The X-Files is one of the most celebrated franchises in television history. To build buzz and generate awareness for the returning event series, we created a special short-form Aliens in NYC viral video in order to get fans excited. Our objective was to entice existing fans, while also generating social buzz and luring in new fans.
The X-Files Season 11 campaign included a profusion of unique digital activations. Arguably the most unique activation was the Aliens in NYC viral video. Aliens were placed in newspaper boxes around New York City that jumped out when unsuspecting civilians reached in for a newspaper. They were then met with a newspaper featuring key art that advertised the premiere date. The video was posted natively on The X-Files' pages as well as across a number of third party sites.
The X-Files viral video was well received and positive sentiment was overwhelming as fans treasured the "brilliant" marketing. The video had massive reach, garnering 8.5 million combined Facebook views (all organic traction) to date.
In addition to the native Facebook and YouTube videos several influential Facebook publishers have taken the original video and have uploaded it to share with their subscribers and followers.
The short form video content also garnered some major national television coverage and press pickup, including NBC's Today Show, Huffington Post, Yahoo, ET, TVGuide, and more. Overall TV viewers reached was 8.7 million, which was great additional exposure.
