Everyone binge watches. But for NBC's critically-acclaimed darling Hannibal, we wanted to transform the solo marathon viewing session into a social phenomenon. Thus, #13HourDevour was born.
#13HourDevour was an unprecedented social binge watch on Amazon Prime. On Sunday, February 23, fans watched all 13 episodes of Season 1 as @NBCHannibal and talent live tweeted. What do you tweet about for 13 hours? Exclusive content and photos, hourly giveaways with signed scripts and series prize packs, and a Q&A with Hugh Dancy (#QforHugh), just to name a few topics. The event was hosted on Twitter, but quickly spread to other platforms, too.
And @NBCHannibal wasn't alone. Hannibal cast and crew tweeted along, including Bryan Fuller, De Laurentiis Productions, Martha De Laurentiis, Aaron Abrams, David Slade and more. Influencers such as Patton Oswalt, Bree Turner and Claire Coffee joined in too, along with Amazon Video. Fans got into the action, tweeting along and even started a LiveStream chat (which EP Bryan Fuller joined three separate times!). Plus, fans and talent alike shared their #HannibalSelfie.
During the activation, the official Twitter account sent more than 250 tweets, generating +41K interactions. The first-of-its-kind social binge also earned two worldwide trending topics (#13HourDevour, #HolySavoureux) and four US trends (#HannibalSelfie, #QforHugh, Wound Man, Lawrence Wells). @NBCHannibal followers grew 3%. And #13HourDevour and related terms generated a cumulative +71K mentions (per Sysomos).
#13HourDevour's social engagement was incredibly strong and the activation generated great press coverage. But the most powerful KPI was the huge volume of positive responses we received from fans.
Fans of the show devoted their day to hanging out with @NBCHannibal and spent 13 hours binge watching together, repeatedly confirming they were "watching the #13HourDevour to the end." Fans praised the campaign, declaring: "the interaction with the fans and you guys being right there watching with us made the experience 100x more fun."
And boy, did we interact with fans. The hashtag #13HourDevour received more than 35,000 mentions while @NBCHannibal received more than 24,000. The worldwide and US trending topics generated an additional 11,000+ engagements, proving that viewers were hungry for more social interaction with the show and talent.
Yes, the campaign was to encourage new viewers to catch up and rally existing fans before the Season 2 premiere. But the ultimate goal was to delight the fans. #13HourDevour was a fan appreciation activation, rewarding viewers with enhanced content for a unique viewing experience.
