To build anticipation for Girls Season 3, we employed the new video feature of Instagram to seed out exclusive content to fans, who in turn, made us one of the Top 10 Most Shared Brands on the platform, according to Adweek. Launching the Season 3 campaign with an Instagram-themed “In Production" clip shared on Instagram and on HBO, we continued fanning the flame with a 15-second teaser trailer that the show’s creator and star Lena Dunham shared to her profile. The consumer reaction and positive press attention from the likes of Mashable and Refinery 29 driven from this clip alone helped us surpass 1.5 million YouTube views on the trailer’s digital release —just in the 3 days leading into its on-air premiere. The Girls fans are never satiated, so the video offerings continued through the season 3 tune-in campaign. We gave fans an unprecedented look behind the scenes of the poster shoot, and to round out 2013, introduced a fun and topical Instagram-only video series starring Lena Dunham. Realizing that Girls’ nearly 200,000-strong following on Instagram made it one of the pre-eminent brands on the platform, we chose to double down on creating content for our thriving community. Launching our campaign to the largest possible audience, we simultaneously fed the HBO’s Sunday night viewers and the Girls Instagram profile with a first peek at Season 3 footage -- using nothing other than Instagram-inspired creative. Having received the aforementioned recognition as a top-shared brand on Instagram from Adweek, we moved on to the next tactic in our Season 3 campaign: the official trailer release. Targeting the Girls superfan evangelists, we employed Lena Dunham’s Instagram profile as the venue for a 15-second mini-trailer that teased what was to come when the full trailer was released days later. Gaining nearly 50,000 likes, the teaser was praised by Mashable as having “prov[en] the storytelling potential of Instagram's 6-month-old video feature," where Vulture asserted that it “might be short, but it still has everything we need to get jazzed for season three." The next day, the full trailer was posted to the HBO YouTube channel, and the groundswell of buzz drove over 1.5 million views – well above previous season benchmarks – ahead of its on-air release. The early digital release drove major press buzz, with the @NylonMag Twitter handle declaring “OMG: The season 3 trailer of @girlsHBO is heeeere!!! Best Friday ever?!" To keep buzz going between the trailer release and the early 2014 season premiere, we kept the momentum going with exclusive video from behind-the-scenes of the Season 3 poster shoot. Saying goodbye to 2013 with a bang, we premiered our first installment of a brand-new Instagram content series on New Year’s Eve. In Lena On Hannah On, Lena Dunham shares what Hannah would think about a variety of topical subjects. The first piece, which shared Hannah’s take on New Year’s Eve festivities, left fans with something to look forward to in 2014 – more Instagram video from their favorite Girls.
