American Animals Pedicab Brand Campaign SXSW 2018

American Animals was a film that was produced by the Orchard (a Sony Music company) in 2018. The film was a live action documentary about a real-life heist were a group of friends attempted to steal the most expensive book in the world, the original John James Audubon's The Birds of America. SPOILER ALERT: the friends decide the best way to pull off the heist is to dress up like old people, because old people tend to get ignored by society.

American Animals opted for an elaborate Brand Campaign. They wanted to play the old men angle, so they had the Austin Pedicab Drivers in full Hollywood makeup dressed as old people. The movie was shown at the Paramount Theater on the first Friday of SXSW. The Austin Pedicab Drivers gave free pedicab rides to VIPs and festival goers during the night of the showing.

For the pedicabs, American Animals opted for panel ads and buying the rights to Brand the Drivers with Attire. The panel ads ran for the festival, the drivers were dressed up like old men on the first day, and wore branded T-shirts for the rest of the festival.

One of the exciting parts about this campaign was that we got to watch the movie before the rest of the public got to. And, it's a really good movie.