After overcoming personal tragedy, widowed father and champion musher, Leonhard ‘Sepp’ Seppala, steps up in the midst of a diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska to deliver the anti-toxin and save hundreds of lives. With his own child’s life on the line, Sepp battles the impossible, accompanied by his pack of sled dogs, led by the famous TOGO.
With any independent film, the challenge is awareness and engagement. Gaining momentum leading up to the release date so you have an eager audience waiting to watch your film. And doing it all with a small budget and very little resources. This project had its own unique challenge.
Disney announced they would be releasing their own version of this epic true story just two months after our film’s release. Even though Disney’s version takes a slightly different perspective and is less true to the actual events, we were still up against a giant from the beginning. We had to get ahead early and make our independent film well known and the story it shares even bigger.
Our solution was to create an intricate and holistic creative marketing strategy. We were able to grow awareness and massive engagement after identifying the core target audiences, cultivating partner relationships, and programming customized branded content. By the theatrical release we generated an actively engaged audience through a mix of organic social efforts, grassroots cross promotions, and paid media.
‘The Great Alaskan Race’ had it’s theatrical debut on October 25th of 2019. With the combination of paid media, social media and grassroots efforts, we were pleased to see huge cross-platform growth, totaling 6.1M impressions and over 258K engagements. Through our strategic and holistic approach to film marketing, we grew a highly engaged social community around the film that continues to grow and convert with the VOD release.
