The fourth season of The Walking Dead was due to premiere, but with TV listings rammed how could we gain an unfair share of eyeballs amongst a particularly discerning audience? How could we speak to them in a way that was engaging enough for them to listen? By launching a hoard of Twitter zombies on key influencers.

PR is constantly evolving and influencers are now seen as a channel in their own right. But to get their attention is difficult. By giving them 8,100 new followers – each more gruesome than the next – they Tweeted in their hundreds.

At first there was speculation as to where they came from. Others who didn’t get the followers felt left out. That was until the zombies started talking back. And when they tweeted, they introduced the #zombiefollowers hashtag. As soon as conversation spiked we revealed Foxtel’s FX channel as the instigators, and the reason was instantly obvious.

The campaign received a total of 1,803,885 impressions (1,583,657 Twitter and 220,228 Facebook) with overwhelmingly positive sentiment. The hashtag #zombiefollowers trended in Sydney and @FXTVAU took the praise.

We took the premise of 'The Walking Dead' (a group of people being followed by hordes of zombies) and brought that exact scenario into people’s everyday lives. Foxtel and its FX are entertainment brands. Programs like 'The Walking Dead' are conversation starters. So our creative solution had to be engaging, surprising and entertaining. And I need to get people talking.

The campaign received a total of 1,803,885 impressions (1,583,657 Twitter and 220,228 Facebook) with an 88% positive sentiment (measured by Radian6). The hashtag #zombiefollowers trended in Sydney and the FX channel Twitter handle (@FXTVAU) trended in Australia. The campaign was tweeted about by a prominent politician, journalists, bloggers and even by our ABC national broadcaster, the ABC. The fourth season return of 'The Walking Dead' was the top-rating show of the night on subscription TV. All from a campaign that was live for less than 24 hours with a total budget under $18,000 AUD (< $16,000 production and <$2,000 media).