#DontKillSeanBean - TNT
- Jerzy Baran
- Nov 8, 2017
- 2 min read
In 2014 TNT launched a campaign #DontKillSeanBean that was aimed to promote their new drama “Legends”. They picked up the idea from Sean Bean fans that were complaining about the fact that the actor dies in almost every film or TV series that he stars in for a long time. The actor has been killed tens of times on screen and TNT were hoping to attract fans by creating a campaign focused on this matter. They created a multiplatform campaign including both traditional and social media.
They engaged the audience by launching a Tumblr page to curate fan art, GIFs and notes about Sean Bean dying on the screen which motivated the audience to participate in the action. Also, on San Diego Comic-Con, where TNT had a panel to promote their new drama, they distributed simple black T-shirts with white hashtag #DontKillSeanBean which triggered both fans and press to use the hashtag on all social media to promote the idea. Later on, TNT organised an exclusive “Ask Me Anything” event on Reddit, where Sean Bean was answering fans questions and this further engaged them into the campaign. All this actions were a great success and fans have created hundreds of memes, films, gifs, songs, etc.
The campaign links fans by using the hashtag that helps fans to join together in a common cause – to spare Sean Bean from another on-screen death. They can discuss and create their own content and thanks to the hashtag everyone interested in the case would be able to easily find it on social media. The campaign involved not only social media but also the traditional ones like press and banners, where they printed adverts of their new drama. This allowed them to reach an even wider audience and promote their drama. In addition, other celebrities joined the action and quite a few actors, writers and others put the T-shirts on which linked their own fans to the cause increasing the range of the campaign.
The campaign was a success and the response on social media was impressive. It reached over 38 million users on Facebook, over 45 million posts including #DontKillSeanBean were sent. On Twitter, the hashtag was used over 56 million times just on the day of the drama premiere. Before the premiere of the drama, the hashtag was used 17 thousand times and it was the most successful pre-premiere hashtag for any TNT show, at least up to 2014. An official comic video (Sean Bean death scene) that was emitted on TNT on the day of the premiere of the drama was seen on Youtube over 112 thousand times.
Statistics sources:
Twitter, Facebook: http://shortyawards.com/7th/dont-kill-sean-bean-legends-tnt
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