Cannes Lions
WAYFARER ENTERTAINMENT, Los Angeles / HARRY'S / 2019
Overview
Entries
Credits
Background
It’s no secret that from childhood, men in America are socialized to cut themselves off
from vulnerability and sharing emotions. They’re taught to view women as sexual
objects, property and less than. In some cases they're taught to demonize anyone from
the LGBTQ community. This “Man Box” programming starts in childhood and is
supported over a lifetime by film and television programming, familial pressure and
policing from friends. This sad state of affairs is directly responsible for the oppression,
marginalization and abuse of women. The primary objective of Man Enough was to
facilitate a sincere conversation around these issues without coming off as forced or
manipulative. We hoped men would watch the show and have similar conversations
with their friends and family. Thankfully, the sponsor gave us carte blanche to share
these stories as we saw fit and didn’t force us to integrate their products into the
narrative.
Idea
The idea was to bring together a group of influential men to talk about issues
traditionally considered taboo. In the wake of the #metoo movement, women have come together to support one another, but men have largely been left out of the conversation. While we think it’s important for women to have a free space to share, men MUST also be apart of the conversation, otherwise rape, and other abuses of which men are the
source will never stop. The show’s roundtable conversations were amplified by
segments featuring experts who provide insights into the topic of each show. The goal
was to amplify the influencers’ personal experiences with historical context to help
viewers start conversations of their own with a male friend or family member they trust.
Ultimately, we set out to make self awareness, vulnerability and the empowerment of
both sexes “cool” for the next generation of men.
Strategy
Our strategy was to partner with a brand that believed in the cause and would give us
the resources to shoot the first season. We weren’t interested in a partner that would
force us to excessively feature their logo or integrate their products in the series in a
manipulative manner. We ultimately chose a brand that gave us the creative freedom to
share the stories as we saw fit. This sponsor also gave us resources to create a
supplemental learning curriculum that would bridge the gap between entertainment and
education. We didn’t have a significant marketing budget in place and were instead able
to build an audience by leveraging the social media followings of our influential cast
members. We also used the splashy subject matter of the show to get placements
across many popular media outlets.
Execution
Casting for the show was crucial. Despite our limited budget, we were able to bring on
top influencers including Justin Baldoni, Matt McGorry, Scooter Braun, Prince Ea, Lewis
Howes, Derek Hough, Bassem Youssef, Anderson Silva and more. Each cast member
was passionate about the subject matter and eager to share the content via their social
media channels. Our partnerships with a range of non-profits ensured that the writers
had extensive knowledge of the relevant issues when crafting the narrative. Our goal
was to create content that was universally relatable and free of any political agenda or
manipulation, which would help us reach the widest audience of men as possible. We
produced the first season over the course of five shoot days and spent roughly three
months on post production. The episodes and supplemental learning curriculum were
distributed during Q1, Q2 and Q3 of 2018 across Facebook Watch and Snapchat.
Outcome
The first season of Man Enough had a baked in social media following of 68.7M across
all cast members and received 15.8M organic views via Facebook and Snapchat. This
is an important case study because our episodes ranged from 30 minutes to an hour
and ten minutes in length and had an ad spend of less than $10,000.00. We had a total
engagement of 258K with 43K shares and built a following of 69,000 on Facebook
Watch from scratch. The #MeToo episode reached 5.9 million people in the first four
days and had an average retention rate of 14 minutes. To date, Man Enough has been
screened in high school and university classrooms across the country, and our learning
curriculum has been downloaded over 100,000 times. We also received press exposure
in top publications and outlets including The New Yorker, Esquire, The Hollywood
Reporter and People.
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