Submitted by Substance

Paramount UK Hit Me Hard and Soft Fan-First Premiere Campaign

Influencer Marketing

Substance ran a fan-first social campaign around the London premiere and junket of Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour for Paramount UK, reporting 15M+ estimated reach.

9M+Video Views
15M+Estimated Reach

Case in 60 seconds

Paramount asked Substance to turn two moments, the London premiere and the junket, into a social campaign that would resonate with Billie Eilish fans and with wider audiences at the same time.

Substance frames the work around fans as active participants rather than passive viewers, because a community that sees its own questions and reactions inside the content has a personal stake in spreading it.

Every element was built on the principle that Billie Eilish's fans came first, so the premiere and junket became moments fans could shape and appear in rather than events they watched from outside.

Substance interviewed Billie Eilish and James Cameron on the premiere media line, filmed fan vox pops and put fan-submitted questions to both at the junket, tagging the fans whose questions were used. It invited 20 UK creators to the premiere, while Stepping Through Film, Zainab Jiwa and Cineatomy conducted junket interviews, with Cineatomy exploring the film's 3D technology with James Cameron.

Substance reports 9M+ video views and 15M+ estimated reach across campaign content, alongside 140 Instagram Stories and 57 Instagram feed posts from 20 UK creators at the premiere and 30+ fan interviews and vox pops.

Strategy Breakdown

Billie Eilish fans and wider audiences, with junket creators chosen to engage music, film and pop culture audiences.
The brief asked two press moments, a premiere and a junket, to reach both Billie Eilish fans and wider audiences, which is why the talent interviews were paired with creators chosen for music, film and pop culture audiences.
Paramount UK's social channels were the home of the campaign before, during and after launch, with Substance producing premium, platform-native content featuring Billie Eilish and James Cameron for them.
Fans who submit a question and then see it asked and credited become collaborators rather than an audience, which the page presents as the source of the connection between the campaign and Billie Eilish's community.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram

Partners

  • Substance

Participation mechanic

  • Fans submitted questions for Billie Eilish and James Cameron ahead of the junket; selected questions were asked in the interviews and the fans behind them were featured and tagged in the resulting social edits, while fans at the premiere gave reactions before and after the screening.

Creator role

  • Stepping Through Film
  • Zainab Jiwa
  • Cineatomy

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Video Views9M+ video views
Estimated Reach15M+ estimated reach
Instagram Stories140 Instagram Stories
Instagram Feed Posts57 Instagram feed posts
UK Creators at Premiere20 UK creators
Fan Interviews/Vox Pops30+ fan interviews

Why Substance's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Inviting fans to submit junket questions and then featuring and tagging them in the edits turns press access into shared ownership, because the fans shown have a personal reason to circulate the content.

  2. 2

    Matching each junket creator to one aspect of a film, as with Cineatomy and the 3D technology, lets a single interview reach a defined interest audience rather than a general entertainment one.

  3. 3

    Combining a large creator invitation at the premiere with agency-shot media line content gives a release both real-time volume and edited material, so neither stream has to carry the campaign alone.

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