Warner Bros. is ushering in ticket sales with its target audience through a native purchasing experience in an Instagram ad that combines trailer footage with local show times for maximum engagement.

Instagram users are able to purchase tickets for the film Me Before You, view the trailer, read movie information and view show times all within a sponsored post in their newsfeed. Warner Bros. is targeting the young female demographic the film will likely be popular with, and is providing a streamlined method of purchasing that includes a wide range of helpful information.

“The social media retail buy now button trend has faltered recently, but there seems to be evidence building that is can work well if the call to action is based on an emotional appeal and not just a promotion of a specific retail item,” said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce. “Twitter recently announced it was pivoting away from monetizing tweets via buy buttons, for example.

“‘Softer’ sales such as movie ticket sales and event bookings seem to be where success is being found, in the effort to link social media to quantified ROI.”

Me Before You
Me Before You is Warner Bros. new romantic film officially releasing on Friday. To ramp up the films’ release and its ticket sales, sponsored posts on Instagram are providing users with a speedy method of purchasing.

The film will be starting showings as early as Wednesday night and Instagram users are purchasing tickets in advance. A sponsored post is appearing in targeted consumers’ feed with a trailer to entice ticket sales.

Users can view the shortened trailer with the sound on or off, with a caption that gives consumers a tease for the film reading “Me Before You is a powerful emotional journey unlike any movie you have seen before, in theaters this Friday.” By selecting Book Now, users’ are taken to Warner Bros. dedicated site where they can view nearby show times based on location technology or by entering a city name.

Based on the users’ preference and theater availability, users can purchase tickets directly through Fandango, MovieTickets.com or Regal’s Web site. Each nearby theater is listed in order of distance along with their show times along with three tabs for the various ticket purchase platforms.

For instance, users that would like to purchase tickets on Fandango for participating theaters, they can select the tab for Fandango which will bring them to a page of the ticketing site to purchase. Warner Bros. page also allows users to view more trailers and read the story of the film.

Shoppable ads
Similarly, apparel and accessories brand Draper James celebrated its first birthday by becoming an early advertiser on social media application Timehop, including a link to purchase along with a discount code (see more).

Snapchat is also getting in on the game with new shoppable advertisements that may solve past issues derived from a lack of return-on-investment data on the mobile messaging app through more seamless and direct calls-to-action (see more).

“The hashtag for the movie booking promotion is to ‘liveboldly’ and the message touts an emotional journey,” Mr. Wilson said. “The deliverable is not a specific item, but, rather, an experience that consumers can relate to emotionally and, for now, this seems to be working well.

“Smart retailers will watch and test and learn now, to be ready for the time when consumer behavior allows the convergence of social and commerce to occur,” he said.