Lionsgate's TikTok Is Basically a Fan Account

I spoke with Eric Dachman, Director of Digital Marketing at Lionsgate.

The first time I came across Lionsgate’s TikTok account, I lost a good 30 minutes to scrolling.

There was the Everything Everywhere All At Once BTS. This John Wick stunt. The perfect Twilight video paired with a trending sound. They’ve got intellectual property and they know what to do with it.

@lionsgatethere's no way i would keep a straight face. #twilight

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The main theme of the comments on Lionsgate’s TikTok posts is that people simply cannot believe that this is Lionsgate’s official page.

“DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THIS WAS LIONSGATE💀💀”

“YO NO WAY THIS CANNOT BE THE OFFICIAL Lionsgate account. 😂😂😂 i had to triple check. Sheesh they valid”

“lionsgate is putting their whole lionsgussy in these tiktoks”

That’s the point though. For today’s newsletter I spoke with Eric Dachman, Director of Digital Marketing at Lionsgate and one of the leads behind the TikTok account for the past couple of years, about how the Lionsgate TikTok account is supposed to feel like a fan account. And what you can learn from their strategy—even if you aren’t sitting on a pile of movie footage.

Eric Dachman, Director of Digital Marketing at Lionsgate

Rachel Karten: First can you tell me about your current role and any previous roles (social or not!) you've had?

Eric Dachman: My role is constantly evolving. As of today, I work on building digital and social strategies for our upcoming theatrical slate of Lionsgate movies. That includes franchises like: John Wick, Expendables, Saw, and many more. Previously to that, I ran the social accounts for the @Lionsgate brand. Previous to that, I was the social media manager for @IMAX. 

RK: What I love about Lionsgate social is how it honestly feels like it could be a fan account most of the time. Can you talk to me a bit about your social media philosophy?

ED: We thrive on using social like our fans use social. The main goal of our organic accounts is to create engagement. You can’t do that with blatant marketing messaging, because that doesn’t feel authentic. Instead of posting a highly produced 60-second video, we’d rather create an Emma Stone fancam using CapCut.

@lionsgatedoes this count as a crossover? #andrewgarfield #emmastone

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RK: I feel like you and your team know every single inside joke, funny movie reference, etc—are you all just genuine fans? Or what goes into being able to understand and speak to a fandom super well?

ED: That’s very kind. We are genuine fans! That’s what makes the job so enjoyable. There are over 17,000 movies in the Lionsgate catalog. While I admittedly don’t know every single one, I am a huge fan of lots of them.

It takes a deep familiarity with our catalog to be able to recall moments that would resonate with fans. In particular, when something is trending on TikTok, we can pull a specific moment from a movie because we’re fans and we remember the scene. We also pride ourselves on actually listening to the fans, so that we hear all (or most) of the inside jokes.

RK: How does this fan-first philosophy take form on a platform like TikTok? Why do you think the content resonates so well with your 5.1M followers?

ED: Like most people, we are obsessed with TikTok. We spend all day, every day on the platform. Meaning that we understand when trends are fresh vs outdated. We like to strike while the iron is hot with a trend, so that we don’t miss the moment. My worst fear is that we post a trend that’s way late and end up on r/fellowkids. We cut a lot of TikToks in-house versus sourcing them to an agency, which gives us the control to post at a much faster pace.

RK: I love all of the BTS footage on your TikTok! Can't stop watching this John Wick stunt. Is the social team on set? Or is someone capturing this and sending? Curious about the nitty gritty of getting content like this!

ED: Depends on the movie. Sometimes, we’re fortunate to send someone to set to capture content specifically for social. Other times, we’ll submit requests to the team on-set to capture on our behalf. Then it’s up to us to go through hours of footage to find glorious moments like the John Wick example.

@lionsgateI’m the green guy pushing the motorcycle. #johnwick #keanureeves

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RK: Let's talk a little bit about Reddit. When I think of that platform it's a no-go for a lot of brands. How have you been able to show up there in a natural, non-cringe way?

ED: Brands are definitely not invited. So we need to give Redditors a reason to let us be included. For that, it means two things:

1. We take on the persona of “the social media manager hired by Lionsgate to run the account.” So a majority of what we post is spoken in the first person and feels very meta, so we can be our most authentic selves. 

2. We need to provide Reddit with quality! Not repurposing content from other channels, because Redditors are very smart. For example, we secured 1-hour with Keanu Reeves to host an AMA, and it now seems like it’s the top AMA of all time. Me breaking the news to Keanu can be found here.

RK: What's a recent social post (any platform!) that you're proud of? Tell me about it!

ED: I got to ask Anna Kendrick if she remembered that she was in Twilight here. This is reference to one of the most iconic tweets of all time.

@lionsgateReplying to @youstina twilight? #annakendrick

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RK: Some people might read this and say, "okay, this is great but how does it apply to my brand if I can't use Twilight clips or videos of Nicolas Cage?" What would you say to them? What's the bigger takeaway here?

ED: We’re very fortunate to have a product that people love. That said, it’s all about giving the fans what they want. We use social listening to determine what kinds of topics are resonating with our audience. For The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, we saw that lots of fan accounts were actually talking about Pedro Pascal so we leaned in. Obviously, he was still huge at the time, but this was before his current global domination.

If you don’t have access to talent, there are still plenty of ways to be authentic on social. Whether it’s tapping into TikTok trends or simply speaking honestly, just making sure that you’re not trying too hard to push blatant corporate talking points.

@lionsgatethis is the way. #massivetalent #pedropascal

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RK: Are you hopeful for the future of social media?

ED: That’s a loaded question. Certainly seems like there’s lots of doom-and-gloom surrounding Twitter, Meta, and TikTok. But I’m hopeful that everything will work out. People will always have the desire to stay connected to family, friends, celebrities, and hopefully their favorite movie accounts.

RK: Any final thoughts?

ED: “Yeah.” - John Wick

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