HOW WE HELPED GHOSTFACE GO BIG — IN THE BIG CITY

Marketing Campaign

NEW SCARES...
IN A NEW CITY

In Scream VI, Ghostface arrives in NYC for the first time in franchise history.

But to make franchise history of our own, we knew a killer entrance wouldn't be enough. How could we create a campaign of jumpscares, when everyone knew we were coming?

So we did what Ghostface does best: we hid right behind fans through unexpected digital partnerships, subversive activations, and unmissable collabs, stunts, and social.

To help Ghostface settle into New York City, we had to be unsettling in everything we did.

The goal: infiltrate everything about the Big Apple. Breakfast on the morning commute. Strange sightings on doorbell cams. We even hijacked bedtime routines and mid-afternoon TikTok doomscrolling.

A few key strategies helped us ensure Ghostface killed his campaign:

1) Embrace Ghostface’s trademark wit without losing sight of the fact that he is the last person you want to meet in a dark alley
2) Embrace the idea that Ghostface can find you on every platform, in every content format — he’s wherever you are
3) Leverage the full scope of Scream VI—its big city setting meant even bigger stakes, and an even bigger stage

Client

Paramount Pictures

Project

Scream VI (2023)

What We Did

Strategy + Ideation
Campaign + Engagement
Partnership Activations
Live-Action Spot
Social Content
OOH/Event Coordination
Copywriting
Influencer Collabs
Live Broadcast

GHOSTFACE X AMAZON RING

With Ghostface moving to the Big Apple for Scream VI, we partnered with Amazon Ring to bring things right to the murderer’s front door—literally.

Special Delivery

Nobody likes to be interrupted by a delivery... especially Ghostface. In partnership with the Amazon Ring team, we shot a custom hero spot that paid Ghostface’s apartment a visit for a humorous glimpse through his doorbell cam. The best part? Ghostface was voiced by none other than Roger Jackson, his voice in the films.

KILLED ON TIKTOK

Scream films may be soaked in blood — but also meta-commentary.

With this in mind, it was only fitting for Ghostface to break the fourth wall and take over the brand's TikTok for a one-of-a-kind livestream: a spine-chilling ASMR tour through the franchise’s most iconic moments, one relic at a time.

Our 1-hour broadcast wasn’t just full of easter eggs (yes, we even “gutted” a fish), but surprises, with authentic objects plucked from franchise history and even the current film's stars unexpectedly dueting in.

Leave it to Ghostface to not only kill all expectations, but also murder his own livestream. When the event was shut down for being *too* scary, we doubled down, amplifying buzz with an edgy social post challenging TikTok to let Ghostface back on... if they dared.

GHOSTFACE'S SLEEP STORY x CALM APP

Could Ghostface's murderous voice be...soothing? We collaborated up with Calm to deliver the most terrifying "sleep story" in history — narrated by Ghostface himself.

Ghostface's Sleep Story

Already beloved for their celebrity-voiced Sleep Stories, we approached the Calm App team with an idea: what if we made a Sleep Story so scary, it was deemed too terrifying for the app? Voiced by Ghostface himself, our ASMR-inspired Sleep Story partnership drew fans into the deranged (and hilarious) mind of Ghostface, and into the scariest slumber of their lives.

Ghostface Calls Paramount

Ghostface loves calling and taunting his victims.

So, why not have him call some characters across the Paramount ecosystem and taunt them?

Leveraging an original script and short clips from other Paramount films, we cut together a cross-IP "phone call" that allowed the smack-talking murderer to threaten the entire Paramount library—all in one fell swoop.

Cross-pollinating our campaign across a broad spectrum of IPs, the spot did what the Scream films do best, stabbing right through the fourth wall, and earning recognition from TikTok in a "Publisher Success Spotlight."

Blood-Red Bagels

Every New Yorker has their favorite bagel — and Ghostface is no exception. In partnership with NYC bagel joint, Utopia Bagels, we created a custom menu of Scream-inspired recipes, and activated it around town with pop-ups and a roving skinned Bagel Truck. Perfect for any killer's morning commute, the recipes were covered in a segment on PIX11's local New York City morning news broadcast, along with Fangoria and more.

Among Us Integration

To Ghostface, this whole killing thing is a game. Nobody understands villains and games better than Among Us, who integrated the Ghostface character skin in-game, with all-new voice lines to scare and delight players and fans.

Influencer Watch Party

The best way to survive a horror film? Stay in the group! To that end, we invited 20 influencers to participate in a custom watch party — for grown-ups. On social, the brand provided a curated cocktail menu and accompanying drinking game inspired by the franchise, topping it all off with a welcome message narrated by Ghostface, ultimately reaching 46MM fans across all our influencer participants.

The Scream VI campaign slayed all expectations, going on to become a top title of 2023.

After amassing a new, franchise-best $100M at the box office, Ghostface doubled down on disc and digital, going on to become one of the top horror titles of the year across all channels. Not only did Scream VI outperform its projections to become a top title at-home, but it also set the stage for the next film, with fans clamoring for announcements for Scream VII during each content moment.