Upstairs Amy was built on Walmart’s and Interac’s brand values from the ground up.

The digital series flipped the traditional TV “family comedy” 26 floors up, and for the first time normalized and celebrated a condo living lifestyle for families.

Featuring a diverse cast, and Hollywood cameos, Upstairs Amy captured the quirky and relatable adventures of Amy as she raises a family, starts a YouTube channel and gets to the bottom of her mysterious neighbour’s “too perfect” life, all from her two-bedroom condo.

The brands were lightly woven into the series, communicating their values and services in a lighthearted, comedic way that made them a “character” within the show.

To bring the narrative and themes of Upstairs Amy into real-life, and further deliver on the brands’ promises, YouTube influencers made cameos in the show, and created additional branded content for their channels, where the conversation with Upstairs Amy fans continued.

Upstairs Amy consisted of 20 x 3-5 minute episodes of scripted serialized content, which dropped every Monday afternoon from November 13, 2017 until March 19, 2018. A synchronized upload strategy of YouTube influencer branded content launched immediately following every episode of the show.

The series launched with on a one-day YouTube masthead takeover. A 19-week TrueView promotion was implemented for the show and creator content, getting the videos in front of busy, young moms.

Traditional national and international media outlets from print (Adweek), to broadcast (Global Morning) to social media (@TodaysParent) were employed to promote the content and the brand partners.

Walmart and Interac included both native and sponsored posts on their social channels to promote the Upstairs Amy content. Two co-promotional brand spots were created using footage from Upstairs Amy, and posted to Interac’s Facebook page, reaching a different audience and creating new fans for the show.

Upstairs Amy has become a successful and unique entertainment property, uniting big brands and playing a role in normalizing the conversation around Millennials living in smaller spaces, “owning their world” and having fun doing it.

Reach:

- 16 million views (show + influencer content)

- 96 years of watch time

Engagement:

- Over 11,000 subscribers

- Average view time of over two minutes / video

Impact:

- 2/3 of viewers have positively changed their opinion of Walmart and Interac

- 64% of viewers would consider paying with Interac more often

- 66% are now more likely to shop at Walmart.

The series celebrated the positive aspects of raising a young family in a condo and broke barriers with a rarely seen multi-cultural lead cast in a comedy. It highlighted that a sense of community is not defined by your surrounding walls, but rather the people you surround yourself with.