Three years ago, a sci-fi film with a ‘90s TV star about a tornado inexplicably picking up killer sharks was the breakout hit of summer TV. Twitter exploded, memes were created and Syfy met its next big film franchise.

Now, Sharknado 3 is trying to yet again one-up itself as one of the most social events of the summer. And considering Sharknado 2 claimed all 10 trending topics on Twitter at one point in its initial broadcast, this is a rather big feat.

Premiering Wednesday, July 22, on Syfy, Sharknado 3 is the centerpiece of a major campaign that aims to do just that with Periscope, cameo bingo cards, fake audition tapes, Comic-Con street teams, branded content, even an Archie comic.

To kick off the third film in the franchise, Syfy knew it had to start with the power of social media. Viewers’ social response in the first film was how Syfy knew it had a hit to begin with, and for the next two films the network amplified that conversation.

“In the first film, the social growth was really an organic one,” said Michael Engleman, EVP of marketing, digital and global brand strategy at Syfy and Chiller. “We promoted it but we had no idea it was going to become a social-media hit.”

Now for Sharknado 3, Syfy is raising the stakes on its social impact. First, with an onscreen trend monitor running during the premiere.

At one point in its premiere night, Sharknado 2 dominated all 10 trending topics on Twitter. The trend monitor this year is to ensure that people are able to easily follow along with the conversation and that no one misses out on anything.

“Our aspirations are always to get bigger and better, and I don’t know how you beat 10 out of 10 but we will try,” said Engleman, adding that part of Syfy’s reasoning behind highlighting Twitter reactions on air is quite simply because “the audience is a more important voice than ours.”

Syfy has ramped up its social output in the weeks leading up to premiere for Sharknado 3 as well.

Social marketing tool Glif is collaborating with the Sharknado franchise to create custom branded video.

Fans tweeting about Sharknado 3 using #HomeOfTheNado get a video clip from Glif with music, motion graphics and dynamic video, which they can then share on social accounts.

For video content, Syfy posted celebrity audition tapes for Sharknado 3, whether or not they ever actually auditioned or not.

These included brand partnerships as well, with auditions from spokesmen like Hotels.com’s Captain Obvious.

Syfy also partnered with Fullscreen for their influencer project in order to create a series of custom pre-rolls, Barely Political’s Rasta Shark created a Rasta Sharknado video, Syfy even launched a series of photobombs where the Sharknado sharks photobombs historical moments to tie in to the third movie’s Washington, D.C. location.

And the Go Shark Yourself app is back for a second year, adding new scenarios and enhanced functions.


“We’re leaning in to what works, [but also] making sure we’re trying new things,” said Engleman. “Everything we do for Sharknado is about empowering our audience, enabling social conversation.”

That also means this year is big on cameos. Some of the biggest social reactions Syfy has seen was with big celebrity cameos in the first two films. Sharknado 3 might be the most cameo-filled of all, so Syfy is making it worthwhile to pay attention with shareable, playable cameo bingo cards.


Engleman credits Sharknado 3’s filmmakers at The Asylum with this idea.

“The Sharknado franchise is custom built for social media because it’s really the sum of a lot of buzzy, snackable comedic bits and the cameos are the most important ingredient in that,” he said.

Several brand partnerships also played into the idea of creating shareable content that got the word out about all brands involved.

Archie comics presented a special edition where Archie and his friends take on a Sharknado:


Universal Orlando, an obvious network partner as well as a major setting in the third film, created a sweepstakes for the Sharknado movie to tie everything together.

Other brand partners include Xfinity, Benefit cosmetics, Doritos, Jack Links’ hangry moments GIFs and Tracphone, who will post “in-memoriam pieces” throughout the premiere.

Syfy even took advantage of Periscope this time around. The movie’s star Ian Ziering has been on Periscope every day for a week promoting the film, and will be on the app the night of the premiere as well.

“Sharknado has been a marketer’s case study for the power of social and digital advertising and social media’s relationship to event television,” said Engleman.

Perhaps the most interesting (or daresay, enlightening) partnerships of Syfy’s is with Philips light bulbs.

The network’s second-screen app Syfy Sync and Philips Hue are partnering for the third time (first with Sharknado 2, then with 12 Monkeys) on an integration with the Internet of things.

While watching Sharknado 3, viewers with Web-enabled Philips Hue light bulbs will see their homes light up with different colors based on the mood and action of the movie. So if Fin (Ian Ziering) cuts up a whole slew of sharks in one scene, the light bulbs all may suddenly light up red. A more touching moment may dim the lights. This integration is just one example of how Syfy sees Sharknado getting bigger each year.

“For us, there’s always opportunity to creatively grow a franchise,” said Engleman.

But it’s not just the franchise that he sees growing. Sharknado is once again being used as a promotional platform to help exposure for Syfy’s varied other projects, including this December’s Childhood’s End and The Expanse, as well as next year’s Magicians adaptation and similar campy sci-fi film Lavalantula.

“Sharknado’s massive reach has made it a really important part of our overall strategy,” said Engleman. “What an awesome opportunity to get in front of an audience that may or may not sample us normally and to show off these amazing new shows.”

And those amazing new shows may just include a fourth Sharknado, with a location in danger still to be determined.

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