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AMC’s The Walking Dead is set to make its season five debut on Sunday, Oct. 12, and nearly one week before it kicks off season five, and after two years on top of the cable ratings, the show also has already been renewed for season six.
But with two seasons ahead of them, there are still so many questions left unanswered. What exactly is going on at Terminus? Are Rick Grimes and crew about to fight cannibals? Where is Beth? Seriously, where is Beth?
Linda Schupack, EVP of marketing at AMC, says that part of the network’s marketing strategy is simply encouraging those questions, creating new questions every off-season and making sure the show’s diehard fans keep on asking them.
Over the past five years, AMC has come to rely on San Diego Comic-Con each summer as a launch pad for the newest season of The Walking Dead. This year was no different.
“Comic-Con is a place where we speak directly to this passionate group of fans,” said Schupack. “It’s an opportunity for us to introduce the show and to give a sense of a first look, even though fans continue to engage with series all year long.”
The Walking Dead kicked off its season five campaign July 24-27 on the Comic-Con exhibition floor with a booth that resembled Terminus (the finish line for much of the group during season four, and now where many of them are being held captive), complete with cryptic messages from Maggie, maps to the location and countless walkers heading in and out of a tunnel that only led to more walkers.
But even before fans lined up for hours and got into their best Rick Grimes costumes, AMC released special Comic-Con key art with the Terminus group in handcuffs, ready to fight, hyping the new season’s theme and getting fans excited for the new storyline, whether they were at Comic-Con or not.
The message was clear – with their backs up against the wall, our heroes were ready to fight for their lives. The photo was created by Frank Ockenfels, who also created the poster art for The CW’s Jane the Virgin this fall, and is well known for his past work with American Horror Story and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
That became more aggressively clear when AMC released the season’s tagline, “Hunt or Be Hunted,” with poster art of Rick alone. Schupack says this was part of a larger strategy to make Rick Grimes a bigger presence in the show’s marketing, putting him front and center to face whatever danger is next for him and his adopted family.
“As seasons progress and characters get deeper into their world, the stakes get higher for them, and that’s the story that we try to tell,” said Schupack.
The Comic-Con trailer for season five told much the same story, and more importantly, caused a lot of excitement for fans. The video on AMC’s YouTube channel currently has more than 10 million views, not to mention the thousands of likes and shares the trailer garnered from its 30 million Facebook fans.
And on Sunday, Sept. 28, season four of The Walking Dead arrived on Netflix, much to the fans’ delight, two weeks before season five’s on-air debut. Schupack says this timing was in order to allow the show’s existing audience to get excited for the show’s return, while also introducing the show to potential viewers – giving them no excuse not to watch before the new season came around.
“Catch-up is a great marketing tool,” she said. “And with this show, once you’ve caught up, you’re part of the community.”
For some TV series, the fifth season is a slowing down point for marketers – the show is too old to be marketed as a new product, but too not old enough to be a television mainstay. For The Walking Dead, however, the folks at AMC have no plans to walk away – mostly because the show’s fans simply wouldn’t let them.
“We are not taking our foot off the gas,” said Schupack. “Five seasons in, there is still deep excitement, deep interest, in the property, and our job is to serve that community.”
The Oct. 12 premiere will be accompanied by its live after-show, Talking Dead, hosted by Chris Hardwick with showrunner Scott M. Gimple and producer Greg Nicotero and Conan O’Brien.
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