2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

Social media conversation has become the main trigger driving show adoption and viewership. So when Netflix decided to pick up Takki’s rights and produce a third season, we knew we had to harness the power of social media to get fans talking about the show. The problem? Takki’s final episode had ended almost a decade ago. We had to find the right channels to engage with Takki fans and reignite the conversation. So, we hijacked the most relevant media for hardcore Takki fans—the main actors’ social media channels and leveraged their star power in a smart and disruptive way.

Background

‘Takki’ is one of Saudi Arabia’s most popular YouTube series ever. As part of their hyper-local content strategy, Netflix decided to pick up the rights to produce the show’s third season. But Takki fans hadn’t heard about the show for more than seven years. We had to find a way to reach and engage with old-school fans to build hype and create conversation about the new season—after almost a decade-long hiatus.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

We know fans like to decode every single detail about their favourite shows. So we got them involved —and made sure they were the first to know— by turning the actors’ social media accounts into a mysterious Takki easter-egg hunt. Blurring the lines between fiction and reality, Takki actors quietly changed their social media profiles to embody their fictional counterparts, one day before the big reveal. Not only did they suddenly change their names, looks and bios to bring their characters back to the online world, they also started interacting with each other and dropping clues that brought back some of the memories and conversation they had left behind, seven years ago.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We found out that the old YouTube episodes from Season 1 & 2 were filled with comments from the fans, demanding another season, through the hashtag #MataTakki (#WhenIsTakki). But after seven years waiting for answers, the hashtag trend slowly faded away. To reignite the online conversation, we hijacked the most relevant media for hardcore Takki fans—the main actors’ social media profiles. Since the show first ran on YouTube, our actors had become hugely popular in Saudi Arabia, so we leveraged their social currency (and that of their Takki characters) to fuel the conversation.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The social media activation was done one day before the date announcement. We used the power of social media to kick-start a powerful, organic conversation about the show, and get fans excited about a possible new season, before hitting them with the trailer reveal. When our actors made the switch to their Takki characters, the interaction between them was seamless. It was as if the characters from the screen had just picked up where they left off, but this time on a platform where their fans could engage with them. Social Media created the necessary buzz before the official announcement—and laid the groundwork to maximize the traditional media strategy.

List the results (30% of vote)

Fans didn’t take long to piece the puzzle together and take social media by storm, buzzing about a possible new season. And just when everyone was talking about Takki, Netflix jumped into the conversation to reveal the answer—Takki's third season was coming back. Only on Netflix. Reach: 8M people reached organically Engagement: +23k social media interactions in less than two days Takki became Netflix’s top trending show in Saudi Arabia during launch week.