The overarching goal for The Mindy Project was to socially celebrate the series' return and its proud new establishment on Hulu. Creatively, the objective was to differentiate and elevate The Mindy Project, now on Hulu.
Upon assessing where the series' creative had been previously, we found opportunities to visually upgrade the aesthetic to match Hulu's premium standards. Our goal was to convey Mindy Kaling's widely praised personality and fresh comedic voice that make the show so unique, successful, and laugh out loud funny. We managed to establish The Mindy Project on Hulu as a must-follow, high-quality, high energy campaign that directly reflected Mindy Kaling's radiant and infectious personality.
The strategy for appropriately celebrating Mindy's arrival to Hulu? We did what Mindy herself would do! We developed a must-attend all day online social event under the hashtag #MindyOnHulu.
The event flourished across all social platforms through hilarious photos, gifs, and nostalgic Mindy-centered party games adapted for the modern social media audience and medium. All creative spoke to Mindy's loyal audience and directly reflected Mindy's fearless sense of style and self in its bright and bold colors (e.g. Hulu's electric green), patterns, and expressive emojis. Mindy's new look seamlessly combined with Hulu's premium feel-- striking a successful balance between the two.
We played to each platform's strengths while retaining a cohesive party atmosphere throughout the day that could be accessed anywhere at any time.
Facebook, the largest platform for The Mindy Project audience, was used to drive users to the different platforms via talent callout videos and graphics.
We created "Truth or Dare" and "Spin the Bottle" games to leverage Twitter's under-utilized behavior of "tapping to stop gifs" and engaged fans to share their results and responses. "Truth or Dare" questions prompted fans to interact with the show across platforms with specific responses. Fans sent replies and screenshots of their game results across social.
Snapchat featured videos from the cast, exciting calls to action, interactive party games utilizing Snapchat's tapping capabilities, and Snapchat-esque party snaps that got crazier as the party went on all day long. Fans celebrated with us by sending their own viewing party snaps.
After the party came the best gift of all: the 4th season of The Mindy Project! Fans couldn't get enough, and our team collaborated under tight deadlines to select the best and most talked about moments from each episode to feature on social. The fresh and fun tone of the #MindyOnHulu party was retained in all content and was presented like it was coming from a mostly wise, goofball of a best friend. Typography was minimal to let Mindy's witty quotes speak for themselves. Our combination of premium and playful fonts allowed Mindy's sophisticated and sassy sides to shine.
Inspired by the popular "Swipe Up to Fly" Twitter trend, we sent our engagement and interaction soaring by adapting the activation to Mindy's key art which featured her floating above NYC holding Hulu-green balloons.
Video assets included an eye-catching opening slate and kinetic captions to ensure that users watching without sound would still get a solid taste of the videos. These two strategies proved to increase initial views and second helpings.
Based on Mindy and her fans' shared love of pop culture, we created custom illustrations for pop culture events and holidays. Gifs and videos were created on Halloween to ask fans what Mindy's newborn, Leo (another crowd favorite), should wear for his first Halloween, with a CTA requesting suggestions and photos of their own kids' costumes. To reward their engagement, we released illustrations of top icons like Michael Jackson and Beyoncé Pad Thai. Needless to say, he looked #Flawless.
Through visual consistency, attention to detail, the strong bond between the strategists and the show (particularly with Mindy), and following the wants and needs of the audience, we elevated the brand and made our fans feel appreciated and inspired to give back. By replying to fans with relevant gifs and thoughtful responses, we were able to increase engagement and establish a meaningful relationship with our fans.
Not only did we gain street cred from the Mindy fans for talking with them instead of at them, Hulu acquired an incredible amount of growth, press, love and support from fans for bringing their "Queen Mindy" back into their lives.
