To promote the release of Ricky Stanicky, an R-rated comedy from Prime Video, we set out to do something as outrageous as the film itself—make Ricky Stanicky, a fictional character, a real pop culture icon. The goal was simple: make Ricky so legendary that he became a household name before the film even launched. But how do you make a fake person go viral? By enlisting John Cena, the film’s star, and launching the first-ever verified OnlyFans account for a fictional character. The goal? To drive mass awareness, build cultural relevance, and generate conversation around the character that would cement Ricky Stanicky as a must-watch film for comedy fans.
To create maximum impact, we enlisted the power of John Cena for the rock-hard launch. John Cena teased the OF account on his social channels with a piece of creative featuring two oscillating room fans and a simple “Link in bio” CTA, sending his 40M+ followers into a frenzy. The link of course directed fans to not John’s but Ricky Stanicky’s all new, free-to-subscribe OnlyFans account featuring some innuendo-lade glimpses at the upcoming film with promises of more to come. Within hours, 497K+ thirsty visitors flooded the account, leading to 25K+ subscribers overnight. OnlyFans also joined in on the action and rolled out a red-carpet welcome to the platform with a custom video across their social channels.
But one night of fun is never enough—we had to find creative ways to sustain the excitement and keep the momentum thrusting forward. Over two weeks, we kept audiences entertained with a steady drip of suggestive, innuendo-packed custom content starring John Cena alongside red bad clips from the film. Each post played into the cheeky, R-rated humor of the film in a way that was truly authentic to the OF platform with posts featuring how:
The content kept audiences engaged and generated media attention, ensuring that Ricky Stanicky remained at the center of cultural conversation.
The campaign exploded (pun absolutely intended) and the cultural conversation around Ricky Stanicky climaxed on social media and dominated the news.
Ricky Stanicky didn’t just break the internet… he left his mark (pause) all over it.
