DreamWorks Animation #LiveLifeAnimated Campaign

Rogers & Cowan Digital was tasked with the huge social media undertaking of launching DreamWorks Animation’s first brand campaign in over 20 years. DreamWorks Animation has had no issue making a name for themselves in the industry, with dozens of successful feature films and the world’s largest slate of family television programming, but they needed help with executing the perfect brand campaign. The team was tasked with the creation of a theme, messaging, creative and ultimately execution, as well as identifying and targeting an appropriate audience for maximum reach and effect. The objectives were simple and direct: engage audiences digitally with a campaign that captured the heart of what DreamWorks Animation is all about.

Both children and adults are constantly being bombarded with content through their mobile devices across social media networks, so audience identification and targeting was crucial to the success of the campaign. Though DreamWorks Animation’s content is targeted towards children, Rogers & Cowan Digital determined that parents should be the target of the campaign, since they ultimately decide what content their children see and want to feel confident that they are providing their children with quality, appropriate content. This desire was at the core of the #LiveLifeAnimated campaign, which sought to emphasize the quality, uniqueness, and family-friendliness of the DreamWorks Animation oeuvre.

Once the audience and theme were identified, Rogers & Cowan Digital focused on creating content for Facebook and Instagram on which the #LiveLifeAnimated campaign would live. This content revolved around the three major themes for the audience: characters parents can believe in, positive messages shared through plotlines, and the fact that DreamWorks Animation programming is programming that the whole family can enjoy. Previously, there were no set standards for DreamWorks Animation social property, so the campaign required setting brand guidelines for posting to solidify the brand identity and improve the overall look and feel of the account. In doing so, the content had to be both fresh and exciting while maintaining a cohesive style. This content included original videos and interviews with a wide array of animators, utilizing the scale and unprecedented legacy of the DreamWorks IP to create a cohesive overall brand that looked and felt distinctly “DreamWorks.”

Results:
The #LiveLifeAnimated campaign was an immense success, not just in the scope of the project and the tight timeline for creation of assets, but also in the numbers. Engagement on campaign posts was 600% higher than the channels’ average engagement. The campaign secured over 22 million impressions and 500,000 engagements across 30 original pieces of content, as well as a 5x increase in follower acquisition. In addition, the creation of social brand guidelines and the establishment of the overall style of the account set DreamWorks Animation up for success on future campaigns. The #LiveLifeAnimated campaign showed that parents can support not only individual properties that their children may watch, but also the overall brand.