Want to know what it takes to get your media ready to cross all platforms, all formats and all audiences? FanTrust will help you find the right blend for your media brand. We’ll help you establish fan bases that engage with you on all fronts and stay with you as you expand. We’ll help you do the business deals that play to your strengths while adding to your arsenal.
Great media travels, so will you. Contact us today to start your 360 journey, with FanTrust strategies and tactics for multiplatform success.
Results:
Sanctuary
From the beginning, Sanctuary was an ambitious entertainment business experiment that ultimately set the gold standard for web-to-broadcast deal-making.
FanTrust was tapped by the series creators to grow a global hit from a new property with a custom strategy and tactics that produced the following results:
- Massive Audience – the original online episodes generated more than a million views in the first few months
- PR – the novel execution and digital word of mouth combined to get loads of media coverage, viral marketing and even a Guinness World Record
- Packaging – designed winning pitch and proposal packages with compelling video, rich media and solid data; Advised producers and distributor on sales pitch best practices for multiplatform properties; Identified target buyers; Participated in key executive pitches
- Broadcast Deal – shortly after we took the production and the results to MIP with the showrunner and distributor, Syfy Channel commissioned a first season of thirteen episodes, went to multiple seasons and sold to more than 60 territories around the world
- After its broadcast success the producers decided to go back to the digital fans with new properties, including mobile apps and alternate reality games, financing and production deals, again put together by FanTrust
- Developed a winning multiplatform funding strategy used to secure significant television and multiplatform financing
- Initiated and closed strategic deals with multiplatform partners for new formats and distribution channels
- Identified and secured third-party digital development providers for Sanctuary mobile and game properties
- Crafted digital marketing and monetization plan
FanTrust’s work with Sanctuary spanned a number of years and involved collaborating with various Sanctuary clients, including its creators, actors, TV distributors, broadcasters, game producers, mobile producers, investors as well as finance, legal and business affairs.
Todd & The Book of Pure Evil
Imagine, if you will, a book of awesome power that will make all of your dreams come true. This is what FanTrust clients Aircraft Pictures and Frantic Films unleashed on the world in September 2010 with Todd & The Book of Pure Evil on SPACE Channel.
Todd & The Book of Pure Evil is now among the most popular Canadian comedies on television today. Before the series went to air, Aircraft and Frantic approached FanTrust to create a custom FanBuilding strategy that included an actively engaged social media network and a suite of digital engagement offerings that appealed to fans in cutting-edge style.
Starting with some grassroots-style fan cultivation at FanExpo in Toronto, FanTrust created original and compelling ways for fans to interact with the series. This experience continued throughout Season 1 with live-tweeting during broadcast, fan-focused contesting (which included an edgy photo competition) and strategic roll-outs of exclusive digital video content. The ever-expanding fan base flocked to everything that Todd & The Book of Pure Evil had to offer on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and an independent web site. In order to keep fan interactions on brand, FanTrust developed an editorial style that mirrored the off-colour humour from the series.
FanTrust also took into account that Jason Mewes would play a role in the FanStrategy and integrated his own community engagement strategy into the mix. Jason is a great advocate for the series, promoting the show to his own digital community and on his “Smodcast” with Kevin Smith. The series even received a glowing endorsement from Harry Knowles, editor of Ain’t It Cool News.
The role of broadcaster was integral to the Season 1 strategy. Whenever possible, FanTrust encouraged the producers to maximize any opportunity SPACE offered on broadcast and online.
Fresh from the success of Season 1, which was aired on Much Music and The Comedy Channel in Canada as well as FEARnet in the U.S. and garnered six Gemini nominations and one award for best ensemble cast in a comedy series, SPACE commissioned a second season in 2011.
During the hiatus between Seasons 1 and 2, Frantic and Aircraft called on FanTrust once again to execute their new fan offering: an online video game called “Descent Into Crowley Heights.” FanTrust consulted with the game design and development teams to maximize the social components of the retro-style game which was launched in conjunction with a designated Twitter feed and PR campaign one week before the Season 2 premiere and immediately generated positive fan reaction and engagement.
The game extended the digital footprint of the brand, further galvanizing Todd & The Book of Pure Evil fans. This success paved the way for the series’ newest frontier: SyFy UK. Season 1 premiered in March 2012.
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