HOW WE HELPED SONIC 3 GO HIS FASTEST YET
Marketing Campaign
TEAM SONIC WAS FACING ITS BIGGEST CHALLENGE...
Shadow.
But also, expectations!
After two successful Sonic the Hedgehog campaigns, we knew our third film collaborating together with Paramount had to deliver on what makes Sonic such a beloved hit — but also on decades of anticipation for his biggest nemesis.
With Shadow on his way, we set out to channel Team Sonic across a broad array of tactics:
- 1) Speed: Sonic fans are digital-natives — our campaign had to stay adaptive to new social mechanics and touchpoints
- 2) Smart: Channel Tails’ ingenuity — to drive engagement, we had to find fans where they are, and innovate once there
- 3) Smash: Unleash like the fist-first echidna — smash records and shatter expectations through high-profile moments
Sonic’s team was woven into the DNA of the campaign, but it wasn’t enough to make Sonic’s third film his biggest release yet. We also had to eventize the arrival of fan-favorite Shadow.
In fact, that’s where we began:
Client Paramount Pictures
Project Sonic the Hedgehog 3
What We Did
- Strategy + Ideation
- Campaign + Engagement
- Partnership Activations
- Retail Collab
- Live Broadcast
- Social Content + Games
Shadow Surveillance Livestream
Fans have been waiting for Shadow the Hedgehog for a long time.
And locked in stasis for 50 years, reliving the most traumatic moment of his life over and over, you might say Shadow has been waiting to break out even longer.
We brought this all to life through a live broadcast slow-burn social event that had fans leaning forward for a closer look at the tortured soul trapped inside that stasis tube. Developed with easter eggs, sound design breadcrumbs, and a payoff clip, our surveillance feed livestream helped make Shadow's arrival a must-see digital event.
Team Sonic on Ring
Can a Ring camera catch the Blue Blur and team in action?
We approached Amazon Ring to answer that exact question. The resulting partner post gave fans across social a glimpse at what it would look like to be visited by the lightning-fast heroes (and villain!) of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Randy's Donuts
The Blue Blur wouldn't be who he is without Donut Lord — Sonic's adopted father.
We approached Randy's Donuts with an idea: let's make an exclusive run of Sonic-themed donuts at launch. Randy's did one better, helping develop edible character wafers atop each donut, turning the collab into a must-have event for Sonic fans on the west coast.
That Old Trick
Sonic was a game character long before he was a movie star, and players from that era remember an old gaming secret solve: blowing into a piece of technology to make it work.
Given they use this method in the film, we set up a faux-interactive video that had fans mirroring the clip to "unlock" a deleted scene that was going viral: Robnotnik's recovery in between the second and third films.
Gamifying Social
Can you keep up with Sonic?
With our "Gotta Listen Fast" interactive game on social, we didn't just ask how fast fans could identify quotes — we tasked them with identifying quotes spoken at Super Sonic speed.
Quotes played at 350% speed, gradually slowing down until the answer was revealed.
|
|---|
|
