In late 2021, when everyone was still stuck at home on the couch, overwhelmed with the slew of new shows popping up daily to fill their days, the core challenge was clear: How do you break through the noise from hundreds of competing choices and convince these audiences that this new show is in fact a must-watch? Going further, how do you create an army of hardcore fans who can’t get enough of Yellowjackets? In order to build a hit, we needed to recruit both a young Gen Z audience who’d relate to the teen ensemble, and their Gen X Moms, who could lean into the mid-90s nostalgia, and build strong word of mouth.

The challenge of breaking through the crowded entertainment space was a daunting task, especially with scripted series reaching an all-time high of 559 series in 2021. But we knew we had the goods to do so.

Our campaign set out to build a cult following. To propel our Instagram page into motion we teased out what was to come by cryptically painting the show’s premiere date across the plane that crashes in the first episode. Original black box recordings teased out the tone of the series and built intrigue across various Showtime channels and our page. Through our teaser content we introduced our unique voice that captured the dark humor and grit of the complex female characters. Once the show aired, our fan first content approach was anchored around the show’s weekly release schedule. The night before each episode, we tweeted out timestamps with the bloodiest moments from the show as a way for fans to warn their bloodphobic friends while spreading the word about the show. After each episode, social listening informed reactive content such as gifs & clips to fuel fan conversation.

Through planned, anticipated, and reactive content on our channel, talent channels and Showtime channels, we kept fans engaged and wanting to watch each week. The initial launch of our teaser content (the premiere date etched on the plane, original blackbox recordings, team tryouts played with link to the premiere) left audiences pondering our central campaign question: What really happened out there?

The show’s cross-generational appeal was emphasized with bespoke content tailored to millennial and Gen Z target audiences, bringing forward 90s themes, and visually juxtaposing the dual story timelines. Through weekly social listening, we unearthed fans’ most talked about moments and created reactive content essential to building organic conversations with fans. To satisfy fans’ post-streaming high, we announced a timely season 2 date announcement with the ominous postcard from the series. Throughout the campaign we continuously leveraged talent and insight-driven, fomo-inducing content to build buzz and drive discovery among streamers.

Every week a content cadence teased upcoming episodes with clips, stills, and show tweets.

Social listening identified emergent trends and created learnings that stoked the fire week over week and inspired reactive content to capitalize on hot topics:

- Active community management expanded conversation

- Engagement was encouraged with talked-about quotes for fans to breakdown and discuss

- Original posts offered tributes to characters loved and lost

- Playlists were created to highlight the show’s talked about music

- New content highlighted all the WTF moments by posting fan-reactive content, relevant gifs, and community management highlights

As the hive gained power…

- Fan art emerged as part of the community

- Celebs joined in the growing conversations

- We empowered TikTok influencers to sustain the growing buzz and grow the hive even further

- Original merch was quickly produced and repped with pride

By week seven, social conversation had quadrupled!

Yellowjackets is SHOWTIME’s biggest first year series in the past 6 years. Buzz and engagement grew all season as google searches climbed weekly through the finale.

Yellowjackets is the second most streamed series in SHOWTIME history.

Cumulative mentions doubled over the first four episodes, and then exploded - doubling again in two weeks. Over the final three weeks, fan conversation continued to double week over week. By the finale, this campaign was generating 27x as much buzz as it was during premiere week, a record of unprecedented growth.

Yellowjackets became a 2021 cultural phenomenon. Eventually, Yellowjackets was recognized as not only the buzziest, but made many Best of 2021 lists.