Objectives

Turner and Fullscreen partnered to launch TNT's largest original series of all-time, The Alienist, with a multi-platform, video-first campaign that gave the 19th century thriller a social focus exploring the madness that lies within us all.

Strategy and Execution

Capitalizing on the draw of an A-list cast (Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans, and Dakota Fanning), Fullscreen's strategy was to tease the emotional and high-stakes narrative by focusing on character and thematic video to create moments of impact that broke through the noise online.

The pre-premiere campaign focused on broadening awareness on Facebook by leveraging a varied roster of elevated video pieces:

Serialized 90-Second Narrative Ads

• Long-lead video content like our wholly original True Horror Stories were targeted to interest-based genre audiences around Halloween.

Elevated Character Vignettes

• As audiences became aware of our show, a character video series, The Mind's Eye, leveraged layered editing techniques to introduce the primary characters and intrigue a prestige TV audience looking for premium content.

Talent-Driven Facebook Lives

• Early in the campaign, Facebook Live was used to launch first look imagery (the key art was hidden by Facebook reactions which were slowly removed over the course of the livestream as fans engaged). On the day before the premiere, a Live Talent Q&A in partnership with Entertainment Weekly generated 4.5K engagements and reached over half a million people.

Thematic Facebook Canvas

• In the ramp up to release, an interactive Facebook Canvas targeted to key interest-based audiences allowed fans to explore "what makes a man a murderer" and generated a 14% engagement rate.

Facebook Watch Series

• Capitalizing on the brand new offering, our Facebook Watch presence intrigued cinephiles with behind-the-scenes stories from set. The series was launched prior to premiere, and has continued with weekly episodes into the season.

Social Event Coverage

• The Los Angeles premiere event was extended online with high-value video coverage that provided fans with access to talent and excited audiences for release.

Tastemaker Video

• Finally, to maximize awareness and conversation around the premiere, we launched partner initiatives with tastemakers like The Sartorialist and Goorin Bros.

During the premiere itself, we continued our video-first approach on Twitter with an innovative live tweeting strategy that leveraged character videos posted in real-time around key moments in the narrative as they aired.

Then, in the days that followed, a creative approach to Instagram Stories that featured recaps for each episode in the form of chapters extended conversation, with engaged viewership holding above 90%.

Results

Our campaign resulted in record tune-in for a drama on TNT with Deadline citing digital's impact as a major driver:

"The first episode also counts among its accomplishments a record digital opening for TNT. It generated more than 4 million total minutes watched on TNT's apps and sites, sparking more than 10 million social engagements."

Media