The Portlandia Co-Op campaign helped kick off Season 3 by rallying fans and rewarding their avid posting, liking, Tweeting and crafting about all things Portlandia. Co-Op members were able to apply to take over the Portlandia Twitter handle, post art or images inspired by Portlandia on Instagram using #portlandia, or create handmade Portlandia coffee sleeves. Command of the Portlandia Twitter feed rotated to a new fan each week , chosen from online applicants, and it didn’t take very long for this campaign to become very special as requests to Tweet started coming in from super fans around the country as well as several very notable fans, including, the L.A. Kings and In Other Words (the real feminist bookstore in Portland that inspired the Women & Women First Portlandia sketches) and students from The People’s Improv Theatre. It all began with one simple challenge: tell in 140 characters or less why you should Tweet for Portlandia.The Twitter component of the Portlandia Co-Op campaign created a very special experience for followers during the season as the account transitioned from a means to share clips and show information, to a living, breathing representation of the Portlandia fan community. The success of this Twitter campaign, a gain of more than 17,000 followers from the Co-Op launch through the end of Season 3, a 70% increase in total followers, is a true testament to Portlandia fans. They not only love the show, they live it and each time we handed the account over to a new fan, this became even more apparent. These are just a few of the very special moments that Portlandia followers were able to enjoy as a result of the Portlandia Co-Op: Fred and Carrie helped us raise excitement prior to the first fan takeover by doing a live Twitter Q&A with fans from Twitter Headquarters in New York City. Carrie answered #AskCarrie questions live from her personal account, while Fred took over the official Portlandia account to answer #AskFred questions, kicking off the experience with one of the most enjoyable Tweets a fan could read, “This is Fred…" The L.A. Kings took over the account to live tweet an episode just one day before they hit the ice again post-lockout. With their help, we were able to take the catchphrase from the fan favorite “Put A Bird On It" sketch to… put a bird on the Stanley Cup, literally, as the L.A. King’s mascot tweeted a photo of himself wearing a Put A Bird On It t-shirt, posing with the Stanley Cup. Students from The People’s Improv Theatre were able to showcase their own comedy shows and studies and at one point, exchange tweets with guest star Rosanne Barr, a fellow Portlandia Twitter follower. Their week of guest Tweeting culminated with a Portlandia watch party and a raffle for a Portlandia bike. Our friends at In Other Words, the real feminist bookstore that inspired the Women and Women First Portlandia sketches, made their week especially enjoyable for fans as they not only shared the daily activities of In Other Words and live-tweeted a new episode of Portlandia, but continued to tweet through the Super Bowl weekend… from a feminist perspective. Super fans such as a Portland-based writer, a D.C-based comedian and a Philadelphia-based couple who used their time to decided whether or not they should move to Portland, helped create many more special moments throughout the campaign.
Lost Remote article on the Portlandia Co-Op: http://lostremote.com/spoiler-alert-how-ifcs-portlandia-is-dominating-social-tv_b36373 More info on the Portlandia Co-Op: http://www.ifc.com/co-op
