Welcoming fans to the stylish and surreptitious world of 1970s spycraft, our campaign for HBO’s The Sympathizer captured fans with thumb stopping creative that played into the duplicity of our characters. Letting the show’s powerful imagery speak for itself, we framed the action with a filmic look, sliding imagery around as if being pulled through a projector. Capturing the essence of the time & setting, we drew fans into the narrative, placing our characters in era specific film slides, as we witnessed the development of their journey as master manipulators. Hyping up our international cast of stars, we leaned into the critical buzz surrounding the series, with creative that celebrated their performances and the complex narrative. The result: an expertly crafted campaign that leaned into the strengths of the series and created a cohesive style for the creative to flourish on socials.
For our campaign the main focus was on the characters, and in turn, the performances of those characters. From Hoa Xuande as our lead, to Sandra Oh and Robert Downey Jr.s bravado performances, the cast was something to behold. We knew their performances would capture the attention of viewers across the world and draw them into the world of our characters.Throughout the campaign we used imagery that related to the characters, placing them all inside a “proof sheet” or "contact sheet” of photos, as we showed off their double lives. This gave us a unique aesthetic to show off the footage from the series as well as detailing each character in a way that was in line with the source material.This also let us play with the ever changing allegiances and back and forth nature of our characters, as the photos on the contact sheets alternated and changed for a shifting perspective on who these characters really were…as if they were hiding something and constantly changing their stories to fit their own narrative.
Placing our focus on the characters of the series paid off for us, with character spotlights, especially those featuring Robert Downey Jr. overperforming amongst all of the other assets. Fans responded to the show’s characters in the way that we thought they would, gravitating towards the standout performances and themes seen in the series, as the character pieces performed great on social, contributing to the overall engagement of the series.
