What better way to reintroduce a beloved show than by teaming up with its iconic star for an electrifying, talent-driven social campaign? That's exactly what we did with The Thundermans Return.
The Thundermans, which first aired in 2013, quickly became one of Nickelodeon's most popular live-action sitcoms. This superhero-family comedy ran for four seasons and over 100 episodes. Its success soared after its 2021 Netflix debut, becoming the #1 title among kids aged 6-11 across all SVOD platforms. This incredible resurgence led to the greenlighting of the much-anticipated follow-up film, The Thundermans Return.
Enter Kira Kosarin, the star of The Thundermans, who has since become a social media sensation. With millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok, Kira has captivated The Thundermans fanbase while creating her own unique content. Naturally, we harnessed Kira's social media prowess for our campaign.
Our mission was clear: to showcase Kira's exciting journey back to the screen as Thunder Girl and to promote The Thundermans Return in a fresh, organic, and social-first way.
Our strategy to reintroduce The Thundermans to the world centered on leveraging Kira Kosarin's social media dominance, starting with the biggest cultural event of the year.
In early 2024, we brought The Thundermans to Super Bowl LVIII. To announce that The Thundermans are BACK, Kira Kosarin and her castmate Jack Griffo served as our on-the-ground Nickelodeon correspondents. They interviewed players, played games on the field, and filmed behind-the-scenes content that fans loved. Two standout pieces included the “I’m Just a Kid” and “We’re the Thundermans” trends. This phase of the campaign not only promoted the Super Bowl LVIII telecast on Nickelodeon but also primed our audience for the actors’ epic return.
After the big game, The Thundermans Return social campaign kicked into high gear. We rolled out a content slate featuring the heart, humor, and heroics fans adore. Behind-the-scenes content included a heartfelt video of the cast reuniting on the set they grew up on. The cast reacted to old photos, tested their knowledge in Thundermans trivia, and recorded lip syncs to iconic scenes from the original show. Kira was instrumental in getting these pieces recorded. With our cross-account publishing plan, we maximized our reach by posting across Nickelodeon, Paramount+, and talent accounts.
In the days following the premiere, we furthered our partnership with Kira by executing a comment stunt on TikTok. We asked fans to submit their burning Thundermans questions to Kira and used the “reply to comment with video” feature to create a series of video replies. Engaging with followers directly bolstered excitement for the film and gave superfans an outlet to connect with their favorite superhero.
Throughout the campaign, Kira was a true partner. She brought her own social media sensibilities to the table while working closely with us to execute our strategy.
This partnership between Nickelodeon and Kira was a thunderous success.
- The campaign brought in 611.3M total video views, 65.5M engagements, and totaled over 507 posts published across Nickelodeon and talent accounts.
- Posts from Kira drove over 70% of our totals
- Fans were thrilled seeing stars from their childhood on their social feeds
- “YES MY CHILDHOOD SHOW IS BACKKKKKKK IM SO EXCITED”
- “OMGGGG CHILDHOOD DREAM COME TRUE 🙌🙌🙌”
- “I absolutely loved this movie and it’s so fun to see LITERALLY everyone back and they all look the same”
The Thundermans Return social media partnership with Kira Kosarin was a smash hit. The campaign contributed to the movie becoming the best Nickelodeon day-and-date release EVER on Paramount+. And it’s not stopping there. Nickelodeon is continuing our partnership with Kira for a spinoff series, The Thundermans Undercover, premiering in 2025.
