Funny or Die is a comedy video website that combines user generated content with original, exclusive content from really cool celebrities.

Let's Go Viral is Funny or Die's online video contest, in conjunction with the HBO Home Entertainment "Comedy Fetish" campaign, to create LOL, ow-my-side-hurts video submissions. The winner gets to produce an original short video with Funny or Die's creative team, which includes Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow, and Adam McKay.

Goal

Get video submission or DIE! OK, so maybe they weren't that harsh, but Premise was hired to generate awareness and drive video submissions for Funny or Die's "Let's Go Viral" contest over a three month period.

Challenge

Reach a target audience of 18-35-year-olds, including college students, aspiring filmmakers, class clowns and wannabe actors. Bring this target audience to action during the summer - when many would rather be napping or partying instead of creating labor-intensive, technology based and comedic-ly riveting video submissions.

Solution

Like all Premise projects, the agency's Funny or Die "Let's Go Viral" campaign targets from the inside out, creating an immersive four-part program that entices its target audience through (1) key influencers, (2) street marketing, (3) event promos and (4) social media.

Immersive Execution:

Word-of-Mouth Works: Premise identified influencer groups in the world of film and comedy - people and organizations, including film aficionados, meet-up groups, professors, etc, that interact with the "Let's Go Viral" target audience and can get them to say, "Man, that is so cool. I'm getting my FLIP and making the next 'Anchorman' right now!" - and, more importantly, get them to do what they say.

• The Numbers: through posters, promo cards, DVD sets, phone calls and e-mails, Premise has currently engaged over 50 influencer groups, with a reach of 23,000 film junkies. The agency got one college film professor so pumped that he spread the word to 15,000 students!

"Let's Go Viral" Everywhere: This campaign's target audience isn't reclusive. They want to be seen, heard - heck, many of 'em want to be TMZ-status famous. Premise's street team stalked their whereabouts in three key markets (New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles) and captured their attention with posters and promo cards at a multitude of key lifestyle locations (think coffee houses, clothing boutiques, lounges, music venues, etc).

• The Numbers: With over 35,000 promo cards and posters distributed, Premise made sure that wherever the audience goes they would know about Funny or Die's contest.

Go Big or Go Home: Imagine driving to one of the summer's hugest (and arguable coolest) events, and every major street you turn on features a massive guerrilla-style billboard projection encouraging you to enter Funny or Die's "Let's Go Viral" contest. Later, a street team member hands you a version of the projection in postcard form. Hmmmm....intriguing. Maybe, you'll go check out Funnyordie.com and that contest they keep talking about.

• The Numbers: At the LA Shorts Film Festival, Premise's large-scale campaign reached 10,000 festival attendees, along with achieving 20,000+ impressions from guerrilla projections through Hollywood. At Lollapalooza in Chicago, Premise reached 25,000+ festival attendees and impacted 32,000+ people through it's projection campaign.

Tweets From The Streets: In the "Let's Go Viral" contest's demographic, those that aren't using social media are essentially exiled. Premise realized that it was imperative to communicate interesting and constant content with the target audience via Funny or Die's Twitter account to continue to draw interest to the website and contest.

Premise reached out to Funny or Die's 900,000+ followers and encouraged them to take part in a modern scavenger hunt on the streets  - with a moving target. The moving target wore a Funny or Die t-shirt and tweeted clues to his whereabouts until someone found him. The winner won a FLIP HD video camera and a Funny or Die t-shirt.

• The Numbers:
  
  • Chicago: 2 million +
  • Los Angeles: 3 million +
  • San Francisco: 3 million +
  • Portland: 5 million +
  • New York City: 8 million +

Total reach of the twitter promotion is over 21 million impressions!!!

"The Drive-in That Drives In...": We teamed up with Mob Mov to host an exclusive guerrilla movie showing in San Francisco. Hundreds of film influencers and movie-buffs came out to a "secret" showing of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The film was opened with a pre-roll of Let's Go Viral promotional videos and classic Funny or Die content and a drawing for raffle prizes including FoD t-shirts and copies of Anchorman went down at intermission. The only way to know about this underground event was to be "in the know"...the announcement went out via email, text and twitter to roughly 3,000 key people.

Impact

Combined with Funnyordie.com's online marketing tactics, Premise helped the contest obtain:

• Over 23,000 influencers engaged in contest promotion
• Street teams distributed 10,000+ posters/postcards
• Projection visibility of over 100,000+ in two nights
• Scavenger hunts provided over 21M impressions alone!
• Over 3,000 submissions to Funny or Die's website