HBO is recognized as one of the most innovative entertainment brands in the world, thanks to ground-breaking series like The Sopranos, Sex and the City and The Wire.

In 2020, to support the launch of its new streaming service HBO Max, it premiered another ground-breaking show: Legendary, a voguing reality competition.

Legendary explores the ballroom scene – not to be confused with traditional ballroom dancing – in which people compete for trophies and glory at events known as balls.

It’s an embracing community for people who feel excluded by mainstream society, and a haven for LGBTQIA+ people (and other marginalized people) to express themselves.

Legendary follows eight LGBTQIA+ groups (‘houses’) from the scene, as they navigate nine balls, competing for $100,000.

To make the show – and HBO Max – a success, we needed to generate awareness and excitement about this unique show premiering on a brand-new streaming platform.

Our target audience was the LGBTQIA+ community, its allies, and culturally curious youth.

We had two insights about our targets:

? They are heavy social networkers and love being part of the conversation. 50% say keeping in touch with family and friends on social media is very important.

? They are known to be active activists and are unafraid to express their opinions. 23% have engaged in meaningful fundraising and 26% have signed a petition.

To excite this community, we needed to show that we understood the cultural importance of the ballroom scene.

Key to this scene, of course, is the power of dancing– and the feelings of liberation it brings to those who take part.

Tapping into our target’s desire to express themselves– especially on social– we would highlight the importance of voguing via a unique social dance challenge people could participate in and follow to learn about house-ballroom.

TikTok was the obvious channel for our dance challenge. The most popular videos among its 689 million monthly users are lip-syncs and dances.

We would encourage TikTokers to glam up and dance like nobody is watching, challenging them to be ‘Legendary and slay this choreo all the way down to the floor’.

Supporting our challenge, we would build excitement for Legendary by amplifying highlights from the show (known as “gagging” moments), too.

To maximise impact, we would partner with authentic influencers from the LGBTQIA+ community to raise awareness of the show and encourage fans to head to HBO Max to watch.

We would also establish partnerships with key LGBTQIA+ media publishers, leveraging their trusted voices in the community by creating custom editorial promoting key themes of the series like inclusivity and authenticity.

In line with our targets’ media habits, we would promote everything heavily on partners' social channels.

We launched #LegendaryChallenge on Legendary and HBO Max TikToks, with clips choreographed by show host and ballroom legend, Dashaun Wesley.

We hashtagged steps to make them easy to find, shared clips of contestants dancing and challenged users to respond.

We also created Instagram stories about the importance of dancing in the LGBTQIA+ community.

We amplified our message via LGBTQIA+ media owners and influencers:

•With NYC fashion mag Paper, we shared 8 digital covers featuring interviews and articles (about LGBTQIA+ nightlife and show costumes). A special Instagram AR filter let users put themselves on the cover, too.

•With Conde Nast’s Them, Vogue, and Vanity Fair, we shared targeted social posts (images, videos), supported by on-site pre-roll.

•With Pride Media, we placed ads, editorial and clips on Out.com, Advocate, and Pride, and shared on socials.

•We also worked with 15 influencers (including Jameela Jamil and Aliya Janell) to promote via Instagram/TikTok/Twitter/Facebook.

#LegendaryChallenge smashed benchmarks.

? Videos were watched 3.7BN times, +429% above platform benchmarks (700M).

? 1.1M video responses were shared (185% above benchmarks).

Media results:

? Pride Media content delivered 14.4MM impressions– +135% over delivery, delivering 22k clicks to HBOMax.com.

? Q Digital content delivered 3MM+ impressions– +3MM additional impressions to LGBTQIA non-profits.

? Paper.com content was viewed 451k times– smashing publisher benchmarks of 15k (+2,906%).

? Paper social content generated 3MM impressions (+1.9MM target impressions), 43K clicks, and 428K video views.

? Conde Nast content generated 6.4MM impressions, +81% above target. On-site videos were viewed 925K times: +270% over target. Clicks hit 38K- +38% above target (1.37% CTR– +251% above benchmarks).

For HBO Max, brand awareness increased +3.5%, positive associations increased +6.3%, and intent to watch increased +7.1%.

As a result, Legendary was a hit, with viewership increasing weekly – and it has been renewed for a second season.