THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!
From the 7th Annual Shorty Awards

Hannibal Tumblr

Finalist in Tumblr

Objectives

Tumblr is the kitchen of the Hannibal fandom, it's where everyone ends up meeting. Coming off a killer freshman season, NBC wanted to make sure the now Tumblr-infamous Hannibal brought twice the cannibalism and twice the fun for Season 2. This is no short order when you're a part of one of the most creative and engaging fan bases on the platform. How could we top the innovative, relevant and cheeky tags from Season one? Well, perhaps when we worked in a "Karate Kid" reference OR "I need to escargot back to sleep" OR *shimmies in the morning* *shimmies in the evening* *shimmies at supper time* OR #Because I'm HOPPYYYYY. Could we create never before seen content that played to the Fannibal's refined yet unique tastes? Maybe when we released the Hannibal trailer that was literally, Hannibal on a trailer. But it'd surely be daunting to get our cast on Tumblr. That is, until our fans got to interview them through GIFs. Oh, and we showed Mads Mikkelsen your fanfic. There's no way the Fannibals could be even more creative and inventive… And then the fan art blew us away. And then they joined us for the #13HourDevour. To top it off, how would we be able to share the gift of Hannibal through and even more beautiful interface? A new custom theme, fit for Season 2 did the trick.

Strategy and Execution

General Awesomeness

The NBC Hannibal Tumblr is a love letter to the Fannibals. If you carefully examine any post, you can see the fingerprints of a dedicated community manager who loves the show just as much as they love the platform – It is a place where fans can meet and do what they do best, fan out. Sharing incredible artwork, fan observations, cast hijinx and live blogging each and every episode, Hannibal has pioneered the way television brands build dedicated and passionate communities on the platform.

Hannibal Did This Fan Art Contest

If fandoms were artists, the Fannibals would be Leonardo Da Vinci. Creating some of the most visually arresting art for a television show on the internet, the Fannibals have risen to the upper echelons of fan content creation. Aiming to shine the spotlight on this rich artistic community while blurring the line between fan and show, the NBC social media team built a program that awarded 13 fans the opportunity to create episode specific artwork for Season 2. The work that transpired complimented the visual tone of the show while created a comprehensive portfolio of artwork that was featured digitally, socially and on-air.

GIF-erview

It's not every day you get to ask Mads Mikkelsen to pretend he's eating Hugh Dancy, but that's what the Hannibal Tumblr made possible. Partnering with Tumblr during Paleyfest (or should we say #PaleyFeast), we invited fans to ask our cast to answering questions soley through GIFs. It's an experience that bridged the relationship between our passionate fan base and the uber-appreciative cast. The Fannibals flocked to Tumblr asking over 600 questions, and what resulted was a slew of timeless GIF replies that will live in Tumblr infamy.

#EatTheCon Interactive Fan Adventure, including Funko Partnership and Giveaway

Hannibal has a tremendous social footprint at Comic Con, and the cross-platform interactive fan adventure created a wave of excitement on Tumblr

● The official Hannibal accounts partnered with Funko to launch the #EatTheCon photo adventure in support of the Comic-Con exclusive Hannibal Funko POP! Vinyl doll. The social campaign documented a Hannibal Funko doll at Comic-Con, including hotel stay, panel visits, NBC activations and cast signings

● The Hannibal Production team also supported the campaign, enhancing the experience with photos of a Will Graham Funko doll, posed as if he were chasing Hannibal through San Diego

● In addition to #EatTheCon photo updates, the official accounts executed a code word giveaway, spanning the entire weekend and culminating with Funko doll prizes given at the Funko booth at Comic-Con and on Twitter

● #EatTheCon was used over 7.5K times during the weekend as fans raved, "I could follow tiny Hannibal and #EatTheCon every day," as it was accessible to conference goers and at-home fans alike. The promotion garnered admiration from Entertainment Weekly, hailing "Tiny Hannibal's attempt to Eat the Con and Tiny Will's attempts to catch him. This was so much fun."

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

NBC Entertainment, Gaumont Television, Dino De Laurentiis Co., Living Dead Guy, Sony Pictures Television & MXM

Links