Amazon Prime Video / Social Campaign / Invincible

How do you get both existing fans and potential converts excited about Robert Kirkman’s seminal, superhero, comic-book saga Invincible being adapted for TV on Amazon Prime?

Through a huge, dedicated social media campaign on Twitter that whips up anticipation of the big plot reveals for the existing fanbase as well as teasing big plot twists and turns for the uninitiated.

Custom Shoot

As part of the build-up to the launch of the season, we were given exclusive access to the stellar cast of voice artists including Oscar Winner J. K. Simmons, Oscar Nominee Steven Yeun, Creator Robert Kirkman, Gillian Jacobs, and Zazie Beetz.

For the first piece of custom content, we orchestrated a spoiler discussion between the cast and creator and used the instability of video call connections to disrupt the main pieces of information, keeping the secrets a secret for those who don’t know.

For the second piece of custom content, we challenged the cast and creator to try and cram everything that happens in season one into just 60 seconds to demonstrate how rich, layered and intricate the storytelling is. There’s no way you can get it everything across in that time.

Redband Reactions

A major factor of Invincible is the no-holds-barred gore and brutality of the action scenes. Key characters die in horrific and disturbing ways. None more so than in a scene revealing a huge plot twist at the end of the very first episode. So we gave super fans and influencers a sneak peek at this scene and captured their reactions to make our target audience even more desperate to see it for themselves.

Invincibattles

Invincible has huge appeal amongst gamers, as well as comic book fans, so we repurposed fight scenes from the first season to resemble 8-bit arcade machines from the 80s and 90s. Not only did this tease upcoming episodes but also acted as a crossover between the two audiences.

From Panels To Pixels

Superhero adaptations can be notoriously loose with the source material and take huge liberties with characters and plot points that get the existing fanbase up in arms about their beloved franchise. Not Invincible. Creator Robert Kirkman is overseeing the animated version and has ensured that it’s true to the spirit of the comic in every way. To prove it, we placed scenes from the animation next to original comic book panel art to seamlessly marry the two together and reassure fans that the story was in good hands.

Spinoff Comics

Popular comic book characters from well-known franchises often get their own “spin-offs” focussing more on their particular stories. So, to introduce the characters of Invincible for the TV show, we created mock-up spinoff comics for all of the key characters and focussed on their role in the story.

Behind The Mask

It can be fascinating to watch actors deliver a vocal recording for an animation where they can only rely on their voices to convey the right emotion for their characters. So, we took behind-the-scenes footage of voice recordings and showed them next to the final scene to pull back the curtain on the whole animation process and also remind fans of the incredible ensemble cast of Invincible.

Comic Book Countdowns

As the launch approached we created a series of countdowns to help whip fans into a fervor.

Firstly, we created an infinite loop showing the animated Invincible reading a comic showing the comic book Invincible watching the animated Invincible on TV reading a comic showing the comic book Invincible watching… (My head hurts.)

Then we used the comic book covers associated with specific issue numbers to reveal how many days there were until the TV show dropped.

Superhero Name Generator

Mark spends a lot of the first episode of Invincible trying to decide on a superhero name. Which shows how hard it can be. So on launch day, we created an Invincible superhero name generator for the fans so that they could enter the Invincible Universe themselves.

Invincible Is For Everyone

To help demonstrate the sheer breadth of storytelling in Invincible, we created trailers within different genres to prove that there is something in Invincible for everyone. We created trailers in the style of a gory horror, a sci-fi spectacle, a teen romance, and a crime-thriller.

The Art Of Invincible

We also commissioned Ryan Ottley – the artist responsible for almost every issue of Invincible during its incredible 16 year run – to draw Battle Beast for us and capture it as a timelapse.

Not All Heroes Wear Capes… But They Do Wear Masks

Released during the peak of the COVID pandemic we created stills to encourage everyone to wear masks and protect each other.

#InvincibleFriday

I also created a day and hashtag specifically for Invincible fans to use: #InvincibleFriday. The day each new episode of Invincible was released on Amazon Prime.

Seasons 2 & 3 Announcement

The campaign was a huge success and helped to secure not only a second season but a third at the same time!

Role: Lead Creative

Agency: Tommy

Art Director: Ty Anselmo Leyva

Designers: Paige Triplett and Nivetha Kannan