Cruel Summer Social Campaign
A social campaign for a Y2K-era murder mystery that was so sketchy, we hacked our own accounts.
Shorty Awards
Finalist - Instagram Campaign
Context
Freeform’s YA thriller anthology Cruel Summer returned for Season 2 with a new story, new characters, and a distinctly Y2K setting. The time-shifting murder mystery follows three teens entangled in a love triangle.
Challenge
How could we make Y2K more than a backdrop and pull fans into the world?
Insight
Young love is messy. The internet makes it messier.
Strategy
Make social an extension of the Y2K world, blurring past and present, fiction and reality, and giving fans new ways to fan the flames.
Execution
CRUELLY HACKED
We “hacked” Cruel Summer’s social accounts ahead of the finale, with a mysterious user named xUNKNOWNx deleting the show’s previous posts and taking over with memes, polls, and clues surrounding the season’s central mystery. Fans joined in with their own theories, while Hulu and Reddit communities picked up the conversation.
We extended the Y2K world beyond the takeover with:
Immersive Snapchat Lens: We put fans inside the Y2K world with a first-person exploration of the main character’s bedroom, where they could uncover hidden clues.
Fake-ID UGC: We let fans create their own Y2K identities with custom fake IDs, turning the period setting into a participatory social experience.
CD Mailers: We sent influencers nostalgic CDs packed with bonus content, bringing the Y2K world to life beyond the screen.
A social takeover from the POV of a ‘hacker’ fueled conspiracies leading up to the finale.
An immersive Snapchat lens let fans explore the main character’s bedroom.
We handed out fake ID’s to fans who engaged with us on Twitter.
We showed fans and influencers some <3 by surprising them with CD’s loaded with bonus content
Results
The ‘Cruelly Hacked’ takeover turned fan theories into a full-blown conversation heading into the finale, and the nostalgia-fueled campaign earned coverage in Adweek.
624%
increase in reach vs. the previous weeks for the social takeover
2.6K+
organic engagements on the final takeover post