film Festival from the content generated at live activations that were then shared online and social media generating PR and attracting record audiences.