Cartoon Network took fans on a three-week voting experience to unveil the “Baddest Bad to ever Battle Mordecai and Rigby" from September 11 through September 28, 2012. Week one (Round 1) began with 8 of the “baddest" Regular Show villains paired up against each other. Cartoon Network posted an image of the villain and asked fans to “like" the villain they thought would win in each match up. Week two (Round 2) began with the four villains chosen from the previous matchups, and week three (Round 3) was the championship round. On the day of the Season 4 opener, the “Baddest Bad" of all villains was revealed as “The Hammer." With each round, there was a new cover image posted – illustrating the bracket results. Coinciding with the Ultimate Villain Smackdown - and over the course of the 3-week downtime - were posts encouraging fans to tune-in to Battle, Hero and Villain themed Regular Show Episodes. Since the launch of the Regular Show Facebook page in September 2010, the primary objective was to attract new viewers, and message to show tune-in. Over the last 2.5 years, these objectives have remained the same, but Cartoon Network has undertaken a number of different strategies to appeal to our growing number of fans, and punctuate the core brand message. By effectively appealing to the needs of Regular Shows’ core audience, the Facebook page has seen a progressive increase in engagement and “likes," all while staying true to the brand voice. Cartoon Network deserves to win “Best Use of Social Media for TV" because the Regular Show Ultimate Villain Smackdown not only saw celebrated success in a challenging dynamic, but it epitomized the objectives set forth at the launch of the Facebook page in 2010. In the execution of this Facebook stunt, Cartoon Network was faced with two potential obstacles. The first was to raise awareness, without revealing that the villains were returning to the Season 4 premiere. The second was to keep fans returning to the Regular Show Facebook page in lieu of the fact that the show was in replays. With that in mind, the objectives of this Facebook stunt were to: -- Get fans thinking about the Regular Show Villains in advance of the season premiere, without revealing the premise of “Exit 9B." -- Develop a share-able, engaging stunt that will excite current fans, and attract new fans. -- Keep Facebook activity intriguing during the 3 week “downtime" (between s3 finale and s4 premiere). The Ultimate Villain Smackdown required fans to return to the page time and time again to ensure the “Baddest Bad" Villain was chosen to reign on all things Bad. Though the show was in replays during the time period of this Facebook stunt, Cartoon Network saw an increase in activity, including “likes" and “shares." Specifically, during this period, The Regular Show page saw the average daily interactions increase by 3,000 and the engagement increase by 40%. In addition to the increase in activity, this stunt effectively managed to keep Regular Show, and its villain’s top of mind for the three weeks leading into the Season 4 premiere. As such, the season 4 premiere, “Exit 9B" is one of the highest rated episodes of the series, and the highest rated episode of the season to date.
The Regular Show Facebook activation was inspired by the storyline of Regular Show’s season 4 premiere, “Exit 9B." In this episode, Mordecai, Rigby and the rest of the crew take on all of the villains from their past, in an effort to save the park.
