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Company: Hearts & Science, New York, NY
Company Description: Media Agency
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Media & Entertainment Companies
 Nomination Title: The Undoing
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated campaign or program, OR written answers to the questions for this category? CHOOSE ONE:
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
Oct 1 2020
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 237 words used.
Home to groundbreaking dramas, HBO is one of the most respected entertainment brands in the world. In 2020, it was premiering another landmark drama: The Undoing. In the show, Grace Fraser (Nicole Kidman), a successful therapist, is forced to question her life in the aftermath of a violent death, a missing husband (Hugh Grant), and a suspicious affair. Showing on HBO on Sunday nights, and available for streaming on the network’s new streaming service, HBO Max, HBO was looking for The Undoing to generate strong viewing figures during its October-November air dates – especially, via streaming. However, despite the show’s star appeal, success was not guaranteed for two reasons: Firstly, during this time, Sunday nights were dominated by Sunday Night Football and the 2020 Election. Secondly, the season finale would fall on Thanksgiving – one of the most competitive dates in the calendar.We needed to raise awareness of HBO newest original show. We were tasked to position it as the prestige must-watch show and generate “water-cooler” conversations around the show and grow interest throughout the entire season, while increasing the brand linkage between HBO and HBO Max. In our preliminary research, we identified an opportunity to engage prospective audiences who were hungry for the next “big thing” in TV. We knew that increasing FOMO (fear of missing out) can lead audiences of serial dramas to watch episodes when they come out on TV to avoid spoilers.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 240 words used.
Informed by our insight, we would launch an ‘evergreen’ flighting strategy, ensuring that our content would be distributed across targeted channels and amplified on social to start the “water-cooler” conversations. We would keep our target engaged throughout the season across every media channel they use with a series of timely messages and content relating to the show’s story arc – and the moments they couldn’t afford to miss. Key to this, we would highlight plot points and cliff hangers via social, digital video, CTV/streaming, and audio (podcast ads) to maintain momentum throughout the series and push people to tune in to the next episode to find out what happens. We would use social/video to drive conversation and word of mouth; CTV/streaming to reach people in endemic environments, and audio (podcast) ads to resonate with people interested in true-crime series. To sustain interest in the show after the season premiere, we would refine our targeting strategy – and campaign budget – every week.
Our budgeting strategy included:
- Actively managing spend to grow awareness and viewership among our female target early in the season.
- Targeting viewers on CTV/streaming devices during key beats to build the streaming audience, reach younger viewers and drive catch-up/binge viewing.
- Targeting people who had either dropped after 1-2 episodes OR hadn’t tuned in at all with messages to catch up and binge before the finale. We wouldn’t waste budget re-targeting people who were already engaged with the series.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2020. Even if your initiative started before 2020, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2020 only (up to 250 words):
Total 196 words used.
Every day in the week leading up to the premiere, we placed targeted messages on social, highlighting the show’s star power and plot. On Friday, we announced a Twitter watch party, encouraging viewers to watch so they could chat with Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant and the cast on Twitter. On launch day, we ran a promoted Trend Spotlight on Twitter, a YouTube masthead on connected TVs (CTV), and a 12-hour roadblock on Samsung CTVs reminding people to tune in.
Supporting our social drumbeat, we launched a series of sponsored takeovers of our targets’ favourite media properties, including The New York Times, IMDB, Conde Nast properties (GQ, The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair), Meredith properties (People, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly) and digital magazine, Air Mail.
Additionally, we placed cover stories about the show in Vanity Fair (including an article about relationship capability) and in The New Yorker, including an interview with Nicole Kidman, and a Q&A with Hugh Grant. Thanks to the content distribution and amplification of our campaign, The Undoing was one of the most talked-about shows of 2020.
In total:
Our campaign generated 856MM impressions; our TV ads delivered 7.8M impressions – +111% above expectations.
- You have the option to reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 202 words used.
Thanks to this exposure:
- The Undoing became 2020’s #1 most social new scripted series on TV and the #1 most social premium cable drama series (source: Nielsen).
- Awareness increased week-on-week, peaking at 66% (up from 12% pre-premiere). Intent to watch grew weekly, too, reaching 50% overall.
- Finally, +3.1% more people who’d seen our messaging associated The Undoing with HBO Max. This compares favourably to Perry Mason, a show with a similar budget, which only improved brand associations by +1.8%.
Most importantly, people watched The Undoing.
- 3M watched the finale live on HBO, up from the 1.4M who watched the season premiere.
- The show was also the most-watched series on HBO Max for several weeks, and views of the finale grew by 80 percent over the previous episode.
- The Undoing was the first HBO series in the network’s history to grow week-on-week over its six episodes.
- Significantly, the show finale also delivered HBO’s biggest audience in over a year (Big Little in July 2019).
- For HBO Max, it was one of two shows that drove the largest number of weekly hours watched since launch.
All in all, we managed to reach our audience, create FOMO and dominate the water-cooler conversations!
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