Leading up to the 20th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants in 2019, the foremost objective has been to stoke fan affinity for the long-running series by leaning into the most iconic and beloved moments. The team has also been tasked with finding new ways to make the seen-many-times-over clips feel new again and to increase video views.
The Fry Cook Games is one of the most memorable episodes of all time. We combined the audience's love for that clip with the Instagram trend of IRL objects. The use of the split screen allows for multiple viewings, as users want to see each scene unfold on each side of the video. Shot in house by our creative production team, the low-budget yet highly effective execution speaks directly to the intimate nature of the Instagram platform.
The Fry Cook Games IRL video is now the most-viewed video on the @spongebob account with over 2.6M views. In fact, it hit 25x the account's video view benchmarks.