Despite a massive built-in fanbase, One Piece fans were skeptical after Netflix announced a live-action adaptation of One Piece. Several took to social media to voice their displeasure. Though the trailer was built around iconic series moments, its release did little to appease fan skepticism, with early critics continuing to doubt a live-action adaptation would satisfy fans.

We needed to devise a fan-centric celebration that showed how highly the streamer regarded fan opinions, turning the tide from 90% negative show sentiment to enthusiasm for the series release. In doing so, we needed to be attuned to fan conversation in real time, showing up in spaces they didn’t expect.

We would measure our success in social media engagements, audience sentiment, and earned media.

Above all things, we needed to bring our captain on board to legitimize the series in the eyes of fans and unite them under one banner: creator and author Eiichiro Oda.

Teaming with several of his inner circle to understand his preferred collaboration style, we built a rapport with Oda-Sensei, involving him in several key creative decisions throughout our fan-centric campaign, despite never revealing his identity.

With his seal of approval, we would amass a social hub for the One Piece global following, consolidating them and generating palpable online excitement around the live adaptation.

Community management would serve as the centerpiece of our campaign, allowing insights from fans, aka “straw hats,” to help motivate where and how we showed up, and as a continuous way to prove our credibility to such an exacting collective.

Though the fanbase is massive at over 1B people, identifying and reaching One Piece fans was a challenge. They tend to meet in private and close-knit communities, hiding their fandom online. The lack of one central hub to come together left them with no place outside of these private channels to celebrate their favorite show. This insight proved illuminating: we would use community management as a means of unification.

Our main message was this mission: create the biggest Straw Hat Grand Fleet. Through this recruitment, we’d chart a course for a massive fan-centric campaign that celebrated the world of ONE PIECE.

Given the magnitude of the pre-existing fanbase, they were our main target audience, though the simplified 8-part narrative of the adaptation offered chances for expansion.

Our campaign strategy included live fan interaction, social media introductions to the live-action crew, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, experiential events, and interactive fan-led exclusives.

Months before release, we conveyed the show’s rapport with Oda-Sensei. Oda released four letters to fans, decorated with his unmistakable handwriting and drawings. Next, we introduced him to the live-action Luffy, Iñaki Godoy, capturing the emotional meeting in a social exclusive.

Then, we introduced Straw Hats to Luffy’s pirate crew, emphasizing the responsibility each actor felt being a part of such a beloved property.

We established a digital fan hub and gave fans the opportunity to put themselves in the trailer via the iconic Wanted poster. Our Community Management team paid constant attention to fan reactions, identifying a superfan who streamed the trailer for 24 hours. We crashed the stream, working through international logistics to bring him to the premiere.

With our release date approaching, we gathered our Straw Hat crew to events in nine countries across the globe to celebrate their fandom and witness an incredible drone show.

We amassed a following of 4.2M followers, unprecedented for the debut season of a Netflix title.

Our content racked up 3.5B Impressions, 2B views and 760M engagements. Despite the scale, we maintained an unheard-of 7.1% engagement rate and received 7.3M mentions across social media.

The skepticism in headlines transformed into positive reviews, with pickups from huge publications like VARIETY, VULTURE, Collider, and The Hollywood Reporter.

More importantly, negative sentiment nearly disappeared, decreasing from 90% down to 8.5% at show launch, and our fans made their enthusiasm heard in the critical sphere, granting the live-action adaptation a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes.

With the palpable force of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet behind it, One Piece became Netflix’s #1 show worldwide, racking up 37.8M streams in the first two weeks, and achieving #1 in 46 different countries – and will be back for Season 2.