The Walking Dead.

Everyone knows the Walking Dead, right? And most of us also know the basic storyline of this long-running show. The series has lost some fans in the course of the previous 8 seasons, but they’ve also gained new fans along the way, all the while maintaining a large and loyal fanbase. The new season bears the promise of a radically changed world. So, how can we convince not only the fanbase, but also the casual viewer, to watch the start of the new season live on FOX?

A story that changes radically from survival to maintaining a society? Check.
Exit of a well-known, fan-favourite character? Check.
Timejump? Check.
Cool competition during the first episodes of the new season? Double check.

If you want people to watch a show broadcast live and you want them to engage on top of that, then you have to make it worth their while. So we came up with a unique experience: they could win an actual walker, who would come and watch the next episode of The Walking Dead “live” on their couch. #walkeropmijnzetel (#walkeronmycouch) was born. In the weekend before the new season’s premiere, we unleashed a walker in two Belgian Telenet stores. People could have their picture taken with the walker, which was then posted in a photo album on Facebook. To top it all off, we organised an activation at one of the broadcasters of The Walking Dead.

Of course, our job didn’t end there. We had come up with the prize and the hashtag, now we had to shape the campaign.

We had our conversation starter, but we also needed to keep the conversations going. Hence, we wrote out the scripts for the conversations on Facebook Messenger. The next step was managing all conversations that had been started with #walkeropmijnzetel. Talk about tribe management! 😉

Next to bringing 1 walker into the living room of 1 winner every week, the competition also had to create a buzz. In order to have more resonance with our audience, we drew up a content calendar for the FOX Facebook page, and we took care of their Instagram and Facebook live stories when the walker was at the winner’s place.

Measured in the number of started conversations with #walkeropmijnzetel (#walkeronmycouch), the campaign was a big success. Thanks to the social media campaign, coupled with activations at the stores which were also posted on social media, interest peaked at the day of the first episode of the last season, with a whopping number of conversations and participants at the end of the day.

Raise awareness and get people engaged for the start of season 9 of The Walking Dead? Check!