In the 2018 holiday season, Cricket Wireless wanted to promote its biggest offer, four lines of unlimited data for $100/month, and further establish its animated brand heroes as a part of pop culture. To achieve this, we created “Four for the Holidays,” a short holiday film starring Cricket’s animated brand heroes. The objective was to promote the film just like a big Hollywood studio would do it and give people a chance to learn more about Cricket’s brand heroes.

To launch the “Four for the Holidays” film in true Hollywood fashion and give people a chance to learn more about its stars, we created the world’s first live stream with animated characters combining live action with real-time motion-capture technology on Facebook and Twitter. As part of the campaign’s premiere, the press junket event was hosted and promoted by Mario Lopez, one of Hollywood’s most famous reporters, and live-streamed across Facebook and Twitter. The actors behind the characters were transformed on-screen in real time to embody their animated counterparts and answer our influencers’ queries and audience questions, and to participate in social games.

Our target audience was a mobile-centric and image-conscious group of consumers whose affinity for celebrity entertainment and pop culture made them an audience ripe for our execution. We tapped into people’s love for interacting with their favorite stars and gave them a chance to talk to their beloved brand characters in real time. It was the first time people could ask advanced 3D animated characters anything and get answers back in real time via a social live stream.

We combined live action with real-time motion-capture technology, the technique using live actors wearing suits with reflective markers for cameras to track and record their motions, to allow the actors behind our animated Cricket characters to participate in a social live-stream event. The Live Social Press Junket was held on November 9, 2018. It was live-streamed through Facebook and Twitter as part of the premiere of the campaign. After the event, the content was distributed via Facebook and Twitter. The event was promoted through paid and organic social posts coming from Cricket Wireless and Mario Lopez. It was targeted at a mobile-centric and image-conscious group of consumers whose affinity for celebrity entertainment and pop culture made them an audience ripe for our execution.

The Live Social Press Junket became one of the most successful social initiatives in the brand’s history, garnering over 11 million impressions, over 5 million views, and 41% social share of voice in the wireless category. The social initiative was part of a larger brand campaign that helped Cricket Wireless reach more than 10 million subscribers, an increase of more than 5 million subscribers in its 5 years since joining the AT&T family, making 2018 the best year in Cricket’s 19-year history.