2011 SAMMY Award Finalist, Best Twitter Branding Campaign HBO @TrueBloodHBO
HBO
Brand: @TrueBlood
Campaign Brief: Objectives:
True Blood, currently in its 4th season, boasts one of the most rabid fanbases for any entertainment property in recent memory.
The official True Blood Twitter profile (@TrueBloodHBO) feeds the fanbase 365 days a year, 7 days a week, in-season and off.
Twitter, and the True Blood official Twitter profile, played an instrumental role in the success of HBO’s Season 4 marketing campaign by amplifying the series’ ongoing conversation.
Strategy:
In support of the 4th season, a long-lead campaign targeted toward True Blood’s well-established base playfully implored fans to “seek help” for their “True Blood addiction.” The #TBwithdrawal hashtag – made popular by fans during previous seasons, looking to express their “withdrawal” between episodes and seasons – became a campaign tentpole, featured on posters and tagged in on-air and off-channel video assets.
All touchpoints of the #TBwithdrawal campaign (print, online video, and social) drove to tbwithdrawal.com, a Twitter “visualizer” experience that perpetually showcased tweets from fans while trending True Blood-related topics literally dripped like blood down the page. TBwithdrawal.com became the one-stop online location for all the ways Truebies could “feed their addiction” as they waited for their new season to begin, including links to HBO GO where they could “binge on every episode of every season of True Blood,” and GetGlue where they could “check themselves in” to episodes.
To extend the campaign even further, HBO leveraged Twitter’s Promoted Trend product on campaign launch day, May 31, tying #tbwithdrawal-related tweets to trend, and driving fans directly into the immersive experience of tbwithdrawal.com for deeper engagement.
Results:
TBwithdrawal.com, the tease campaign landing experience and tweet aggregator received over 160,000 page views over the course of the campaign.
The 24-hour Promoted Trend on May 31 garnered 94.8M trend impressions, generated 26.6K mentions of #trueblood and 10.3K mentions of #TBwithdrawal, and earned a 14% engagement rate – well above Twitter’s current standard.
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