When nearly 30 million people tuned in live to watch the biggest debate in American history, we hijacked the event with a political ad for a new candidate: Frank Underwood. The ad was just the beginning of the fully realized “FU 2016” campaign for the fictional president. Voters could visit a campaign headquarters we built at a national debate. An online campaign headquarters allowed people to learn more about Frank and use a tool to say “FU” to any issue facing America on social media. More, people could show their support for Frank by purchasing campaign merchandise we sold at major retailers across the country.

We modeled all the elements of the FU 2016 campaign after real political campaigns. During the highest rated debate in American history, the nearly 30 million people saw a classic political campaign ad, until the very last second where we revealed who it was truly for: Frank Underwood. The ad led voters to Underwood’s digital campaign headquarters: FU2016.com. On the site, voters could view Frank’s platform, discover Easter eggs about the fate of the First Lady, and use a digital tool to say “FU” to any issue facing America today on social media. People could even visit The Underwood Campaign headquarters in real life, at a pop-up we built outside the South Carolina debate. Here, people could learn about Frank’s platform, support Frank with campaign merchandise and even sit in the oval office from the show itself. Finally, we even created FU 2016 political campaign merchandise that was sold nationwide

The campaign was the most successful launch in Netflix history. The Underwood campaign was instantly a top trending topic globally on Twitter and Facebook during the most watched debate in American history. The ad itself has received nearly 7 million video views in the first 24 hours. The campaign as a whole has received over 6.6 billion impressions to date.

In a year when politics dominated popular culture, we saw an opportunity to hijack the

conversation to announce the return of fictional president during a very real moment in

American history. The FU2016 campaign for House of Cards engaged people at every level to become active participants in the Frank Underwood political campaign.

Thanks to Donald Trump’s absurd antics, politics dominated the conversation in America like never before. Amidst this media frenzy, we saw an opportunity: to hijack the conversation to announce the return of fictional president during a very real moment in American history.

The work rolled out strategically, attracting previous fans first to generate conversation and earned media, and then dominated mass reaching entertainment, political and news platforms to engage a broader audience.

Netflix tasked us with launching the new season of House of Cards. The challenge? To

launch a fictional political thriller in year when real politics were stealing the show.