MANILA, PHILIPPINES – In an industry long dominated by red carpets, mall tours, and media shebangs, a queer indie film has managed to make a big noise, without any of them. In the Philippines, “Some Nights I Feel Like Walking,” a film by Petersen Vargas, has become a cultural flashpoint, not through spectacle but through community. No star-studded premiere. No fancy invites. No glossy posters.
The campaign was made in collaboration with entertainment marketing agency LunchBox and creative agency for social impact The Lennon Group. A collab that didn’t just market a film, but mobilized a community and lit a fire that many called marketing genius.
“This partnership represents a meaningful intersection: Lunchbox’s mission to rebuild Filipino audiences’ trust in Philippine Cinema, and The Lennon Group’s longstanding focus on creativity for social impact,” said Carl Chavez, Founder of entertainment marketing agency, Lunchbox. “By joining forces, we were able to push beyond conventional marketing and explore how creativity can be harnessed not just to promote films, but to foster cultural participation and spark social conversations.”
The experience started with Invites That Spoke the Streets. Forget fancy envelopes. They sent handwritten notes on bus tickets, tissue paper, pad paper, and receipts that were not only tactile and delightfully unexpected, they were also deeply symbolic of the film. These weren’t just invites. They were relics of the lives the film portrayed. A love letter to the everyday.
Then the characters came alive on a Grindr Live Tour. They didn’t do a mall tour, they mounted a movie tour in a queer dating platform. They made it their stage and dropped location after location. They brought the film’s characters to life on the app: chatting, flirting, connecting. It wasn’t just promo. It was performance art. And it came with free tickets that promised movie fun!
And finally, The Premiere Night That Broke All Rules. No luxury cinema. No red carpet. No fancy food and drinks. The film premiered at Isetann Recto, Manila’s iconic, gritty, underground cinema, an unusual place for a premiere but a usual spot of queer cruising and quiet rebellion. An homage to the the OG cinema that cradled lots of independent films and the queer community all these years.
In the cinema, the film recreated an experience that is undeniably underbelly of Manila streets. Guests were ushered in by go-go boys. KTV bar, massage parlor, street food and dirty ice cream carts lined the aisles. And the macho dancers made such unexpected but much welcome live interactive performances.
“This campaign was an experiment in the power of creativity, community, and collaboration,” said Raymund Sison, Founder of Lennon Group. “It was made to be immersive and experiential, hyperlocal and hyper-specific, and a lot of it is unscripted and unplanned. It’s very raw marketing and it’s been very effective!”
“This partnership made us realize how strategic creativity in marketing can serve as a powerful tool for social impact, reminding us that cinema is not only about storytelling, but also about community and change,” says Chavez.
From tactile handwritten invites that spoke to the streets to Grindr activations that directly reached queer audiences, to the premiere at Isetann Mall that made the film feel accessible and grounded, to grassroots collaborations with local brands, each effort helped transform the film into more than just a screening — it became a cultural moment.
More importantly, the campaign helped serve real box-office results! From the original 5-day limited screening, its screenings expanded to not just one week, not just two weeks, it’s now on its third week! From the initial only three cinemas, it kept increasing day by day, all the way to 23 cinemas nationwide. A rare moment and a huge win for a Filipino queer indie film!
Unconventional as it may have seemed, The Lennon Group and Lunchbox’s campaign for “Some Nights I Feel Like Walking” sparked exactly the kind of curiosity that the film’s wandering characters embody. Leaning into the fact that it’s a road movie, they treated the marketing itself like a journey — one that let the very community the film speaks to feel the story long before the opening credits.
Viewers weren’t merely teased with clips; they were invited to travel alongside the characters, to think, breathe, and feel as they do, carrying that immersion before, during, and well after every screening.
It’s a bold blueprint for how Filipino film marketing can evolve: turning promotion into a shared trip, where audiences live the film, not just watch it.
