Campaign objective: to generate buzz around Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building, we launched a microsite that invited fans, influencers, and tastemakers to “shuffle yourself into the mystery” of the new season by creating, sharing, and playing with their own custom digital playing card. Fans who shared their custom card were entered to win a bespoke deck of playing cards.
For Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building, we invited fans to shuffle into the mystery. Through an interactive avatar generator and custom playing card deck, audiences became part of the Arconia — creating, sharing, and playing with personalized cards while competing to win a physical deck.
At the heart of the campaign was a microsite (https://omitb.hulu.com) that we designed as a playable interactive experience where fans could create their own personalized digital playing card, play a game of war, and then share their creation on social media for a chance to win a full deck of bespoke OMITB playing cards.
The full OMITB playing card deck was a unique collectable item where we transformed the cast of OMITB into the court cards: Charles Hayden-Savage (Steve Martin) as our Jack/King, Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) as the Queen, Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) as the King/Jack. We also included Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton) as a Joker, Jane Lynch (Sazz) as a King which was an easter egg that leaned into Sazz’s and Charles’ friendship, and Lester Coluca as a bonus collectible, which had a map of The Arconia on the back. The character artwork was custom designed as cinematic and symbolic portraiture with dramatic lighting and vintage jewel tones, using retro-midcentury modern textures and elements.
In order to generate buzz on social media around the microsite, Hulu’s social strategy had multiple beats:
1. Delivery of the full card decks to influencers & tastemakers who posted about the cards on their social media channels, generating intrigue and demand across a broad audience.
2. A social campaign ran through OMITB's owned & operated channels (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, Threads), prompting fans to go to the microsite https://omitb.hulu.com and make their own custom playing card. Once fans completed their customization, they were invited to enter their card into a sweepstakes via posting on instagram for a chance to win the full playing card deck.
The microsite extended the show’s world beyond the screen, fueling social engagement, user-generated content, and fan-driven storytelling.
The campaign was a resounding success, effectively turning passive viewers into active participants within the Only Murders in the Building universe. By bridging the gap between digital interaction and physical rewards, we saw a massive surge in brand affinity and social conversation.
Quantitatively, the microsite became a high-traffic hub for the fandom, while the sweepstakes drove significant user-generated content across social platforms. Qualitatively, audience sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, with fans celebrating the "Easter egg" details and the opportunity to "step into the Arconia."
Key Performance Indicators:
• Total Microsite Traffic: 124,178 unique visits.
• User Creativity: 12,582 custom playing cards generated.
• Deep Engagement: Users spent an average of 5 minutes interacting with the site.
• Social Impact: Reached over 516,000 fans via owned channels with nearly 20,000 direct engagements/shares.
• Influencer Integration: Physical deck unboxings generated 769K impressions and 4.1K high-value engagements.
