Overview:

In November 2020, Warner Records teamed up with Hulu to launch the official soundtrack alongside the release of the highly anticipated holiday movie, Happiest Season. The soundtrack had a huge opportunity to align itself with the movie around the holiday season and also featured a number of Warner Records artists (Bebe Rexha, Anne-Marie, Tegan and Sara, Brandy Clark, Carlie Hanson, Jake Wesley Rogers), making the soundtrack an even bigger opportunity to grow the audiences of those Warner Records artists. Starring Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Daniel Levy, Mary Holland, Victor Garber, and Mary Steenburgen and also being the first lesbian Christmas rom-com produced by a major Hollywood studio, the opportunity was massive and the expectations for this film were high.

My Role:

I led the digital marketing strategy for this release, frequently collaborating with Hulu marketing teams to develop digital marketing initiatives aimed at growing awareness of the film and soundtrack as well as driving consumption and views of the film and soundtrack. Marketing for the film and soundtrack were frequently intertwined, with music being a key part of the holiday season and songs from the soundtrack being featured in promotional assets for the film.

Results:

Working closely with Hulu, talent management, artists and other affiliated parties like Justin Tranter and GLAAD, I successfully distributed content promoting the soundtrack to a combined Instagram reach of more than 25 million followers. To this day, the Yule Log remains on Hulu and Youtube and acts as a form of passive marketing for the soundtrack each holiday season when Hulu re-promotes the film.

Strategy:

• Content Strategy and Social Rollout: I built a robust social strategy and content calendar around the key tentpoles of the music and film release, including the soundtrack announcement & first single, the full soundtrack release, the film trailer release, the start of the holiday season post Thanksgiving, and the week of Christmas. To align the soundtrack closely with film marketing, I ideated various content concepts to post the social accounts for Hulu, Happiest Season, cast, soundtrack artists and other affiliates. For each entity, I provided posting strategy, social assets, copywriting support and occasional posting support, as well as additional ideas to support the soundtrack, such as TikTok concepts, live Tweeting suggestions and best practices. 

• On-Platform Marketing: I pitched an idea to the Hulu marketing team to develop a LGBTQ+ inspired Yule Log, to feature on Youtube and the official Hulu page for the film as an extra piece of content. This had never been done before at Hulu, but after many discussions with leadership, I was able to get this project over the line and launch it ahead of Christmas. In addition to Hulu and Youtube, I pitched and secured playlisting across TikTok’s key holiday playlists and got an official Twitter emoji for the hashtag #HappiestSeason.

• Instagram Live Series: I pitched and executed a series of Instagram Live chats between artists and the executive producer of the soundtrack, Justin Tranter, including one with breakout country star, Brandy Clark. These live chats took place as a takeover by the artist on the @HappiestSeason Instagram, further driving awareness of the soundtrack amongst fans of the film.

• Partner Amplification: I worked closely with Outfest & GLAAD on a PSA in support of members of the LGBTQ+ community navigating family time during the holidays, especially in the COVID era. It featured several cast members including Dan Levy and Kristen Stewart, as well as soundtrack artists Shea Diamond and Carlie Hanson. The PSA featured Carlie Hanson’s song “Chosen Family”, so I worked closely with GLAAD to optimize the content and drive traffic back to the soundtrack.

• Social Optimization & Best Practices: Throughout this campaign, I ensured best practices were followed so fans of the film could seamlessly be converted to listeners of the soundtrack. For example, working closely with the Hulu team, I requested that the official trailer on Youtube (7.9M views) include a direct link to stream the soundtrack and was optimized properly to convert viewers. Working closely with each artist featured on the soundtrack, I optimized their social media profiles and digital marketing channels to promote the soundtrack during the holiday season, including updating social profiles with proper call-to-actions, links and images, updating their websites and sending out email marketing blasts.

• Paid Media: I led the paid media campaign for the soundtrack release, defining what the main strategy was and how the budget would be broken down across platforms and profiles. Throughout the campaign, I communicated insights back to Warner Music Group and Hulu leadership and made optimizations and changes based on what was performing well.