Transparent S1 Emmy Campaign (Phase 1)
The Golden Globes win boosted the first season of Transparent into mainstream conversation. As a result, streams for Transparent increased in the days following the Globes win and awareness for the series and the service increased exponentially among consumers. This was incredibly important as Prime Video was still establishing itself as a competitive platform against Netflix and HBO. An Emmy nomination and potential win would be important for the series, Amazon Studios and Prime Video as it would reinforce the quality of content available to Prime customers.
How should viewers think about the campaign?
Core Essence: Bold, Brave, and Clever
While the Emmy voting process has become institutionalized, and traditional placements are important, we wanted to transform how we approached the traditional Emmy campaigns to drive intent to vote. The first phase of campaigning focused on creating noise in a very cluttered arena. In 2014, there were 108 dramas and 86 comedies vying for one of 6 nomination slots. Our efforts aimed to surgically surround and reach Emmy voters in unexpected ways. Our intent was to create a call to action that would resonate with voters on a personal level. We wanted to push Emmy Voters out of their comfort zone and create an emotional connection to the series. We reinforced the authentic comedic and heartfelt moments in the series to generate broad appeal. The campaign creative conveyed that Amazon and Transparent are a bold alternative to the current comedic, entertainment landscape. Ultimately, our efforts aimed at starting a movement; one that communicated that Transparent has transformed the modern television landscape. We wanted consumers and voters alike to see Transparent as revolutionary and create an army of supporters for the show.
Creative
Transparent appealed to Emmy voters with a call-out that is deeper than just, “vote for us.” For this campaign, we did not want to replicate the typical Emmy campaign with unit photography, quotes and trophies. Our efforts communicated how Bold, Brave and Clever the series was in an artful, elegant way that would stand out from the FYC clutter.
Family First: As a unique and compelling family, we leveraged the quirky closeness of the Pfefferman family to create a 1:1 connection with voters.
#BETRANSPARENT MOVEMENT
“It's only April, but 2015 may be remembered as the year the term ‘transgender’ fully entered mainstream consciousness.” [1]
In 2015, Transparent was at the forefront of transgender conversation and we wanted to ensure that the Emmy campaign reinforced acceptance of the transgender movement. The goal was to create a social movement, similar to the #IceBucketChallenge where consumers take action and show support for transgender issues as a whole.
SOCIAL: We redefined the role social media played for Emmy voters during the campaign by taking localized experiential campaign components and turning them into a national #BeTransparent movement. The hash tag wove together each campaign vertical into one cohesive #BeTransparent movement across trade and consumer messaging.
This is Me Docuseries (5/30): Five, 3 - 5 minute-long Transparent inspired documentaries - directed by five different trans and gender nonconforming filmmakers - premiered on Entertainment Weekly to continue to bring awareness to the subject matter among both trade and consumers during the campaign. The docuseries is currently available on Amazon Prime Video and was nominated for Outstanding Short-Format Nonfiction Programming.
Promotional Stunts: In an effort to drive social conversation for Transparent, the docuseries, and the #BeTransparent movement, multiple promotional stunts were triggered to spark social conversation. Each story was seeded out to press outlets to reinforce the social movement.
Branded #BeTransparent catering bags delivered to Studios: In a first to market opportunity that ran for a two-week period (6/8-6/19), we partnered with Olive & Thyme as they delivered directly to studios, agencies, guilds (etc.) to re-brand their local delivery bags with the #BeTransparent messaging. Each store is estimated to have 1000-1200 deliveries or pick up orders per day. In addition, deliveries included branded #BeTransparent FYC silkscreen printed cookies as an additional way to reach our target and drive consideration.
Street Teams canvased studios, talent agencies, trades and guilds for a 3 days beginning 6/15, when the Emmy voting window opens. Teams wore matching kaftans and held poster boards of the #BeTransparent messaging in the morning as people drove in to the studios, and at lunch as the congregate in front of the food trucks near studios.
#BeTransparent: Throughout social, we encouraged fans to change their social media profile photos to the gender-neutral sign inspired by Maura’s kaftan in the first season. We also askred our subsidiaries and famous Transparent Superfans to follow our lead.
Free to Pee: Working with the LGBT centers in NY and LA, we reclaimed single stall public bathrooms in LGBT friendly restaurants. The artwork for the bathroom doors feature a gender-neutral icon with the #BeTransparent hash tag.
Free to Eat: Partnering with the same LA caters who are distributing FYC messaging and the restaurants as part of the Free to Pee partnership, we encouraged all wait staff and customer facing personnel to use gender neutral pronouns in the month of June. On social we will also encouraged consumers to adopt gender-neutral pronouns for the month of June.
Free to Be: Amazon partnered with BouqsCo.com, a premium flower delivery service, to create #BeTransparent themed bouquets that could be purchased and sent to loved ones as a token of acceptance. Socially, we encouraged our fans to send the themed flowers to the people they love and welcome through 10 organic posts. We also sent 5 bouquets of flowers to our top Pfeffer-fans.
Pride: While we know Pride will have limited overlap with the Emmy voting audience, we wanted to capitalize on the timing of the event (LA 6/12-6/14, NY 6/26-6/28) to create an army of supporters. The LA and NY events will be the culmination of all our marketing efforts in the month of June. Parade & Float: We created a Transparent branded float in which the cast will ride. In addition, working with the LGBT organizations, we garnered an army of supporters to march behind the float. The “army” wore matching kaftans and carried the same #BeTransparent creative that our street teams carried. We also sponsor the “Trans-Station” footprint at pride to create a welcoming venue where all pride attendees can relax. It was branded with the #BeTransparent creative and featured a screening area for Transparent, a photo booth where attendees can take a photo and share it socially and free custom, Transparent branded CoolHause ice-cream sandwiches. Lastly, wrapped the bathrooms to include the gender-neutral signage.
[1] CNN.com; Brandon Griggs; 4.23.15, America's Transgender Moment