UPDATED: Learn more about one of the biggest weeks on TV from the team at Discovery at the PromaxBDA: The Conference 2015 session “

Shark Week: Creating a Pop Phenomenon” on Wednesday, June 10 at 4:45

p.m. at the JW Marriott at L.A. LIVE.

ORIGINAL POST: Aug. 4, 2014:

Summer is almost over, and for TV fans and pop culture addicts everywhere, that means one thing: Shark Week.

Though sharks have been plentiful this summer, with Sharknado Week, Shart Week and two – count them, two – Snark Weeks, for the past 27 years, there has remained only one true Shark Week.

And after last year’s success, the bar was set pretty high for Discovery. 2013 was the most-watched Shark Week in the programming event’s history across key demos, so the network knew topping itself in 2014 would be a challenge.

“People look forward to it every year and it’s become a big part of what summer means.” - Lara Richardson, SVP, marketing, Discovery Channel

Discovery began promoting the popular week all the way back in May so people could mark their calendars for the Aug. 10 kickoff date. Playing off last year’s highly visible campaign with Snuffy the Seal, which even got a plug on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” its first spot of 2014 (above) featured that spot’s same anchor, now announcing that the shark “terrorizing the coastline” had finally been caught.

The spot sparked the hashtag #SnuffyLives, to accompany his existing @SnuffyTheSeal Twitter account, where he also took photos around the world in a #SnuffySelfies series throughout the month of June, thus solidifying him as the star of Shark Week.


But not so fast. Discovery had another star in mind for this year’s campaign. introducing the King of Summer in a teaser later in June. That sparked yet another branded hashtag: #KingOfSummer. But if you look closely, you can see our old friend Snuffy in this spot as well, sopping up a little of the King’s newfound glory.

“This guy who’s riding on top of the shark is clearly our crowned King of Summer, just as Shark Week is the King of Summer,” said Lara Richardson, SVP of marketing at Discovery Channel. “People look forward to it every year and it’s become a big part of what summer means.”

As Richardson attests, Shark Week is already very much in the public consciousness. When you search “Shark Week 2014,” one of the first things to pop up on Google is actually a fan-made countdown site that has a clock running the minute Discovery announces the upcoming year’s date. The TV event has inspired catch phrases (“Live every week like it’s Shark Week”), pop culture followings and spinoffs (see multiple Snark Week plans here).

So it’s only natural that the King of Summer began to welcome well-known guest stars in the role as well, first with Rob Lowe in July, who re-created the original spot almost completely:

KING OF SUMMER - Shark Week Promo | Rob Lowe from Cinelicious on Vimeo.

Lowe became somewhat of a spokesperson on Twitter for Shark Week as well, posting updates and gaining a following for his own Shark Week tagline:

With spots such as Snuffy and King of Summer, Discovery was able to set a new, more playful tone for this year’s campaign.

“We really revitalized the franchise,” said Richardson. “We gave it a new pop culture feel and stopped taking ourselves so seriously about it. I think we’re back with more of the same of that, and it has something for everyone.”

And that part-factual, part-playful mode has crossed over into Discovery’s programming plans, bringing back its popular late-night talk show “Shark After Dark” with host Josh Wolf and celebrity guests, adding to the Megalodon franchise with “Megalodon: New Evidence,” and films including “Sharkageddon,” “Lair of the Mega Shark” and “Air Jaws: Fin Of Fury.”

But before it all begins, Discovery is heading straight to the beach for a live marketing event called FinFest at Hermosa Beach in California on Aug. 9-10. The two-day celebration of all things shark will include live bands (on a stage shaped like a shark’s mouth), Sharkzilla, a 60-foot mechanical shark who will chomp things every hour, and a “Screen on the Sand Premiere,” where fans can begin watching this year’s Shark Week programming right on the beach. The event will also be streamed online so that fans not lucky enough to live in SoCal can take part.

“People already celebrate Shark Week on their own,” said Richardson, “so we thought it’d be great to start this official FinFest. We’re hoping that it’s a success this year so we might be able to launch it in multiple cities next year.”

Events such as FinFest also provide the perfect outlet for Shark Week’s sponsors and partners, who seem to grow exponentially each year. Richardson says this year has brought the most partnerships the week’s ever had, with a lineup that includes wrapped planes for Southwest Airlines, a Shark Week sundae at Cold Stone Creamery, Shark Week soap with LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, conservation organization Oceana and the National Aquarium. The partnerships even include one with Dunkin’ Donuts where people are encouraged to “Take a Bite, Take a Pic” with its new life preserver-themed donuts to share on social media sites using #DDSharkWeek.

Shark Week exists in plenty of other places on social media as well, reacting to fans’ growing appetite for ways to get involved before and during the week. Its King of Summer can be personalized using Discovery’s app, where people download the original King and insert their own faces, convert it into a Facebook cover photo or turn them into memes:

Discovery also continued its tradition with the Shark Cup, where fans played along via Twitter to vote for the biggest and best sharks out there.

Discovery’s Shark Week—an idea, like so many great ideas, originally pitched on a napkin—returns for its 27th year on Aug. 10.

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