Establish The L Word: Generation Q social platforms as the #1 destination for fans of the show by authentically engaging with the LGBTQ+ community and positioning the accounts as “part of you”.
Our strategic approach for The L Word: Generation Q was to create an authentic space for fans to find community with one another - Queer Life Is Real Life! We said “Hello Again!” to OG stans and made fans (and general audiences) care deeply for our new and old characters and their relatable struggles. As fans of The L Word and members of the LGBTQ community, we knew this was the most authentic way in!
We kicked off the series' iconic return with a strong presence at Pride events around the country, where the cast marched celebrating love and the show’s return. We prioritized strong meaningful partnerships with the community by spotlighting content creators and influencers on our official social channels, teaming up with LGBTQ+ Society6 artists to highlight their unique L Word inspired designs, and sharing UGC fan testimonials where fans explained "what The L word meant to them." On Spirit Day we collaborated with GLAAD to encourage fan donations to support LGBTQ+ youth.
For the fans who celebrated the series premiere alone, we welcomed them to view with us via an ongoing Twitter thread that linked up fans to watch parties in their areas, forging new friendships within our fanbase.
Our community management approach accentuated our core talent - “queer life is real life”. We showcased real world/series themes to make content feel honest and entertaining. Notably, after calling on fans to give us their drink of choice we replied with personalized stories of how they spent the night at one of the main character’s birthday parties (which played out in episode 4). The stunt resulted in 5.6K engagements, 113K impressions and prompted other Showtime originals to engage in the fun while normalizing queer community experiences!
To bring some of the original themes of the series to life for a new generation, we hacked platform capabilities on Twitter to reimage the legendary “Chart” created by Alice in the original series into a continuous Twitter Thread, updated weekly based on who hooked up in each week’s episode. We continued to find opportunistic and creative ways to engage with viewers, tweeting along with Logo TV, enacting talent takeovers, hyping up Megan Rapinoe fans with strategic teaser content, and fostering conversations with Roxanne Gay.
Finally, at the height of our campaign, we launched a “Who Are You?” character Instagram effect which allowed our fans to further connect with the series and - if they were lucky - their favorite character.
Making The L Word social accounts a deeply engaged safe space for the LGBTQ+ community was the goal. We aimed to have fans connect with one another in authentic, fun, and unique ways. In the end, our fans let us know that we accomplished just that.
Bringing our audiences together through the universal language of The L Word: Generation Q, our campaign resulted in over 5M total engagements, 66M impressions, an average engagement rate of 8.7% and 12K Facebook Group members. Throughout the campaign, we also saw a 343% increase in growth on Instagram and an 18% increase in total community size across all platforms.
Sentiment was overwhelmingly positive throughout the campaign, with fans letting us know that they felt the people behind the accounts were actually their friends versus a brand, which is the ultimate goal and compliment.
