Inspired by R.L. Stine's best-selling Scholastic book series, "Goosebumps" follows a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle — while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past.
The new television series draws on elements from five of the most popular middle-grade books, including “Say Cheese and Die!,” “The Haunted Mask,” “The Cuckoo Clock of Doom,” “Go Eat Worms!” and “Night of the Living Dummy.”
To build excitement for the series and give viewers a sense of the kind of scares they were in for with "Goosebumps," Disney Branded Television created bespoke social videos featuring the greatest of Stine's villains: Slappy, the living ventriloquist dummy. The social campaigns worked to raise awareness of the new series and drive excitement with unique, scary videos aimed at longtime "Goosebumps" fans, as well as those unfamiliar with the books but looking for a good scare.
"Goosebumps" finds its scares in bringing some of R.L. Stine's spookiest ideas to life. Across 10 episodes, the series draws elements and inspirations from favorites in the book series, giving fans a new thrill from seeing frights on-screen they've previously only imagined from words on the page.
Disney Branded Television knew it needed to bring that same feeling of spooky thrills finding their way into the real world to its social campaign for "Goosebumps." It focused on Slappy, a living, evil, and diabolically manipulative ventriloquist's dummy, who is the book series' and show's greatest villain. With the power to chill viewers with just an uncanny look and an iconic status among existing fans, Slappy was the perfect character to embody the "Goosebumps" social campaign.
To bring Slappy into the real world, the campaign used original and stock footage of real-world locations — the Statue of Liberty and the Hollywood sign — as well as animation techniques and the in-show computer-generated model of Slappy to create unique, bespoke animations. The two videos were shot in the vein of found footage and showed a larger-than-life Slappy waiting menacingly in the distance. Both videos also bring elements of frightening realism to their short runtimes; the Statue of Liberty video features helicopters circling Slappy while they shine spotlights on the moving dummy's face, while the Hollywood sign video includes the fast, panicked breathing of the film's unseen creator, conveying their dawning terror.
Disney Branded Television mixed realistic footage, high-quality visuals, and the believable elements of real video often seen on social media feeds. The results were highly shareable, unique social videos that amplified fans' excitement and nostalgia and brought awareness of "Goosebumps" to new viewers by touching on their fears and being just real-looking enough to make people wonder.
To maximize the reach and further build on the fun and frightening feeling of "Goosebumps" breaking into the real world, Disney Branded Television partnered with tourist-focused accounts @labucketlist and @newyorkers to share the videos, capitalizing on the use of the landmarks.
Disney Branded Television’s campaign to bring "Goosebumps" into the public consciousness was highly successful. The show had one of the best opening weekends of the year among streaming shows, joining top-10 lists and generating news coverage as a result.
Thanks to their use of the "Goosebumps" feel of combining the real and the nightmarish, as well as Disney Branded Television’s deft partnership with tourism social media accounts, the posts also saw massive success, garnering 1,477,700 views and engagements. Disney Branded Television’s use of high-quality animation, the right scare-focused tone, and the right partnerships allowed it to have a huge impact on drawing viewers to "Goosebumps" with just two videos.
