TNT partnered with Fullscreen to launch their latest slow-burning thriller series, I Am the Night, by driving fervent anticipation pre-premiere, and live viewing in-season among the true-crime fandom online.
In order to reach the true-crime audience outside of traditional social channels, I Am The Night's campaign leveraged a wide array of social initiatives to make I Am the Night the #1 most talked-about new drama of the season.
Pre-premiere, director Patty Jenkins and star Chris Pine vaulted early awareness by leveraging their influence from Wonder Woman with custom trailer bumpers earning 10M trailer views. Jenkins took this a step further, joining a “Conversation With” interview on LinkedIn to pique interest among industry professionals.
The world of I Am the Night came to life when Patty Jenkins’ cinematography was showcased alongside exclusive Man Ray surrealist paintings, a key narrative theme in the series, at a LACMA screening and gallery event. Instagram Story coverage of the event grew the account’s following by 7% in a week.
Tapping into YouTube’s world of true-crime influencers, we partnered with creator Kendall Rae for an original branded content series exploring the most infamous Hollywood murders. The series eventized the show premiere and accrued over 10M minutes watched. On the anniversary of the Black Dahlia murder, My Favorite Murder hosted an exclusive live taping of their podcast that gained 1.5M downloads and 134K social engagements.
The week of the premiere, all of I Am the Night’s influencers came together for an epic soiree held at George Hodel’s actual LA mansion, the Sowden House. The night consisted of elaborate performance art, experiential rooms for social content, and interviews with the show’s stars. Instagram influencers couldn’t wait to show off this unique experience to their rabid followers, who in turn flocked to I Am The Night’s social, generating 16.1M social impressions and 2.5M press hits from the event.
In-season, live social engagement drove 76% of total campaign mentions. To engage the true-crime community alongside weekly episodes, Twitter threads between I Am the Night, AT&T and DirecTV shared historical facts in real-time during live tune-in, and weekly episodes of the original podcast “Root of Evil” featured interviews with the descendants of suspected serial killer George Hodel. The episodes were paired with custom social videos, leading to 6.3M downloads and a spot at the top of Apple Podcasts’ charts.
The culmination of these social initiatives allowed our true-crime audience to become invested in I Am The Night and fostered a television campaign that had 5.6x the organic views from the previous best for TNT.
The campaign generated 369M total social impressions and 77M video views, making it TNT’s most successful television campaign ever, and the #1 most talked-about new primetime drama of the season.
