November 2012 was a busy time in the US media space - with presidential election buzz at an all-time high, we knew that driving tune-in to the second season premiere of Discovery’s “Moonshiners” on 7 November would be more challenging than usual. In order to bring the television show to the forefront, we needed to find an inventive way to engage our target audience.

“Moonshiners,” a series following those who illegally brew alcoholic moonshine in rural Appalachia, gives viewers the opportunity to witness practices rarely seen on television. The show taps into the innate curiosity of fans, exposing Americans to a less-seen side of their own backyard. Using the power of social media, we saw an opportunity to bring the essence of the show to real life. We gave potential viewers the chance to take part in the process of making moonshine by creating the first-ever tweet-powered moonshine distillery.

In order to drive users to the tweet-powered distillery promoting the television show, “Moonshiners,” we promoted media across Twitter, custom editorial content on Buzzfeed.com, and utilized both Discovery and Buzzfeed owned media channels. Users proved to be engaged with over 37,000 tweeting #Moonshiners throughout the 8-day duration of the program and more than 10,000 tweeting @Discovery. Further, @Discovery gained 14,295 new followers during the campaign. Five “Moonshiners” custom editorial posts were created and distributed across Buzzfeed, delivering over 375,000 engagements and more than 80,000 social views. Even after the paid media campaign concluded, an incremental 28,000 content views were generated.

The primary goal of the program was to drive tune-in to the show on 7 November. This second season premiere was Discovery’s highest rated Wednesday night series to date, as well as the #1 in primetime cable.* Further, over the course of the media campaign, there were over 35, 000 mentions of #moonshiners on Twitter, generating more than 1m impressions in social reach.

The tweet-powered distillery was a first-of-kind program that blurred the lines between the digital and physical worlds, allowing people to take part in a digital process with a real-world implication, and transforming Discovery Channel fans into moonshiners themselves.