Hearts & Science - Media & Entertainment Companies Marketing Campaign of the Year

Company: Hearts & Science, New York, NY
Company Division/Group:Hearts & Science
Company Description: Media Agency
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Media & Entertainment Companies

Nomination Title: The Flight Attendant

Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched: 10/20/2020 (trailer), 11/9/2020 (main campaign)

HBOMax is the streaming service of HBO, one of the most respected and innovative entertainment brands in the world. It is home to HBO’s groundbreaking series like The Sopranos, Sex and the City and The Wire, and a host of new, exclusive shows.

During Thanksgiving 2020, HBO Max was launching its biggest exclusive yet: comedy-drama The Flight Attendant. The show tells the story of Cassie, a reckless flight attendant with an alcoholism problem who wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man –and no idea what happened.

However, despite the show’s intriguing premise, The Flight Attendant’s success was not guaranteed as it was premiering during Thanksgiving – one of the most cluttered launch windows in the American calendar.

This year, with movie theaters closed during lockdown, streaming services were fighting for more eyeballs than ever, with high profile launches like Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix), Saved by the Bell (Peacock), and Happiest Season (Hulu).

To help The Flight Attendant premiere successfully, we needed to:

Raise awareness of the show before its Thanksgiving premiere.
Drive buzz and conversation on social media to find out more about the show.
Build associations of the show with HBO Max.

Our target audience was women aged 25+, fans of lead actress Kaley Cuoco (of The Big Bang Theory fame), and fans of dark comedies/thrillers.

To stand out from the Thanksgiving clutter, we launched a cross-channel advertising strategy to reach potential viewers browsing CONTENT online, catching up on SOCIALS, and relaxing at HOME.

CONTENT:
Two weeks before launch, we sponsored takeovers of our female target’s most-read online content sites: culture and fashion magazine, Vanity Fair.com, and lifestyle site, Refinery29.
Across both sites, we placed dynamic banner ads next to relevant content (including VF’s cover story) and pushed video promos via the magazines’ social channels (Insta Stories and Facebook).
We supported our takeovers with banners on other entertainment/female interest properties, including People, Entertainment Weekly, and Food & Wine, Buzzfeed, Bustle, The Cut, The New Yorker and Vogue.

SOCIAL:
First, we targeted viewers with HBO Max-sponsored Facebook, Twitter (inc. Trend Spotlight), Pinterest, TikTok and Instagram content, including show images and videos.
We also created a fun, branded Snapchat filter which let users add branded paraphernalia from the show to their posts, like luggage tags and airplane imagery.
To spread word-of-mouth (before and after the show premiere), we recruited six popular entertainment influencers– including actor Jessica Lesaca, radio DJ Natalia Perez, and author, Jac Vanek – to post about the show.

HOME:
We placed ads on music streaming sites Spotify and Pandora, and trailers in pre-roll on YouTube, music video site VEVO, and TV streaming service Hulu, targeting users who had watched similar shows.

Finally, we shared ads on food delivery app Postmates, offering free delivery on the night of the series premierevia a special code.

Our targeted campaign helped The Flight Attendant get off to a flying start.

In total, our ads were seen 714MM+ times and our videos were watched 98MM times. This generated 1.8M clicks to the HBO Max website.

Detailed results:

CONTENT:
Our Vanity Fair(VF) and Refinery29 takeovers generated 5.8M+ impressions (3.1M and 2.7MM respectively).
On VF, average Click-Thru rate was 0.14% - 180% above benchmark. Refinery29 ads were clicked 1.4k times– 55% over delivery.
Content on VFsocials was seen 438k+ times, including 2K Clicks and 283 Shares. Engagement Rate was 29.16%- 154.90% above benchmark.

SOCIAL:
HBO Max posts were seen 419MM times (79MM video views; 1.5MM clicks).Our influencer campaign generated 22M impressions (644K+ views; 47K engagements). Engagement rate was 1.84%- beating platform benchmarks by 20%.

HOME:
Our YouTube videos were watched 19MM times, generating 39K clicks.
Hulu pre-roll videos delivered 9MM impressions (+6% over-delivery). Completion rate was 99% (smashing industry benchmarks of 77%).
Our Postmates ads were seen 23MM+ times, with 91K codes redeemed in a day.

As a result:

Awareness of the showincreased +13%.
Association with HBO Max increased +3% (1.7 x above industry benchmarks).
Intent to watch increased +5% (2.5 x above industry norms).

Importantly, The Flight Attendant enjoyed the best premiere weekend (in terms of viewership) of any HBO Max series ever.

Critics loved the show, too, and The Flight Attendant has since beennominated for two Golden Globes- a HBO Max first!