In 2020 the world experienced something extraordinary, and in the midst of everything it was important that STARZ remind viewers that we are all in this together. STARZ is here to laugh with you, cry with you, and keep you entertained while you’re staying safe at home.
To show viewers our support, unite the community, and give back to the essential workers putting their lives on the line, STARZ wanted to add value to our joint experience, encourage public safety by way of our own platforms and talent partners, and celebrate the heroes on the front lines. We’d encourage fans to stay indoors, stay strong, and stay encouraged so we can all come out of this stronger and more connected than ever.
Goals
Though STARZ has a selection of free episodes, awareness for this content was low. To aid in awareness for fans and introduce new entertainment-seekers to their next favorite show, STARZ launched the #STARZAtHome promoted Twitter trend on March 29th as a unified campaign from all show accounts as well as the brand handle. Content and custom links for each program made it easy to identify your next favorite binge watch. STARZ and Original Series accounts then followed up with custom Zoom backgrounds for the most popular titles so new viewers could celebrate their newfound fandom.
The fun didn’t stop there! We activated our team of incredible actors, writers, and showrunners to provide shout outs and live activations for the fans at home, elevating and eventizing the average weekday to something that couldn’t be missed. From intimate concerts by Atkins Estimond or Maria Doyle Kennedy, to a wine and puzzle-along with Riley Voelkel, to a much needed meditation with Gary Lennon, there was something for everyone conveniently hosted across the STARZ Instagram accounts.
Taking the initiative a step further, the Outlander cast kicked off an #OutlanderBakeOff challenge within #STARZAtHome that brought the fandom together and encouraged togetherness from individual kitchens.
While it was important for STARZ to offer added entertainment value, we also had a responsibility to use our platform to amplify safety practices for an effective safer-at-home phase of the pandemic. To achieve this, we partnered with talent from shows including Power and Outlander to produce short social videos encouraging people to stay inside and stay safe, posted on both the owned STARZ accounts as well as talent handles.
We couldn’t get through this pandemic without the incredible efforts of our essential workers. As a special thank you to those putting their lives on the line, STARZ created a series of social graphics highlighting nurses, delivery workers, government employees, and more, using our platform to help these heroes get the recognition they deserved as well as gift cards as an added token of our own appreciation. Our outreach concluded with a local effort to supply essential workers in our community with much needed mask donations to UFCW 770, PPE Now Los Angeles, and PATH.
The #STARZAtHome campaign achieved over 59M trend impressions with a view rate of 8.85%. Talent activations brightened shelter-in-place for over 5M users, and a further 270K users were organically reached by our custom #STARZAtHome PSA videos. Thousands of essential workers were armed with masks across the hard-hit Los Angeles county when they needed them most!
