Haunting of Hill House Social Campaign

When it came time to launch The Haunting of Hill House, Netflix?s new horror original series, they needed a campaign that clearly communicated that they were here to scare... but in a totally different way.

Three words: Creepy, not scary. The horror at the heart of the series isn?t rooted in cheap gore or jump scares - it comes from the characters and how traumatic experiences from the past haunt them in the present. Our campaign took the same approach, kicking-off with a series of social assets that laid out the Crains?; stories and established the two timelines in which the show takes place.

Once we?d defined the tone, we used it just like the show did: to pile on atmosphere and confront audience expectations about how (or if) people survive stories like these using creative built around impossible camera movements and haunting special effects. Meanwhile, we got horror fans involved through an anonymous Reddit account where we posted in-world short stories that put the ?b? in ?subtle.? When the community figured out Netflix was behind them, they reacted with nothing but love.

After the series launch, we shifted to nurturing and furthering the conversations fans had started having. We spoke to oblique character details, tapped into community phenomena like ?scrying? (a combination of screaming and crying), and pointed out the secret ghosts lurking in the hidden corners of Hill House.

As of December 2018, the show became the third most Googled TV series in the US, amassed +575K followers, 1.6M engagements, 10.5 million video views, and 127M impressions across social. Our Reddit story stunt resulted in a huge wave of positive engagement across multiple subreddit communities, and +25K followers - a rare achievement.