Leading up to the grand opening of Universal Epic Universe, the Universal Orlando Resort social media channels played a critical role in informing guests and fans about the offerings of the new theme park whilst building anticipation to visit. As a result, the team was tasked with developing unique ways to showcase the park offerings through social media. For one of Epic’s Worlds, How To Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, we knew exactly how we wanted to tell the story of one particular experience: Meeting Toothless
Our objective was to develop a social-first video that would offer a first glimpse of this amazing experience, a video that would speak to fans and audiences beyond our owned spaces.
When it came to the type of content the team wanted to produce, they immediately knew they would feature the iconic moment from the How to Train Your Dragon film when Hiccup and Toothless first meet. However, in our version of this meeting, the viewer would be put in the role of Hiccup.
The strategy behind the video was to showcase what the guest would experience. By filming the video from the guest viewpoint, with arm outstretched, we compelled our viewers to rehearse the moment themselves. This is what you will see when you meet Toothless for the first time. This is the joy you will experience. This is a dragon happy to meet you.
The social media team worked closely with the Entertainment and Operations teams at Epic Universe to plan out the shoot. While the video was just over twenty seconds, it took significant planning to coordinate all the teams to get the shoot done.
To deliver on the video, we worked closely with our partners at DreamsWorks to ensure that approvals went smoothly, the proper social media accounts were tagged with collaborations accepted, and, to enhance the moment with music, securing approvals to use the original score in the video.
The video went viral and was one of our highest engaging videos ever for Universal Orlando Resort. The video was not boosted and still delivered record-breaking impressions. Our social media channels were flooded with comments and direct messages of fans excited to come to the park and have their own moment with Toothless. We made more than a video; we made a moment that our guests, fans, and followers could see themselves experiencing. Earned media poured in as video was used by news accounts and embedded into articles, further driving anticipation to visit and building awareness about Universal Epic Universe.
For the Universal social media team, the best part about delivering this video to the fans was their reaction through comments and engagement. We knew the video would be a hit and the experience would inspire others. As the park opened to guests, eager fans posted their own versions of the video – some selfie-style and others taken by friends and family. In all those photos and videos, you saw the same looks of delight, wish-fulfillment, and happy tears. They were not just meeting a character, they were meeting an old friend.
