Looney Tunes Social Revival
Client: Warner Bros. Discovery
Role: Sr. AD > ACD > Creative Director
Agency: Movement Strategy
4X Clio Entertainment (2021)
Silver – Digital/Mobile & Social Media Craft: Copywriting
Silver – Original Content: Fan Driven
Bronze – Social Content Campaign
Finalist – Brand & Program Identity
ADDY Awards (2021)
Silver – NE Regional, Copywriting
ProMax (2021)
Gold – Talent/Influencer Integration Using Social Media
Digiday (2020)
Finalist – Social Media Campaign
The Drum (2020)
Finalist – Best Use of Social
For over 80 years, Looney Tunes has always found ways to cleverly weave itself into the cultural fabric of its time.
With the approaching releases of Space Jam: A New Legacy and new cartoons on HBO Max, Warner Bros. needed to re-grow the Looney Tunes audience, boost engagement, and build hype.
A full social revival.
We needed a strategy that would appeal to new audiences, while maintaining the timeless charm and humor of the franchise.
Thus, The ACME Intern was born (or, revealed) as an early-20s, terminally-online narrator for our channels.
In the way Michael Jordan once traversed cartoon and human worlds in 1996’s Space Jam, the ACME Intern would be the arbiter between the characters and our world as the “admin” behind @looneytunes.
A thoroughly crafted character was written into existence, with personalized traits, tastes, -isms, and hobbies. This translated to the channels’ art direction, showing an unpolished look at what life with the Looney Tunes actually means.
To bring structure to the chaotic world of Looney Tunes while staying aligned with the pulse of culture, we developed the following strategic framework of content buckets.
Intern Life
Placing the characters in real-world contexts provided the biggest break from other character-based brands. It also allowed us to paint out the personality of our Intern and the Tunes themselves.
Looney Antics
We imagined how the Looney Tunes would handle everyday life, providing infinite fodder to show them tackling modern moments—always with a signature looney twist.
Fandom
We knew that fans came for the Looney Tunes characters themselves, and we had no intention of leaving the OGs out in the cold. We just amped up the edge, internetty sensibilities, and occasional “wtf” moments.
At a high level, our guiding philosophy was “There’s a Looney Tunes moment for everything.”
897K Impressions
23% Engagement Rate
Our approach involved a level of calculated risk that paid off over and over. To become known, the Intern’s persona would need to be everywhere you’d never expect.
13K New Followers Overnight
10M Impressions
1.1M Engagements
897K Impressions
23% Engagement Rate
That’s why when a sudden beef between the hosts of the Barstool Sports podcast Call Her Daddy sent the internet into a frenzy, we were there. Reactive and community-driven personality plays such as this became the Intern's bread and butter for flexing his social prowess.
Moves like these would often get press pickups, and earn the attention, praise, and following of celebrities, making for even greater encounters.
In just six months, we had doubled @looneytunes social following, and built an incredibly attentive and active fanbase.
129K new followers
+60%
47.5M+ impressions
+956%
5.1M engagements
+1,508%
12.6% engagement rate
+6%
100% organic
zero dollars in paid promotion
But that's not all, folks!
KITH x Looney Tunes
The fame and success of the ACME Intern opened doors for the Looney Tunes brand. KITH and Looney Tunes partnered to create custom apparel, plushies, and this bespoke animated spot, that I storyboarded.
Campaigns as Plot Arcs
The story of the ACME Intern was continued and developed for several years with winding turns and plot arcs, all in coordination with Warner Bros.' business objectives for the brand.
Example: When there was a call to highlight Bugs Bunny for his 80th year in existence, the Intern threw him a very real birthday party.
The Looney Tunes Road Trip
To create more localized connections with our fans, we crafted a story that sent the Intern across the USA from LA to NYC.
With dozens of stops in between, we were able to highlight the infinite microcosms of America through a Looney Tunes lens, and deliver personal moments for fans whose hometowns were now canonized for the franchise.
Over 100 posts concepted, captured, edited on the road across the country in a minivan over two weeks for a month's worth of story-driven content.
Product Opportunities
On the road trip, each milestone along the way was commemorated with limited-run merch for fans to represent their communities with. Pairing campaigns and Intern stories with signature product was a recurring tactic to create IYKYK moments for followers.
