Prime Video's Shock and Awe Strategy for The Boys Season 3

Get noticed. That’s the point, right? Get the product or service noticed and make people feel something. Leave them transformed and more willing to act—whether that means a click or purchase. For Amazon’s Prime Video, the task was to persuade the public to watch the new season of its original series The Boys. One obstacle: The Boys had already aired two seasons—the latest one ending in October 2020. If people hadn’t tuned in yet, why would they start streaming Season 3, which was scheduled to begin in June 2022? History suggests even fans of shows aren’t guaranteed to return. Novelty fades. Ratings decline. Another hurdle: The Boys is about superheroes. For anyone unaware, there's tons of content about superheroes. Why should anyone craving more stories about strong people in costumes putting criminals behind bars dedicate their time to this one? The thing is, The Boys isn’t like the DC or Marvel universe. In Prime Video’s Emmy-nominated comic book adaptation, the superheroes are corrupt. They're celebrities who, as employees at the corporation Vought International, care more about starring in films and selling action figures than rescuing cats stuck in trees. Saving the planet only matters if it results in more followers. And any concerned citizen daring enough to ask those capable of shooting lasers from their eyes to cool it with the debauchery aren’t likely to live long. The Boys isn’t family-friendly entertainment either. Heads explode as though they were balloons filled with red paint and chili. Characters say words that sound like duck and bunt. One guy known as Love Sausage has a fire hose-sized penis. Rather than try to temper all of this, Prime Video and its media agency Rufus, which is part of IPG’s Initiative, decided to hold the series up high for all to see. “Let's not hide what the show is about; it's Season 3, time to live out loud,” reads a line in a deck outlining the campaign’s strategy. “Be as wild and shocking as the show itself,” states another. Kumar Kanagasabapathy, global chief strategy officer at Rufus, explained that at a time when brands were cautious about what they said and how they said it, The Boys Season 3 campaign avoided playing it safe—just like the series. Thanks to this decision, it became Adweek’s 2023 Media Plan of the Year honoree for campaigns with budgets of more than $10 million. (Check out all the MPOY honorees here.) “What we discovered in our research across all audiences was that consumers were desiring more edge,” said Kanagasabapathy. “If you push the boundaries in the right way and stay true to the show, that's going to bring more people in.” As a Prime Video spokesperson put it, the main idea was to “embody the show’s satirical tone and blur the lines between the in-world elements of the series and the real world.” NSFW advertising And so, that’s what they did. Armed with more than $10 million to spend on paid media, the “Not Safe For Work” campaign began appearing in 34 countries in May 2022, a few weeks prior to Season 3’s debut. In South Africa, The Boys invaded people’s screens with mature teasers at night. Graphic scenes featuring blood, dildos, and sometimes both blood and dildos, broadcast on digital channels after 10 p.m. In the United States, the team hosted an orgy-themed party in honor of Season 3's infamous Herogasm episode. Initially planned to take place at the Liberace Mansion in Las Vegas, the event was forced to find another venue when the building’s owners got wind of the details. Revelers enjoyed an evening of masks, a musical performance by Big Freedia and 3D-printed sex toys, which many guests took home after the festivities. https://twitter.com/TheBoysTV/status/1542263569340923905 In Brazil, the campaign brought people together in the online world of Complexo City, a metaverse inspired by Grand Theft Auto, where they could vandalize Vought posters and inject themselves with Compound V, a drug that gives regular folks superhuman powers. In Australia, Rufus produced a billboard depicting Billy Butcher—the driving force behind a group of vigilantes determined to hold misbehaving superheroes accountable—destroying a car parked below with his laser eyes (made of neon tubes). Kanagasabapathy said the original vision was to have Butcher’s beams fry other nearby outdoor advertising, but the out-of-home vendors responded with a hard “no.” In the United Kingdom, the marketing effort made fun of partygate, a political scandal involving government officials congregating in groups during the Covid-19 pandemic despite telling voters to avoid such gatherings. Signs loaded onto the back of trucks that drove past the Houses of Parliament read: “The Boys is a fictional series about controversial leaders with a penchant for parties. Lots of parties.” An asterisk noted, “Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental.” Trucks with The Boys' signs on them drove past the Houses of Parliament. Get noticed The results of the combined campaign efforts have been positive. As soon as The Boys’ third season premiered, the show jumped onto Nielsen’s list of the top 10 most-streamed U.S. programs of the week. The series remained there for the duration of its eight-episode run. No other Prime Video original program, including its The Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power, generated more viewing minutes in 2022 than The Boys, according to Nielsen. Global audiences also logged in. Worldwide viewership was up 17% during the first three days following launch, compared with the same period trailing Season 2’s start. It was 234% larger than Season 1’s first few days in summer 2019. Excitement for the show was palpable on Reddit, where users created memes, exchanged theories and shared original art. Membership to the community r/TheBoys after the opening week of Season 3 increased to double the amount it was after the opening week of Season 2. The number of posts, comments and unique visitors were also elevated. Perhaps the biggest sign of a job well done came mere days into the new season, when Prime Video announced plans to move forward with a fourth season. "This stylized world of the series has incredible global reach, and the viewership for opening weekend is proof of that," Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon and MGM Studios, said in a statement regarding the renewal for The Boys Season 4. It’s worth noting the franchise already has an animated anthology series titled The Boys Presents: Diabolical. Its spinoff show, Gen V, about young superheroes navigating life at college is set to begin in late September.

Media Plan of the Year

Prime Video's Shock and Awe Strategy for The Boys Season 3

How the Media Plan of the Year winner's 'Not Safe for Work' campaign brought renewed attention to the series

Paul Hiebert

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