When it came time to launch the reboot of MTV’s The Hills, our goal was to re-engage former fans of the original series and MTV in general, and also reach new fans who had never known The Hills. A big part of this was to play into nostalgia for the original by developing creative that took fans back to where it all began. We leaned into old content from the show to remind fans of where these cast members started, and to introduce new fans to the cast and highlights from this iconic series.
We set out designing video creative in which fans could fully immerse themselves in the standout moments from the original show. As one of 15 original video packages, Spencer Pratt’s Hollywood Star Tour took fans on a trip down memory lane, both literally and figuratively. Since we couldn’t physically bring them back to the show, we did the next best thing and gave them a virtual tour. Leveraging our relationship with the show’s cast, we enlisted Hills star Spencer Pratt to transport us back in time to the original series. Pratt played tour guide on a real bus tour of Hollywood, visiting the original hot spots from The Hills. Along with him, viewers reminisced on some past highlights while revisiting The Dime, Les Deux, Hillside Villas and more, and even picked up some other cast members along the way.
This video received half a million views after being posted to The Hills social channels and an overwhelming amount of positive sentiment from fans. Older fans truly enjoyed getting Spencer’s take on some of these iconic moments from the past, while new fans felt caught up on the major beats they missed out on from not seeing the original series. In the day leading up to premiere we received 21K new Instagram followers and 5K new Twitter followers. On premiere night of the show, we had 3 Worldwide trends, two of which trended at #1 and #2 throughout the night, and we also had 5 U.S. trends. In addition, we received an organic Twitter Moment and were the #1 Cable TV Series of the night.
