To celebrate The Defiant One’s premiere, The Day of the Defiant Ones event was crafted to be the culmination of the influencer narrative—where defiers reconvene.

Giving performers that participated in our influencer campaign a platform for their art was a natural culmination of the campaign and allowed HBO to demonstrate a commitment to powerful, provocative narratives.

Attendees got the chance to join the defiant movement by declaring their personal triumphs over odds through a series of activations that leveraged their own “You Will Never” statements, and engaged them to continue watching the series as it unfolds.

LEAN INTO TALENT

• HBO re-engaged performers from our influencer campaign to build out a concert style program that communicated our campaign message and thrilled guests. In addition to performing, these infuencers broadcast special messages from the event throughout the night on the @DefiantOnes Instagram profile.

THE DEFIANT ENTRANCE

• Multisensory hallway featured audio and visual interview clips from our content capture—layered and juxtaposed atop one another.

A POSTURE OF DEFIANCE

• On site photo studio allowed guests to strike a defiant pose. Once printed, these posters were tagged by local graffiti artists with each guest’s own “You Will Never” statement.

LIVE SCREEN PRINTING

• Guests could wear their defiance. T-shirts with 5 preset statements were available for guests to take home via the live screen printer.

SET THE STAGE

• “The Defiant Ones” bonus content, promo clips and influencer “You Will Never” statements were integrated throughout the night

The success of The Day of the Defiant Ones was tied to a number of results:

• 25 million social impressions

• 107 million press impressions

• 1500 guests

• 56 press outlets in attendance

• #TheDefiantOnes trended on Twitter at the peak of the event.

Given that the core objective driving The Day of the Defiant Ones was to generate press and influencer interest around the premiere of HBO’s groundbreaking new series “The Defiant Ones,” the talent showcase exceeded the HBO Multicultural Marketing Team’s expectations.