Dialling up the fear factor with HBO Max for IT: Welcome to Derry.
When HBO Max came to us wanting to dial up the fear factor for IT: Welcome to Derry and get people buzzing about their Split Scream event across the spooky season, we built a simple but powerful Val Morgan Group solution incorporating Cinema, Outdoor and Digital to help give audiences every reason to creep back into the IT universe.
Through Val Morgan Cinema, we rolled out a “Horror Passport,” playing the IT: Welcome to Derry trailer in pre-show spots across the biggest thriller and horror films of the season, catching people right when they were already braced for a scare.
Our Val Morgan Digital team kept fans in the fright zone with interactive BuzzFeed quizzes, including 'Would You Survive Derry?', plus PSA-style articles across BuzzFeed and LADbible that unpacked what the series is all about. Each piece directed readers to the trailer and gave them a chance to enter competitions to win Split Scream tickets, keeping engagement high and curiosity even higher.
We also captured on-the-ground footage with our BuzzFeed and LADbible creators at the Split Scream event, to document every jump scare, gasp and moment of chaos first-hand. Their exclusive content offered fans a peek behind the curtain and helped keep the buzz alive.
Finally, through our programmatic outdoor solution, Social Journeys, we extended all the content from BuzzFeed and LADbible across our retail network, a true from URL to IRL experience that connected the articles with audiences during key moments of their day.
Kobi Wheeler, Implementation and Activation Directer at EssenceMediaCom commented on the campaign, “This campaign is a perfect example of what can be achieved when you combine an exciting title like the HBO Max original 'IT: Welcome to Derry', with a highly engaging PR-able event (with Special Group as the lead agency), the intelligent media buying strategy from EssenceMediacom and a diverse media ecosystem like the Val Morgan Group.
During the planning phase of the campaign, Special Group presented their idea to the clients and ourselves for the Split Scream event and we at EssenceMediacom immediately thought this would be a perfect opportunity to partner with Val Morgan Group to help elevate and amplify the idea. The Val Morgan Group team were incredibly helpful and worked closely with both ourselves, the HBO Max team and Special Group to develop an immersive media approach that made the best of all formats that Val Morgan Group offers.
Huge thank you to everyone at the HBO Max team for opportunity to work on this campaign, and to Special Group and Val Morgan Group for all the hard work to bring this together”
Through the power of Val Morgan Group, we helped HBO Max continue to build awareness, spark intrigue, and build real anticipation for the new series. A perfect recipe for a standout Halloween streaming moment.
