Creating conversation and effective engagement in the Breaking Bad series finale!

Did anyone catch the series finale of Breaking Bad last week? Did you talk about it on social media before, after or during the final episode? Today's post will examine the social media strategies used to promote the finale of the popular TV series, Breaking Bad. How did AMC, the show's TV station, manage to accumulate 10.3 million viewers for the final episode of Breaking Bad? Well, aside from providing an intriguing story line for viewers to follow, AMC used effective engagement techniques on social media.

Breaking Bad: An Introduction

Breaking Bad is a US television series that began in 2008. It follows the story of Walter White, a struggling chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. To ensure financial security for his family before his death, Walter starts to produce and sell drugs with one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman.

The show ran for 5 seasons with the TV station, AMC, and developed a huge fan base. It was known for placing characters in seemingly hopeless situations, where they would need to use all their wit to escape. It was this intelligent and engaging plot that hooked viewers to follow the series. Last week, the final episode aired on US TV. Up against some critically acclaimed shows and the NFL, the TV station needed to draw attention to its final episode. This was achieved largely through social media...

What sort of social media strategies and techniques were used to promote the Finale?

Conversation and engagement on social media

Social media was used by the cast and producers of the show to interact with fans, share videos and cast predictions for the final episode. AMC provided additional content and activities to express thanks to the audience for their loyalty over the years. Here are some of the specific techniques used across different social media platforms to enhance interaction with audiences and draw viewers towards the finale...

Facebook: On Facebook, the show already had over 5,000,000 likes. To engage viewers, AMC asked followers to show their affection for Breaking Bad by changing their profile picture to the following and tagging #BBaddict. This would send the show out in style, whilst advertising the finale to viewers' friends. This activity resulted in over 57,000 likes, 3,200 comments and 13,000 shares.

                                                       

They also created conversation with fans leading up to the final episode by asking followers on Facebook, 'How is it all going to end? Tell us your predictions.' This got fans talking about their theories and resulted in 19,000 likes, 17,000 comments and 1,900 shares. This conversation continued during the airing of the final episode with fans encouraged to tweet about their viewing experiences, and to farewell the show using the hashtag #GoodbyeBreakingBad on Twitter.

Twitter: A week before the finale, AMC ran a marathon online of all the Breaking Bad episodes. Casts of the series helped to promote this with Aaron Paul (who played the character Jesse Pinkman) live tweeting the Pilot episode. As he currently has over 1.2 million followers, and the series has over 680,000 followers, this quickly spread word of mouth about the finale.

Official Website & Blog: AMC also engaged their audience on the official website with social TV activities including 'story sync' a web-based application which provided a live, two screen experience that allowed viewers to vote on snap polls, answer trivia questions, play games and review moments of the show as they watched it air on TV. Users would have to register beforehand and log-on to the platform as the show started. On story sync, viewers could vote on whether or not the main character had turned to the dark side on a 'Judgement poll'...They could also ask characters questions and rank their most ingenious criminal stunts on the 'Mastermind Meter.' These activities helped to turn the viewing experience into an interactive one, where viewers could share their ideas and feelings with other excited fans. 

                               

                                     

AMC also posted plenty of additional video content on the network's site for fans, including interviews with cast and a special final farewell episode, filmed from the finale party. This farewell video was shared across Facebook and Twitter. While it received 186 views and comments on the website, it gathered over 10,800 comments, 188,000 likes and about 40,000 shares on Facebook! Talk about spreading far and fast with social media! 

                          

Before and during the final episode, fans were encouraged to post questions on the official Breaking Bad blog, on Facebook and on Twitter, to be answered by the series' cast members and its creator, Vince Gilligan. This helped to engage many viewers who were interested in conversing with the masterminds who had brought them their favourite series.

                             

Aligned promotional activities

AMC also created offline events which were strongly connected to their social media activities. As mentioned before, a party was thrown for the the airing of the final episode. Leading up to the finale, fans could enter-to-win or buy tickets to the Finale Watch Party at Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, thrown by Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman). This was a fundraiser event, with ticket proceeds going towards the Kind Campaign, an organisation devoted to stamping out bullying.

For AMC, the event, and competition, helped to drive their audience members online, as well as to the TV - everyone who scored tickets to the event was posting statuses, pictures and tweets during the party that helped to increase awareness of the final episode.

It also drove online discussions because the event helped to support a charity that was considered important to many Breaking Bad fans. This promotional event helped to generate over 51,000 likes as well as numerous comments on Facebook...here is an example of the Facebook conversations that took place on the event/competition homepage while it was active (click to view larger picture):

From analysing the Breaking bad finale campaign, we can see that AMC created conversation and engagement online by using several of the techniques suggested by W. Glynn Mangold and David J Faulds (in their article, 'Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix):

• They provided networking platforms through their story sync applications on their website.
• They used blogs and other social media tools to engage customers, interacting with them about the finale and connecting them to the actors and creators of the show.
• They designed a product with talking points and Utilized the power of story by developing a TV series with a strong plot that invited discussion.
• They used both traditional and internet-based promotions, aligning offline activities with online ones. These activities also supported causes considered important to audiences, such as the Kind Campaign.

All this drove people to talk about the series and generated popularity for the show's final episodes. Finally, fans talked about the finale because AMC put a lot of effort into thanking them on social media. Unlike other series such as LOST, Gossip Girl or Dexter, which ended quietly or tamely, Breaking Bad provided additional content and activities that got fans involved in the finale, both online and off; they made the ending exciting for fans....Did you find yourself tweeting or Facebooking about it? I would be interested to know if you could leave me a comment!

Read more about Breaking Bad social media strategies and results here:

http://socialtimes.com/breaking-bad-does-good-with-finale-social-media_b135976
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101074132
http://vator.tv/news/2013-10-07-breaking-bad-wins-first-nielsen-twitter-ratings

Key points to take away to take away from this post:

• To engage individuals in conversation about products on social media, ask directly for opinions, experiences and ideas. Link social media activities to other topics individuals will be interested in talking about: social causes, issues, celebrities, events etc. Also, encourage audiences to post their own questions about the product.
• Align marketing events with social media activities. Events should help to drive individuals onto the brand's social media sites, whilst social media activities should drive audience members towards attending events. All marketing activities should shape an experience worth sharing on social media. In other words, they should generate interaction with others over the product.
• Social media can provide companies with a cost-efficient way to thank their customers. By using networking platforms to provide additional services, information and entertainment, companies can show they value and appreciate customers. This makes them happy, and as such is likely to increase positive brand discussion online.