The plot of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was kept incredibly secret. So fans had no choice but to speculate on their own—sharing thousands of their own theories amongst one another on social. But it was all disjointed. To leverage this massive conversation and put it under one name and idea, Verizon created Theory Wars, a social campaign giving fans a chance to turn their theories into opening weekend tickets so they could finally find out what happens—and whether or not their plot predictions were right.

We designed a landing page with a theory generator tool, letting users ‘build’ a theory by scrolling through characters and theory options. The theories were full of inside jokes about the Star Wars universe and resonated well with fans, even though we couldn’t reference some of the most hotly debated theories circulating on the internet due to Disney restrictions. Once created, fans shared out their theory to social and were then entered to win tickets.

Social content and a promoted trend, #TheoryWars, built awareness of the program and drove traffic to the landing page. Themed sponsor posts on Buzzfeed on 12/11 and 12/15 increased buzz. We also engaged influencers and celebrities to post a theory using the generator, including: Wil Wheaton, George Takei, Jaimie Alexander, Chris Hardwick, Uber Facts, Juan Pablo Montoya, Clay Matthews, Odell Beckham Jr., Earl Thomas, Matt Forte and Anquan Boldin.

- 161MM total social impressions.

- 45MM social impressions from influencers and celebrities generated theories.

- 27.3% engagement rate with post content on Twitter.

- Theory Wars landing page received 180k visits.

- #TheoryWars took on a life of its own, with many fans embracing the hashtag for their own theories, helping the activation reach a total of 161MM impressions.

- Awarded customers over 10,000 tickets to 50 premiere weekend screenings across the U.S.

- Most importantly, Verizon delivered access customers cared about in a way that was authentic to the fandom.