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“Pretty Little Liars” is gearing up to celebrate its 100th episode on Tuesday night, and the show’s success rests in no small part on the strength of its various marketing campaigns over the years that have harnessed the power of its rabid online fan base.
The show, which boasts an insanely large social media following—13.7 million Facebook fans and 2.2 million Twitter followers—regularly tops the TV social media metrics when it’s on the air.
But it’s also been known for coming up with new and unique ways of serving up exclusive content to keep its fans engaged across various platforms.
Here are some of our favorites:
1. “PLL” Teams up with Audi and Snapchat for the Season 5 Premiere
Offering exclusive content is nothing new these days. So “PLL” took that old carrot to the next level with the season five premiere in June by creating content so exclusive, it would disappear after a few seconds.
The show teamed up with the popular Snapchat app to create a different kind of second screen experience during the airing.
Snapchat, for those not in the know, allows users to send texts and chats to each other for a few brief seconds. And then the content of the chat disappears.
Viewers were served up bonus content in Snapchats that was tied to the scene airing at the time. The bonus content was only relevant in the context of the scene that was airing, so you had to be viewing in order to get the full experience.
2. ABC Family Bites Back at The CW
The CW marketing folks got a little cheeky this year, running a promo for their hot new show “The Originals” on ABC Family during the an airing of “PLL.”
That move by itself would be a bit unconventional. But what got everyone’s attention was that the spot openly mocked “PLL"’s central story line and encouraged viewers to switch over to The CW at that very moment.
ABC Family was quick to respond with this rather biting Tweet:
3. A “PLL” First Keeps Facebook Fans Happy in the Off-Season
Every network is now trying to keep fans engaged year round. But when you’ve got an online fan base as rabid as “PLL,” you really have to go the extra mile.
Last October, the network gave fans something to whet their appetite in the off-season with a “PLL” first: the four lead actresses sat down for their first joint live interview ever.
Even though the season finale aired back in August, and there was nothing new to promote, the Facebook Live event created the perfect opportunity to maintain fan excitement—and the deliver new fodder for the “PLL” social conversation.
4. “#TheBetrAyal Suspect Tracker
The network warned fans ahead of the August 2012 summer finale that the characters were in for a major betrayal.
To generate buzz ahead of the big reveal, ABC Family created an entire campaign around #TheBetrAyal and asked fans to play along online using their “suspect tracker” by tweeting who they thought the top suspect was for the huge betrayal.
Since the order of the results shifted in real time based on votes, the suspect tracker proved a genius way to keep the series’ teen and tweener fans—a demographic known for their devotion to beloved characters—engaged in the voting to move their favorites up and down in the rankings.
5. #AISEverywhere
One of ABC Family’s first indications that they might have a highly engaged social media fan base on their fans was when viewers started posting photos and art to their feeds of all the places the letter A was showing up in their lives.
To encourage fans to continue creating and submitting such authentic UGC, ABC Family put a spin on the old “Win a Visit to the Set” contest and asked viewers to post their own A artwork.
More than 750,000 fans posted to the #AISEverywhere Facebook app, and ABC Family even created a special poster of the top 50 finalists.
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