2018 has been a big year for DC. We celebrated Superman's 80th anniversary, relaunched the fan-favorite DC Vertigo label, and held an international Day of Wonder. Going into the year, we made a point to refocus our strategy with the goal of catering our social channels towards DC super fans, while still reaching out to a casual audience. It was important to everyone on our social team to make DC's social 100% inclusive, and the content we implemented on our social channels was all geared towards that goal.
To achieve this goal, we tapped into the social zeitgeist by generating unique content geared towards our core audience that embraced each social platforms' new capabilities, bringing our comics and characters to life in a way fans have never seen before. We've also made concerted efforts to expand our social reach by joining the organic social conversation arounds holidays and trends. From debuting our in-world dating app Caper on Valentine's Day, to participating in holidays and events like Passover, Ramadan, and Pride Month, we've made DC synonymous with social chatter, with content that is reaching a far wider audience than our typical fanbase. For Facebook, we particularly interested in using Instant Experience posts – previously known as "canvas" – to prepare fans for the upcoming releases of THE MAN OF STEEL and DC Vertigo's SANDMAN UNIVERSE line. The Instant Experience posts helped build excitement for these priority releases, immersing fans in the worlds of Superman and the Sandman Universe with the use of static graphics, animated video, and 360-degree panoramas.
On Twitter, we used the new threads feature to facilitate a bracket where fans voted for the ultimate version of Batman's iconic Batsuit. These threads, posted in the week leading up to Batman Day, helped increase engagement and kept fans coming back, excited to vote during each round of the bracket.
On Instagram Stories, we hosted animated comic book recaps during our lead-up to the monumental ACTION COMICS #1000, an issue which makes ACTION COMICS the Guinness World Record holder for the longest-running superhero comic book series. These 15-second recaps prepared fans for the historic issue with a look at the Man of Steel's past adventures, incorporating the swipe-up feature to direct them to DCComics.com, where they could purchase collected edition releases of previous stories.
One of our biggest goals was to make fans feel fully involved in the world of DC. To that end, year-round animated recaps for some of our biggest titles have brought the DC Universe to life while catching fans up in time for the latest issue. Additionally, weekly animations highlight the new issues coming out every single Wednesday. These posts promote our books in a fresh and fun way, incorporating different animation styles and DC Easter Eggs to ensure fans always find something unique.
2018 was a year of exciting social change for DC that allowed us to connect with fans through interactive, innovative and engaging ways. Across platforms, we have presented the DC brand as inclusive and inviting for fans of all types, crafting unique content worthy of the World's Greatest Super Heroes. Our updated strategy resulted in a 76% increase in average engagement per post on Facebook, 12% on Twitter, and 59% on Instagram. By reaching out to not only core fans, but casual fans, and creating content that was unique to each platform, while still staying consistent with the DC brand, we were able to achieve our goals of inclusivity and increased engagement for 2018.
