We gave people a reason to follow Pepto, using the show that asked why anyone would follow Pepto. We posted a tweet, giving Happyish fans a chance to watch Happyish on us (with a 12 month Showtime subscription). All they had to do to win? Follow Pepto.

Happyish premiered on the 27 April, 2015. During the premier, Pepto’s Twitter page was mentioned in a negative light. We used Twitter to respond, with a single tweet targeted at Happyish viewers who would inevitably visit our page due to the mention. The tweet incentivized Happyish viewers to follow Pepto, thus turning the negative situation into a positive. In addition, during the premier, we tracked Twitter mentions of Pepto and Happyish, re-directing conversation towards our campaign. And since we knew that Showtime reruns their premiers for a week after launch, we continued to run the idea, while monitoring and responding to conversation that whole week. Although the campaign consisted of just a single tweet and responses, the scale and reach was exponentially larger. We leveraged the popularity of Showtime, one of America’s biggest TV networks, to ensure our inexpensive Twitter idea received more attention than the show itself.

With one tweet, we hijacked the social conversation around the launch of Happyish. In fact, if you searched for Happyish on twitter during the premier, you wouldn't find anything about the show. Because more people were sharing our idea than talking about the premier. This meant that, with one tweet, we increased Pepto's following by 27% and got 4.5 million impressions. And while Pepto was getting thousands of new followers, Happyish barely got 100. We also got traditional publicity, with publications like Forbes Magazine and The Oracle writing about the campaign, and Adweek calling us 1 of the 25 funniest brands to follow on Twitter. In summary, with one tweet, we turned a potentially negative publicity situation for Pepto, into the most successful social campaign the brand has undertaken, and got more social buzz than the premier of a new show on one of America's biggest TV networks.

We directly targeted Happyish fans, giving them a reason to follow Pepto, using the show that asked why anyone would follow Pepto. The aim was to generate a measurable response, encouraging Happyish fans to follow us – despite what the show had said about the brand. The fact that we aimed to create a measurable response through direct communication with these fans makes the idea relevant in the Direct Lions category.

Due to Pepto’s primetime mention, thousands of Happyish viewers would visit the Pepto Twitter page during the show’s premier. Our strategy was to be ready for them. If Happyish was going to ask “who the fuck wants to follow Pepto on Twitter?”, we’d use Twitter to hijack the conversation and give viewers a reason to follow us. We posted a single tweet, giving Happyish fans a chance to watch Happyish on us. All they had to do to win? Follow Pepto. The tweet was posted moments after Pepto’s primetime mention, so anyone visiting our page would see it. In addition, during the premier, we tracked Twitter discussion around Pepto and Happyish and directed all conversation back towards our campaign. And since networks like Showtime play reruns of premier episodes for a week after launch, we would continue running the promotion, while monitoring and responding to the conversation, that whole week.

In 2015, Showtime launched their new comedy series – Happyish. To our surprise, Pepto Bismol got a mention in the premier episode. The show’s lead character, Thom Payne, asks “Who the fuck wants to follow Pepto Bismol on Twitter?” It wasn’t exactly the kind of mention we wanted. But it gave us an idea.