"BULLY" Twitter Campaign Drives Massive Increase in Awareness Around Bullying

NEW YORK, March 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- On Monday, The Weinstein Company (TWC) ran a highly successful campaign on Twitter to drive awareness around the issue of bullying in the United States.  The #BullyMovie effort, inspired by the film BULLY, which will be in theaters on March 30, resulted in a significant spike in conversation around the issue of bullying and a massive 100x increase in conversation about the film on Twitter.  

"We believe this movie has real power to raise awareness and increase empathy for this important issue.  That belief has been confirmed for us in the last few days," said TWC President of Marketing Stephen Bruno. "Not only did the Twitter campaign inspire a jaw-dropping number of conversations, it drove people to act, which has been our goal from the beginning with this film campaign."

The Promoted Tweets from @BullyMovie, the film's Twitter account, were seen by millions of users around the country, who were highly engaged with the topic:

• The #BullyMovie campaign had an average engagement rate of more than 36%, meaning that one out of every three people that saw one of the Promoted Tweets took action in some way -- by retweeting, replying to or favoriting the message, or clicking through to watch the trailer or sign a petition to change the film's rating. This far surpassed the average 3-5% engagement rate for Promoted Tweets.
• Twitter users retweeted messages from the #BullyMovie campaign thousands of times, and mentioned the film in more than 7,800 Tweets.
• The best performing Tweet -- "Watch the @bullymovie trailer and join the fight to STOP BULLYING in schools: chn.ge/Afgpmt VIDEO: bit.ly/znJ8C0" -- attracted over 17K clicks and 1,190 retweets and an engagement rate of 37.5%.
• Views of the BULLY trailer jumped by nearly 10x to 213,000 views.

"The #BullyMovie campaign drove a dramatic increase in conversation and compelled thousands of people to take action. We're pleased to see the way The Weinstein Company is creatively using Twitter to drive awareness and encourage discussion around this important issue," said Twitter president of global revenue Adam Bain.  

As the success of the #BullyMovie Twitter campaign exemplifies, the support for this cause is growing every day in a very grass roots way. A Change.org petition, started last week by Michigan high school student Katy Butler, urges the MPAA to change the rating on BULLY from R to its deserved PG-13 rating. Just yesterday, the petition received an exponentially large amount of signatures. Butler will deliver the petition to the MPAA today.

KATY BUTLER'S CHANGE.ORG PETITION TO MPAA FOR PG-13 RATING
http://www.change.org/petitions/mpaa-dont-let-the-bullies-win-give-bully-a-pg-13-instead-of-an-r-rating?utm_medium=email&utm_source=action_alert.

TWITTER CAMPAIGNS
With Twitter's Promoted Trends, users see time-, context-, and event-sensitive trends promoted by partners like The Weinstein Company. These paid Promoted Trends appear at the top of the Trending Topics list on Twitter and are complemented with Promoted Tweets that help amplify the message to an even wider audience.

"BULLY" TRAILER
http://youtu.be/rjjeHeAzZZM

ABOUT "BULLY"
Directed by Sundance and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Lee Hirsch, BULLY is a beautifully cinematic, character-driven documentary. At its heart are those with huge stakes in this issue whose stories each represent a different facet of America's bullying crisis. BULLY follows five kids and families over the course of a school year. Stories include two families who have lost children to suicide and a mother awaiting the fate of her 14-year-old daughter who has been incarcerated after bringing a gun on her school bus. With an intimate glimpse into homes, classrooms, cafeterias and principals' offices, the film offers insight into the often cruel world of the lives of bullied children. As teachers, administrators, kids and parents struggle to find answers, BULLY examines the dire consequences of bullying through the testimony of strong and courageous youth. Through the power of their stories, the film aims to be a catalyst for change in the way we deal with bullying as parents, teachers, children and society as a whole. 

ABOUT THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
The Weinstein Company (TWC) is a multimedia production and distribution company launched in October 2005 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films in 1979. TWC also encompasses Dimension Films, the genre label founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, which has released such popular franchises as SCREAM, SPY KIDS and SCARY MOVIE. Together TWC and Dimension Films have released a broad range of mainstream, genre and specialty films that have been commercial and critical successes.  TWC releases took home eight 2012 Academy Awards®, the most wins in the studio's history. The tally included Best Picture for Michel Hazanavicius's THE ARTIST and Best Documentary Feature for TJ Martin and Dan Lindsay's UNDEFEATED. THE ARTIST brought TWC its second consecutive Best Picture statuette following the 2011 win for Tom Hooper's THE KING'S SPEECH.

Since 2005, TWC and Dimension Films have released such films as GRINDHOUSE; I'M NOT THERE; THE GREAT DEBATERS; VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA; THE READER; THE ROAD; HALLOWEEN; THE PAT TILLMAN STORY; PIRANHA 3D; INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS; A SINGLE MAN; BLUE VALENTINE; THE COMPANY MEN; MIRAL; SCRE4M; SUBMARINE; DIRTY GIRL; APOLLO 18; OUR IDIOT BROTHER; I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT; SARAH'S KEY; and SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD IN 4D. Currently in release are MY WEEK WITH MARILYN; THE ARTIST; THE IRON LADY; CORIOLANUS; W.E.; and UNDEFEATED. Upcoming releases include BULLY and THE INTOUCHABLES. Recently wrapped was SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, and currently in production is DJANGO UNCHAINED.

TWC is also active in television production, led by former Miramax Films President of Production and current President of Television Meryl Poster, with credits including the Emmy® nominated and Peabody Award winning reality series Project Runway, spin-off series Project Accessory and Project Runway All Stars, the VH1 reality series Mob Wives, and the critically acclaimed HBO comedy/crime series The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency which also received a Peabody Award. The company is currently in pre-production on the martial-arts epic Marco Polo for Starz as well as production on the second season of Mob Wives and the newest installment in the series' franchise Mob Wives Chicago. TWC additionally has 17 series in different stages of development, including The Nanny Diaries, being adapted for ABC by Amy Sherman Palladino (Gilmore Girls).

SOURCE The Weinstein Company