4 Creative Promotion Strategies to Borrow From the Media Industry

Last year, we witnessed what some may call a revolution in content creation. Rather than adhering to the status quo and continuing to produce stand-alone articles to educate our audiences, we started emulating the media industry by crafting long-form, episodic video series and podcasts to entertain them.

However, while this is certainly one giant step in the right direction, it’s not enough to just create this content. If we want to create content like media companies, we have to market it like them, too! From leveraging social media trends to creating behind-the-scenes video content, here are four creative marketing examples that the media industry has used to promote some of its most popular shows and films. We’ve also extracted relevant takeaways from these examples so you can apply them to your own marketing strategy. Let’s get right to it!

1. Start a relatable conversation about your series’ theme

To promote the first season of their hit show You, Lifetime crafted a video of one of the most suspenseful scenes from its first season — Joe casually starting a relationship with Beck by scooping her out of the way of an oncoming train. I don’t know about you, but I was practically screaming at the screen when I saw this ("Beck, grab his hand … no, for real, grab it now!"). Have a look for yourself:

Even though this video is already captivating and terrifying on its own, You’s social team took this opportunity to start a conversation with their viewers and drum up some engagement. In the post’s description, they ask their audience to share their craziest stories about how they met a significant other, a relatable and intriguing question that You’s audience couldn’t help but answer. The post itself generated over 3,400 reactions and 1,500 comments on Facebook alone — pretty impressive!

Key takeaway:

If you want to take this page out of You’s social media marketing playbook, identify one of your video series’ most interesting, insightful, and relatable themes. You can pinpoint these themes by examining your brand values and defining your audience’s problems. Then, find a snippet of your video series that covers this theme and ask your audience to share their own experiences relating to it!

Asking people to talk about themselves is a surefire way to garner engagement and, in turn, boost your post’s organic reach. In fact, talking about yourself activates the parts of the brain that also light up when you eat delicious food, so this is an effective way to make people feel good when they interact with your brand and build a loyal, passionate audience.

2. Hop on viral social media trends

During season two of Stranger Things — a show set in the '80s — the iconic movie Ghostbusters was released, and the cast of adorable misfits on the show instantly become obsessed with it. To show their nerdy love and adoration for the iconic movie, the motley crew all dress up as a character from the film on Halloween. But, to their utter disappointment and embarrassment, they were the only ones in costume at school. This made for one of season two’s most hilarious and memorable moments.

Fast-forward to nearly two years after the release of the second season, the “I’m going to tell my kids this was … ” meme is in full swing. Miss the memo on this meme? Check out this article for its brief history. The Stranger Things’ social team saw the perfect opportunity to capitalize on this trend by tweeting a picture of the boys dressed up as the Ghostbusters and including the caption, “I’m going to tell my kids these were the Ghostbusters.”

The Stranger Things social team cleverly leveraged this viral trend to naturally spotlight one of their audience’s favorite moments from the show. Doing so rekindled all the warm-and-fuzzies surrounding this scene and evoked some nostalgic memories for many, generating nearly 70,000 favorites and 10,000 retweets.

Key takeaway

Stranger Things’ social media success teaches marketers to strike while a viral social media trend is hot. It’s a natural, fun way to promote your video series. If it’s truly clever, it’ll also be sure to get some laughs from your niche audience. They’ll appreciate your ability to stay self-aware and up-to-date with trends. To pinpoint these trends, sift through the “Trends” section on Twitter or use your social media management platform to do some social listening.

Here’s an example of a social media moment we capitalized on here at Wistia when promoting our docu-series, One, Ten, One Hundred. Remember when the internet lost it over the Starbucks cup (or was it?) in that one Game of Thrones episode? Those were some good times.

3. Create a behind-the-scenes video about a running gag

One of The Good Place’s most beloved and hilarious running gags is its characters’ inability to curse when they’re in heaven. Naturally, the show’s marketing team crafted a highlight reel of The Good Place’s characters saying fake curse words (spliced in with some commentary from the actors themselves) and shared it on their Facebook page. You’re going to enjoy the fork out of this one:

Showcasing the actors’ love for these fake curse words is an effective way to make their audience feel like they have something in common with these top celebs. As we always say here at Wistia, being human and building a true connection with your audience is your best bet for gaining loyal fans for your brand. With this video, The Good Place was able to forge an even stronger connection between the talent and the audience, racking up over 2,200 reactions and 100 comments.

Key Takeaway:

When focusing on highlighting one of your video series’ running gags or common topics, create a video that peels back the curtain and reveals its true origin or why your actors or hosts admire it in the first place. It’ll make for an insightful video about a topic that your audience is already interested in and passionate about. If you need some additional inspiration, check out our documentary-style video about how we built the Brandwagon for our talk show for marketers: Brandwagon.

4. Share awards, critical acclaim, or positive feedback

Now, this one might sound a bit obvious, but you’d be surprised how often marketers overlook this — don’t be shy about your successes! While it might feel like giving yourself a pat on the back, you should always share the wins your series has accrued overtime online as social proof.

Take Marriage Story, for example. One huge reason the film skyrocketed in popularity was that it kept earning nominations and winning awards. And while that might sound like circular reasoning, if they hadn’t shared all that acclaim with the world, we never would’ve known about it in the first place. Posting a photo to social media that shows all of the Golden Globe nominations the movie received provides even more proof that it’s a film worth watching.

Key takeaway:

If your video series has earned awards, critical acclaim, or even just positive audience feedback, promote it on social media and on your blog. With countless pieces of content screaming for your audience’s attention every single day, social proof is one of the most effective ways to cut through the noise.

Humans evolved in tribes, so we naturally believe the “group” knows better than the individual. Thanks to that psychological phenomenon, the more social proof backing up the quality of your video series, the more likely people will give it a shot.

Marketing like a media company

The typical marketing distribution playbook — publish a blog post, send an email, and post to social media — is a bit outdated and stale, especially when promoting binge-worthy content. Fortunately, arming yourself with these creative marketing strategies will allow you to cut through all the content clutter and build more hype for your video series than Baby Yoda did for The Mandalorian.