The core audience for this campaign are Television Academy Members, also known as Emmy Voters. While the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will not disclose who the 20,000 Emmy voters are - as keeping that list proprietary to the academy ensures a secure revenue stream, we do know that Emmy voters are Performers, Writers, Directors, Crafts, Television Critics and Executives and others based on the peer group break down. An estimated 90% of voters live in LA, with the rest of the voters in NY, Vancouver, Atlanta and other filming locations across the country/around the world.

To ensure 22,000 Emmy voters included The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on their ballots, our message to Emmy voters was this: Midge Maisel is the Hero We Need Right Now. In a post #MeToo era, our goal was to ensure that voters’ saw Midge Maisel as a sharp, witty, strong woman and get them to understand that this stylized, period, show is hyper-relevant to today.

Creative leaned into the fresh and dynamic voice of the show to highlight that the themes and characters are perfectly relevant for our current cultural moment. Ads set the show apart by focusing on the compelling characters, unique dialogue and relevant storylines rather than using traditional critics quotes. Pulling from the iconic palette of the sets and costumes, we used the signature Maisel pinks to blanket media, setting a striking background that would drive talk value, placing Maisel into the cultural zeitgeist.

We conducted a deep-dive into the landscape to understand what wins an Emmy. We found that the change of rules - instructing members to “Vote for as many achievements in this category that you have seen and feel are worthy of a nomination” - gave populist contenders (Stranger Things) an advantage. The takeaway: series that were part of the cultural zeitgeist rose to the top at the Emmys. The Handmaid’s Tale and Saturday Night Live benefited from the 2016 political climate at the 2017 Emmys. Viewership for SNL surged (+30%) against its previous season ending up with just over 11MM viewers. The virality of each episode kept the series top of mind with voter’s week-over-week and SNL garnered 22 nominations (up from 16 in 2016).

The Handmaid’s Tale was culturally relevant for its depiction of women’s reproductive rights, LGBT issues, and race. The series was ubiquitous in pop-culture; the iconic red dresses became a symbol of protest, SNL spoofed the series, and at the “Not the White House Correspondents Dinner”, guests were asked if they could distinguish between Republican policy or Handmaid’s Tale story lines. While organic, Hulu benefited from the conversation, giving the series lasting social and press traction.

From Alex Bornstein (in character as Susie) defacing her own billboard, to “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” appearing as an answer on Jeopardy, we knew we’d done something right. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel earned 14 Emmy Nominations and took home 8 Emmys for the first season. This included four history making wins; (1) Amazon Prime Video is the first streaming network to win a Comedy Series Emmy, (2) Maisel won more Emmys than any comedy ever has for a single season, (3) Amy Sherman-Palladino is the first woman to win in both the writing and directing categories in a single year, and (4) she is the first artist to do so with a pilot series.

The producers credited the awards campaign, which filled the streets of Los Angeles and subways in New York City with hot pink billboards for their nominations. (Variety, july 12, 2018)