Empire is a drama about a family dynasty, set within the world of music, glamour, danger and power. Our objective when launching this show was to build awareness and anticipation for a larger-than-life television drama. After launching in January 2015, the show and the social media pages took off (even more than we could've imagined)! From there we worked to eventize each and every new episode by creating a community on social media that made fans want to watch live and not miss a moment of the conversation. To reward and engage our loyal fans we created tons of exclusive content and launched epic sweepstakes and contests all to reward them with everything they were asking for and more. Overall, by creating a rich social media landscape there was no stopping THE Empire!
How did Fox launch and maintain one of the most social television shows in 2015? With creative messaging, activations and various methods of fan engagement. A few key tactics are below:
Welcome To The Lyons Den - http://welcometothelyonsden.com/
- We offered fans an interactive web portal set in the tone and voice of the show that provided announcements, character bios and a look behind the music.
- New content was uploaded weekly leading up to and during Season 1 of Empire.
Live Tweeting
- Empire has become a live tweeting phenomenon! The cast, crew, network and writers of Empire gather each week to tweet along LIVE with the broadcast and engage with the many fans sounding off on Twitter.
Cookie's Closet - http://www.fox.com/empire/article/cookies-closet-2
- Every week that Empire airs a new episode, we dissect an outfit that Cookie Lyon has worn on the show. We publish outfit details and links to buy the "look for less". While it is hosted on fox.com, we publish and promote across all social media platforms to drive fans to check out Cookie's Closet!
#BeOnEmpire Sweepstakes
- During Empire Season 1 finale, fans had the opportunity to win a walk-on role in a future episode of the number one show of the season! Fans participated in the sweepstakes by:
- Tuning into the Empire Season 1 finale.
- Watching for the Empire trivia question to be asked on-air during the last ten minutes of the show.
- Following @EmpireFOX on Twitter and TWEETING their answer to the trivia question by using #BeOnEmpire for a chance to win.
- The night the finale aired the show received 2.4 Million tweets, generating 112.1 Million total earned impressions with #BeOnEmpire mentioned approx. 226k times.
- Every 10th tweet from the Season 1 finale included #BeOnEmpire, contributing to the overall social footprint for the show and fan engagement.
- Overall there were nearly 400k tweets using #BeOnEmpire – and the answer to the trivia question "Dwight Walker" continued to trend on Twitter the week after the sweepstake had ended.
FOX's Next Empire Artist Contest
- During the summer of 2015 we scoured the nation looking for Fox's Next Empire Artist. Solo artists and groups were called to submit their own video audition either digitally or by hitting up the gold Empire bus, outfitted with a one-of-a-kind recording studio!
- After stopping through 15 cities and receiving over 6,000 auditions, Empire fans proved they have passion, creativity and that Lucious Lyon sound (some of the entrants at least)!
- One lucky winner will appear as an Empire artist during the second half of Season 2 this spring!
Hashtag Emojis
We worked with Twitter to create custom hashtag emojis that attached to tweets from fans who used #Empire during select episodes of Season 2. The Emoji creative ranged from a chocolate chip cookie wearing a leopard fedora, to a lion, to cast members faces - we kept fans guessing and engaged on select Wednesdays throughout the season to drive Twitter conversations!
The results were GOLDEN! Empire garnered close to 2 TRILLION earned impressions on Twitter and Facebook alone in 2015!
- On Twitter, we were the #1 most tweeted about TV show (excluding reality programming, sports and special events) with 11.6 million tweets and 570 million earned impressions.
- On Facebook, content posted by Empire received over 1.3 trillion organic earned impressions.
- On Instagram, we built an army of over 1.5 million followers!
The countless efforts made across Empire's social media platforms made it one of the most social television shows of 2015!
