When we announced the new MEAN GIRLS movie for 2024, we knew there would be challenges to marketing a movie based on a musical based on a movie - and an iconic one at that. While the original MEAN GIRLS (2004) is one of the most quotable movies of its era, the 20-year-old film wasn’t top of mind for a younger Gen Z audience, and our first step was introducing it to a new generation of fans by bringing it to where they consume content: TikTok.
So what day did we launch our Mean Girls campaign? October 3rd, of course. With the film licensed for a very limited timeframe and a brand new TikTok account without a built-in audience, we decided the best way to make a splash was to capitalize on the conversation around Mean Girls Day. To celebrate October 3rd, we released the original film on the newly launched @meangirls TikTok account in 23 bite-sized parts. As the first studio to release a major film in its entirety on TikTok, this created a ton of buzz and reached both old fans and new, with organic engagement driving viewership in the TikTok algorithm, and press pick-up generating additional awareness for the 24-hour stunt.
As a result of our Mean Girls Day stunt, our TikTok account grew to 125K followers in one day, providing us with a strong base for our future marketing efforts for the 2024 film. In addition to the 750K+ views of the full movie clips and 1M+ engagements on our @meangirls TikTok account, news of the stunt was picked up by press outlets far and wide, and the New York Times even recognized the impact the activation had on the 2024 film’s success at the box office (#1 in the US for three weeks in a row). #MeanGirlsDay, and, consequently, Mean Girls (2024), was trending everywhere!
