Peacock’s objective was to drive viewership of the three-part original series event, The Continental: From the World of John Wick, which premiered in September, 2023, and encourage subscriptions to the Peacock streaming service. In addition, Peacock’s specific goals for creating an experience were to garner earned media to help drive awareness and anticipation, especially among super fans of the John Wick franchise.
In the fall of 2023, Peacock launched The Continental: From the World of John Wick, a three-part event. To complement the paid media and press efforts, Peacock’s Events and Activations strategy was to leverage the power of the massive fandom of the John Wick franchise by inviting fans to explore the expanded world of The Continental Hotel in 1970's New York, the setting of the Peacock prequel, in unique, tangible ways. Our approach was to treat the launch of the three-part series as a can’t-miss cultural event targeting superfans, influencers and press with a dynamic, socially driven immersive experience.
Peacock had the distinct challenges of launching during a dual entertainment industry strike and not having the titular character of the films, played by Keanu Reeves, in the Peacock series. However, coming out of San Diego ComicCon, where almost 5,000 fans turned out to see the below-the-line talent and exclusive clips, plus receiving early press buzz as a must-watch series for fall, we knew there was a huge appetite for an insider, behind-the-scenes look into this world.
To achieve our goals, we brought all the things fans love about the franchise to the forefront by devising and executing an immersive hotel bar experience in tandem with the series premiere and rollout.
From Thursday, September 21 to October 7, we opened the doors to The Continental Hotel in the building that serves as the façade for the iconic hotel-for-assassins in New York City, for fans, influencers and press alike. In the sold-out ticketed immersive event, Welcome to The Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience, guests could interact with in-world characters in their hunt for clues to solve a mystery and indulge in "killer” cocktails purchased with Gold Coins—hotel currency—while they explored a fully realized version of the hotel lobby and bar. The experience also offered in-world, shareable photo opportunities and live music inspired by the soundtrack.
Peacock far exceeded our overall investment with an ROI in earned media from coverage in top-tier national and local press, including national electronic coverage from TODAY, as well as print and digital coverage from People, Time, The New York Times, Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, Vulture, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and more. Additionally, coming out of our influencer strategy, we received millions of impressions from organic social coverage.
For Welcome to The Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience, Peacock sold out of more than 6,000 tickets within a day of opening Peacock’s first ticketed event and had representation from almost every major news outlet in attendance during the Press Preview night, which helped reinforce Peacock’s position as a premium streaming service.
In conjunction with the paid media campaign and press outreach and event efforts, Welcome to the Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience immersive activation helped make The Continental: From the World of John Wick Peacock’s biggest original launch of 2023.
