Objective:
FOX approached VaynerMedia to develop a social campaign that would engage The Maze Runner's existing audience and drive conversation and awareness of the Digital HD & Blu-Ray release of the franchise's first film.
Social Mission:
We wanted to bring the movie to life in a way that actively engaged the movie's fanbase and used the social platform frequented by teens in a new and interesting way. So, we developed an engaging, overnight Snapchat challenge that mirrored events in The Maze Runner movie. The challenge leveraged the dedicated social followings of the movie franchise along with two powerful social influencers.
Strategic Approach:
From sundown to sunset on Saturday, December 13th, @mazemovies hosted an overnight Snapchat battle with Kenny Holland and Amymarie Gaertner, two established social media influencers. Throughout the night, they competed in challenges on Snapchat that mirrored events from the movie.
The activation was powered entirely by fans who were responsible for voting and helping their favorite influencer complete each challenge using the hashtag, #SurviveTheNight.
To incentivize fans to participate throughout the night and drive awareness of the Digital HD & Blu-ray movie release, they were rewarded with links to exclusive content after select challenges.
The winner of #SurviveTheNight was determined by the influencer who activated a larger majority of their community & the Maze Runner movie's fan base.
Results:
5.5MM Snapchat Impressions
6.9MM Total Social Impressions
95K Snapchat screenshots
41K+ Snapchat followers gained
33K+ views of exclusive content
...all in just 12 hours.
"They say no one survives a night in the Maze."
Beginning at sundown on December 13th, two social influencers competed in challenges beamed in from the WCKD Command Center in front of hundred of thousands of participants on Snapchat - all in the name of driving conversation around the Digital HD & Blu-ray release of The Maze Runner movie.
In just 12 short hours we shattered all of our projected benchmarks. We garnered 6.9MM total social impressions, 5.5MM of which were from Snapchat alone. Our Snapchat following grew from 0 to over 41K, marking the activation as the fastest fan acquisition campaign in the company's history. Fan response was also overwhelmingly positive. We receieved countless "thank you's" and tweets of praise; one fan went so far as to say "For the first time, Snapchat is so interactive and fun thanks to @MazeRunnerMovie".
But why did this campaign REALLY stand out? Sure, #SurviveTheNight brilliantly mirrored events in the movie, making a post-apocalyptic world social, attainable, and fun. Yes, we offered exclusive, never-before-seen video content to fans - a great carrot to keep our easily-distracted millennials engaged for twelve hours. But what was truly different about our campaign is simple: there's never been an overnight competition that truly engaged the way that we did. Nobody else has hosted an influencer challenge on Snapchat and put the fate of the contestants in the hands of the community. #SurviveTheNight was powered entirely by fan engagement: they were responsible for voting and helping their favorite influencer complete each challenge, giving them a true sense of ownership of even a small piece of the massive franchise.
The teen market is tricky. There's a lot of noise - apps, messaging, streaming - and as such, it's become more and more difficult to disrupt the day-to-day of tech-savvy millennials with a truly engaging campaign. #SurviveTheNight was able to do that in a fresh way in a very specific amount of time.
