The concept, titled Resistance Radio, imagines a fictional radio broadcast from the show’s Neutral Zone. Resistance Radio immerses listeners in the alternate history via a Rock and Roll music radio station. Manned by three DJs trying to keep the American dream alive, giving a voice to the last holdouts of freedom among the dissenters and die-hard believers.

In this dystopian reality, Resistance Radio provides work that reimagines music as we know it, along with stories that tie into the major themes of the show’s premise.

The campaign engages existing fans while providing digestible, broad scale content for new viewers. The result blurs the lines between content and promotion, raising the show’s profile in a format not beholden to linear broadcast – yet always relevant for pop culture.

We created 4-hours of original scripted audio, presented by three DJ characters. For music, we partnered with Danger Mouse & Sam Cohen who produced and recorded 18 songs from the 60’s, reimagined and performed by various artists including Beck, Norah Jones, Sharon Van Etten, and more.

ResistanceRadio.com was the primary destination, featuring an embeddable audio player where content was shared across all primary social channels. Additional platforms included a stream on iHeartRadio, Rollingstone.com and on Alexa-enabled devices. The launch was timed with SXSW to leverage the Entertainment, Digital, and Music audiences, while promotional elements included Facebook Audio Live segments, a sponsored Twitter trend, a limited edition 7” vinyl single (sent to influencers), a music video, and a 4 -day activation & official SXSW showcase. Songs featured in the broadcast were later released as Resistance Radio: The Man In The High Castle Album, available on all major music outlets.

Within weeks, Resistance Radio had garnered major press attention and more than seven billion PR impressions, including mentions from The Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, NPR, Mashable, Fortune, and People. Interviews with Danger Mouse ran on national radio stations, and a #resistanceradio promoted Twitter trend ignited a firestorm on both sides of the political spectrum, reinforcing the campaign’s relevance to contemporary America. Over 250,000 listeners consumed 2,000,000 minutes of branded audio in the first three weeks alone, with average listening time currently at 10 minutes. Resistance Radio evolved from a marketing initiative to a pop-culture phenomenon almost-exclusively by earned media. Lastly, it has created a revenue stream from album sales and has now been written into the TV show as part of the storyline.

Resistance Radio features over 4 hours of dramatic audio storytelling and 18 new music tracks, produced by Danger Mouse, featuring top recording artists. A rich, multichannel content experience, launched to create conversation and buzz across all sectors of pop culture between seasons of Amazon’s The Man in The High Castle. Within one week of launch, the show sparked wide-scale discussion across social media and mainstream press, engaging the country in a wide debate about the meaning of freedom and authoritarianism in contemporary America, all while broadcasting messages of hope and resistance from a world where the Nazis won WWII.

While continuing to attract the largest possible audience (A18-54), we recognized an opportunity to better connect with men 18-24, and more women. These audiences are more attracted to hopeful storylines, and character-driven drama rather than the deep mythology and speculative fiction loved by longtime fans. For these audiences, we introduced new, relatable characters and hopeful storylines, utilizing familiar songs by upcoming artists with large social followings. We also drew parallels to contemporary America to make the show more relatable and immediate.

For existing and lapsed fans, we identified a deeper dive into the story’s world and mythology as the main draw. Within our music and narratives, we wove “easter eggs” of mythology content such as puzzles hidden between radio frequencies, and historical background not yet explored onscreen.

The Man In The High Castle is the most streamed Amazon Original Series, with two seasons available on Amazon Prime Video.

Based on the novel by Phillip K Dick, the complex narrative imagines 1962 America where the Allies lost WWII, and the Nazis and Imperial Japan have split control of the US.

Despite the inherently oppressive tone, our mission was to turn the series into a global franchise with an always-on promotion. Additionally, we wanted to make the series accessible to new viewers — particularly women and younger men. We wanted to develop a concept that 1) sustained engagement with current fans and created interest among new viewers; 2) created a narrative bridge across all earned, owned and paid media; 3) leveraged each medium as a storytelling device and 4) had global appeal to maximize amplification.