Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” is a spin-off of “Star Trek: Discovery” that expands on the “Star Trek” stories that span the era before the exploits of Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise. The series follows the intergalactic exploits of Captain Christopher Pike and the original crew of the Enterprise in the decade before the events of “Star Trek: The Original Series.” For the first time, viewers can see the younger Pike, Spock, and Number One boldly go where no one has gone before.
To build excitement and social media engagement around the show’s premiere Paramount+ needed to make a bold statement in the form of an interactive TikTok filter that takes fans from the comfort of their homes to locations from the “Star Trek” universe.
To achieve the effect of transporting fans from their homes to the cosmos, Paramount+ created exclusive Instagram and TikTok filters that replicate the transporter effect from “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” To trigger the easy-to-use filter, all fans had to do was perform the Vulcan salute hand gesture and instantly their image was teleported to one of 10 different locations from the hit space-faring series. Some of the user-generated content saw fans in full cosplay as they transported themselves aboard a Starfleet vessel. Other user-generated content saw fans in plainclothes transport themselves to beautiful planets with multiple moons or even massive snow-capped peaks.
On TikTok alone, the filters led to hundreds of user-generated video clips being produced. Long-time “Star Trek” fans and those eager to use new image filters flocked to the platform to transport themselves from their living rooms to the cosmos. Paramount+ continues to understand its fans’ desire to immerse themselves more fully in the content they love.
