How the Marketing Campaign for Neon’s Body Horror Hit Came ‘Together’

If you have access to the internet, chances are you’ve seen Alison Brie and Dave Franco on your social feed at some point over the last few months, and that’s all due to Together’s body of work.

Neon’s new body horror film, Together, premiered at the end of July and has amassed nearly $28 million at the global box office (on a budget of $17 million), debuting to $10.9 million domestically. Before that, it made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and screened at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, in March, receiving critical praise.

Directed by Michael Shanks, the film stars Brie and Franco as a couple in a long-term relationship who move to the suburbs when strange occurrences begin to happen that fuse them together. And to promote the film, the indie distributor ran an extensive—and absurd—marketing campaign, featuring a mix of digital and real-life stunts.

Part of the campaign’s success stemmed from the stars’ complete buy-in, with Brie and Franco, who are married, working in tandem with the marketing team and Shanks on the rollout.

“We must have thrown 40 ideas at them and they said yes to probably 38,” Christian Parkes, chief marketing officer at Neon, said. “Within that, we got a tighter group of the things that we felt would resonate most in the campaign. While we’re pitching them ideas, they’re building on those ideas. It’s rare that it works in a way that Together did, but this was truly collaborative with Shanks, Dave, and Alison.”

Among the highlights, the Neon social accounts leaned into showcasing celebrity couples and sharing images of fans taking pictures in front of a billboard featuring Brie and Franco. Meanwhile, the pair put in the legwork, attending various events, screenings, and pop-up shops.

Some of the specific moments include Brie and Franco attending a New York Yankees game together, where they put on a double-headed hoodie and threw out the first pitch at the start of the game.

Other moments came from the couple going on “paparazzi walks” that captured them in bizarre “codependent and vulnerable moments,” with Brie clipping Franco’s toenails in Chicago’s Griffith Park or Franco drinking a towel soaked with Brie’s sweat after a workout.

“Dave and Alison just jumped in. They were all in and couldn’t have been better to work with,” Parkes said. “What that does is it just inspires you to push harder and to do better work because they’re giving you the permission.”

Brie and Franco weren’t the only ones going above and beyond, as Neon brought in new technology, hosting a “pupil dilation screening” in Los Angeles to examine people’s eyes while they watched the movie.

The tech came from a Singapore-based company, and the screening was the first time it was tested live, according to Parkes. Neon also flew in the team from Singapore and cameras from Germany to make the stunt happen.

“It was terrifying for us because it was a huge effort to pull it all together and to make it work—and obviously a great expense,” Parkes said. “It was almost like live TV. We didn’t know if this thing would actually work, but obviously it did because those pupils were just exploding.”

Some of the other themed screenings included a partnership with OurRitual, as well as a “buy one, get one free” ticket promotion.

“These things are informed by the film and taking the theme as a root of inspiration: bringing people together,” Parkes said. “If couples are apart, and it’s because of us, we’ll bring them back together. As messed up as Together is, it’s ultimately a love story. We could all have a little bit of that right now.”

How to sell a pop-up shop

Another part of the campaign featured pop-up shops with exclusive merch and Brie and Franco in attendance. According to Parkes, thousands of fans showed up waiting in line for hours.

The limited-edition merch included a body saw, hair floss, the joint hoodie Brie and Franco wore to the Yankees game, a sculpted finger bowl, and conventional items such as vinyl records and t-shirts. There were also things like rat king-shaped air fresheners that Parkes said were intentionally made to smell bad.

“The exciting stuff lives on the fringes,” Parkes said. “It lives on the edges. It doesn’t live in the middle. The middle is inherently boring for us. We like to live on the outside a little bit. That’s where things get more interesting, and, ultimately, that’s what audiences want.”