Paramount & Mean Girls Broadway were looking for a unique way to engage fans, raise awareness and celebrate both the 15th anniversary of the cultural phenomenon Mean Girls movie release, as well as the hit Broadway musical.
October 3 is internet famous and for Mean Girls fans a holiday in its own right. To the uninitiated October 3rd is the day in which Aaron Samuels, one of the hottest and most popular guys in North Shore High School, asked Cady Heron “what day it was”. From then on, it’s been known as “Mean Girls Day” and fans around the world have celebrated annually.
The goal was to capitalize on the annual holiday by bringing Facebook audiences, movie and musical fans together across the country with a live experience that captured the spirit of the brand, celebrate and rewarded them for their many years of love & support. The solution seemed simple, allow fans to engage with the movie like never before (including trivia, polls and questions), bring the original writer of both the Movie and Musical, the queen bee herself; Tina Fey (and Mean Girls super fan, Busy Philipps) to host the ultimate live viewing party via real-time comments to air, all while spending time with a group of fans that adore the film. Oh, and let’s not forget the fabulous prizes!
To reach the extensive combined audience Mean Girls Broadway hosted the ultimate film viewing party on Facebook Live, consisting of a two-hour fully produced livestream of the Mean Girls movie.
The one-time-only Facebook Live event was co-hosted by Tina Fey and Busy Philipps. During the movie the two hosts played trivia, answered fan questions, showed an exclusive look at a new Mean Girls music video. Viewers could also win "fetch" prizes as they watched, including tickets to see the Broadway show! The Facebook Live culminated in a grand prize of a walk-on role and trip for 4 to the Big Apple to see the Mean Girls musical.
In advance of October 3rd Mean Girls Broadway launched a dedicated landing page and social campaign including exclusive content from the cast. Tina Fey shared a video asking fans to join her and co-host Busy Philipps to encourage tune in across not only the Mean Girls Broadway channels, but the dedicated Mean Girls Facebook group Fetches, Facebook Entertainment (5MM) and the Mean Girls movie page (2MM US). In order to maximize reach, we promoted tune-in focused content, launched a Facebook countdown to the live event and leveraged the Mean Girls movie fan. We even invited fans to host their own viewing party at home with their friends. https://meangirlsonbroadway.com/oct3/
In addition to this we also partnered with a number of brands include MAC makeup, Taco Bell, Dylan’s Candy Bar, and Dry Bar to expand our reach and ultimately increase tune in for the live event itself.
On October 3rd leading up to the live event, pre-stream graphics helped build momentum and viewership. Winners were selected throughout the stream at random and sent automatic messages via Messenger. In addition to utilizing Facebook Live’s Native Polls, the stream was overlaid with live custom graphics featuring user comments which were shared on screen in real-time by the Mean Girls content team. Comments-to-air let viewers and on-air talent interact in real time and enjoy the film together.
Viewers who played along and participated via the Facebook Live’s Questions tool, a new interactive and native experience within the FB community that both engaged and motivate the audience, were invited to enter the prize giveaway
Following the event. Mean Girls Broadway continued to leverage the live stream content and reedited into short clips and GIFS to engage fans long after the event was over.
Mean Girls Day entered the national conversation on October 3rd, trending on Twitter for 12 hours. Mean Girls Broadway also recorded the highest traffic to date since the show opened in March 2018.
Over 100 pairs of tickets to the Broadway show were given away during the stream and a full day’s worth of digital content was created to sustain engagement and amplify conversation around the day and event. Within a 24-hour period, the Facebook Live garnered 466K total views and reached 1.1M people.
Key Metrics:
Through our partnerships efforts, the combined following was roughly 53M across all social platforms. We can assume that we reached about 15% of the total followers on October 3rd—estimating about 8M total impressions.
