HBO

Always-On Social Studio
(2017 - 2020)

Agency: ENGINE (fka Deep Focus)
Creative Partner: Ashley Tyra
Production Lead: Caroline Garrett
PM Lead: Christine DiStasio

We defined the social voice of a legendary brand.
We made millions of new (organic) friends.
We won the Webby for Best Overall Social Presence.

Starting in 2017, HBO social transformed from a promotional space into a topically-relevant, editorially-driven, conversation-starting, always-trending brand with a personality as big as its shows. A brand with a defined voice, a distinct point of view and a national holiday for Laura Dern.

I led development of a social strategy playbook and newsroom-style content studio to iterate daily and long-term editorial strategies for the @HBO channels. As consultant to cross-functional executive leadership teams within HBO and team lead for the agency, I supervised a group of ten across content strategy, multi-media production, project management and analytics disciplines in partnership with my creative lead.

The collaboration was an overwhelming success, succeeding across primary objectives (including 2MM+ organic follower acquisitions in the first year and a 35% growth in social engagements across channels) with creative work receiving global recognition including at Cannes Lions, the Clio Awards, the Webby Awards, D&AD and The One Show. 

 TWITTER

Twitter is a lot like Westworld — it can be an entertaining place full of surprises or an inescapable hell hole that sucks you in and never lets you go.
We decided to try to be the former. It worked out for us.

 
 
 

SOPRANOS NICKNAMES

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Sopranos, we sent out a single tweet offering Soprano-worthy mob nicknames for whoever wanted one. Over 24,000 people replied, including Roger Federer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Nussbaum, Blake Griffin, Macaulay Culkin and a big chunk of brands on Twitter.

We wrote, designed, and posted over 100 nicknames in real-time, creating one of the great Twitter threads of the year.

To quote the nice people at Fast Company: “Look, Brand Twitter rightfully gets a lot of flack. It tries too hard. It’s too gimmicky. It’s manufactured human interaction. But this? THIS. This was goooood.”

 
 

Click the tweet to scroll at your leisure or check out some of the responses below.

#DERNDAY

Do you ever sit around thinking about how Laura Dern deserves her own holiday? Same. So we invented #DernDay: a social holiday that apparently everyone wanted.

 
 

INSTAGRAM

Instagram is a great place to show off what you got. And when you got the best talent in the game, it’s not hard. We used the platform to become super fans of talent... and sometimes legal let us make memes.

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It’s #SharpWeek. Hide your emotions.

A post shared by HBO (@hbo) on

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Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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Her babysitter died but her hair THRIVED.

A post shared by HBO (@hbo) on

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What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

A post shared by HBO (@hbo) on

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Free. No bedbugs.

A post shared by HBO (@hbo) on

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Sundays.

A post shared by HBO (@hbo) on

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Men, amirite?

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It’s just hats. #derbyday

A post shared by HBO (@hbo) on

INSTAGRAM STORIES

Instagram Stories can be a wasteland of quotidian garbage... or it can be a useful tool. Need help deciding what to watch? Need a game to play to pass some time? Need a little background on a major historical event that served as the basis for a groundbreaking miniseries? We got you.

 Awards & Recognition

  • Cannes Lions 2019

    • Shortlist - Social & Influencer Lions - Co-Creation & User Generated Content - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Shortlist - Social & Influencer Lions - Breakthrough on a Budget - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Shortlist - Mobile Lions - Content for User Engagement - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Shortlist - Direct Lions - Use of Social Platforms - Sopranos Nicknames

  • Clio Awards 2019

    • Silver - Social Media - Single Platform - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Bronze - Digital/Mobile & Social Media Technique - Sopranos Nicknames

  • Clios Entertainment 2018

    • Gold - Television/Streaming: Social Good - Night of Too Many Stars

  • Clios Entertainment 2019

    • Gold - Television/ Streaming: Digital/Mobile & Social Media Technique/ Copywriting - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Bronze - Television/ Streaming: Innovation - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Bronze - Television/Streaming: Social Media - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Shortlist - Television/Streaming: Social Media - Single Post - Sopranos Nicknames

  • Clios Entertainment 2021

    • Bronze - Television/Streaming: Public Relations - Social Good - Vote Because Campaign

  • D&AD Awards 2019

    • Shortlist - Digital Marketing - Use of Social Media - Sopranos Nicknames

  • The Drum Social Buzz Awards

    • Winner - Best Use of Twitter - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Winner - Best Viral - Sopranos Nicknames

  • OMMA Awards 2019

    • Winner - Best Viral Campaign - Sopranos Nicknames

  • OMMA Awards 2020

    • Winner - Excellence in Digital Marketing (Entertainment) - Recommended by Humans

  • The One Show 2019

    • Bronze - Social Media - Craft/Writing - Sopranos Nicknames

  • The One Show 2020

    • Merit - Direct Marketing | DI_08: Websites & Mobile - HBO - Recommended by Humans

  • The Shorty Awards 2020

    • Bronze - Real Time Response - Sopranos Nicknames

    • Finalist - Best Online Community - Sopranos Nicknames

  • ThinkLA IDEA Awards 2020

    • Winner - Best Entertainment Campaign - HBO - Recommended by Humans

  • The Webby Awards 2018

    • Honoree - Website, Corporate Social Responsibility - Night of Too Many Stars

  • The Webby Awards 2019

    • Nominee - Best Overall Social Presence - Media/Entertainment - HBO Brand Social

    • Nominee - Television & Film - The Sopranos

    • Nominee - Real-Time Response - The Sopranos

  • The Webby Awards 2020

    • Winner - Best Overall Social Presence - Media/Entertainment - HBO Brand Social

    • Honoree - PR-Best Social Community Building and Engagement for Advertising, Media & PR - Recommended by Humans

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