Nickelodeon’s new scripted series The Astronauts follows five kids on an epic journey through space. Our objective with this campaign was two-fold: drive tune-in to Nickelodeon’s new series The Astronauts, while building a dedicated, engaged and passionate fan base (young teens) on social. With TikTok emerging as the primary platform in this space, we wanted to capitalize on the platform’s momentum and give viewers an out of this world second screen experience.
So what would happen if five kids were accidentally launched into space and ended up embarking on an adventure of a lifetime to get back home? They would probably launch a TikTok.
TikTok Launch:
TikTok has quickly become one of the top teen destinations, so we launched our first series-specific TikTok account into the stratosphere with a first of its kind TikTok video mosaic (it’s way cooler than you think) followed by custom content captured on-set (remotely) and trending platform memes. Within the mosaic, fans were able to explore show content and get a glimpse at what was to come from the series.
Following the launch, we created a robust content strategy to test what would resonate on the platform based on existing trends and behaviors we were seeing.
Custom TikTok Content:
Creatively, we captured a mix of custom content with talent to build the series narrative. We created a sense of urgency around the kids being stuck in space with our “Messages from Space” series, in which The Astronauts recorded a vlog telling TikTok users their story and asking for updates on Earth, like “Who has more followers—Charli D’Amelio or Addison Rae?”
Additionally, we created at-home space themed activities for viewers to learn something new as they viewed the adventure from earth. We recorded process videos on how to create space slime, a terrarium, and rocket crispy snacks.
Reactive Content
Our in-season content series shifted to re-cutting episodic footage into TikTok videos using in-app editing tools that tied to platform trends and maximized The Astronauts visibility on the FYP.
Talent
To keep our fans engaged and psyched for the finale, we asked them to ask the series talent and “Matilda” (the AI aboard the spaceship) whatever they wanted. We then leveraged the platform's “Reply” feature to give fans answers to their season-long questions straight from the cast.
The Astronauts TikTok account saw out of this world growth and audience engagement.
● Over the course of 4 months and 90 posts, the account garnered over 14K followers.
● The content posted to The Astronauts TikTok received over 2M video views and 165K likes with strictly organic promotion.
