FYC Campaign Case Study

Positioning Pop TV’s marquee hit as an award-season powerhouse.

Schitt’s Creek Season 5 | For Your Consideration

Turning ‘Schitt’ into gold.

An FYC campaign doesn’t begin when the media is unveiled, but rather months prior when building relationships. It is critical to plant the seed early and allow time for buzz to build which helps to prime academy voters and creates content for promotion.

Objective

  • Create buzz while targeting award-season voters for a relatively undiscovered Canadian series that had premiered just a few years prior in the U.S. utilizing a very limited budget.

  • Capture a very niche target audience of voting members that are not known to the public.

  • Overcome the challenge of new academy rules prohibiting the mailing of screeners to Hollywood guild members that included the voting body.

Strategy

  • Utilize contextually targeted entertainment publications like The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Deadline to directly reach the target audience.

  • Allowing us to get screeners to potential voters, PopTV opted to place their Schitt’s Creek Season 5 screener onto a key-shaped USB plug which was then fastened onto a full-page ad in The Hollywood Reporter.

  • A multi-channel approach was also considered utilizing KCRW-FM, the Los Angeles public radio station known for having high listenership among those in “The Industry.”

Achievement

Schitt’s Creek Season 5 ended up being the surprise story of the 2019 awards season receiving it’s first Emmy nominations from virtual obscurity in the United States. In total, the sleeper hit received four Emmy nominations for:

  • Outstanding Comedy Series

  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Catherine O’Hara)

  • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Eugene Levy)

  • Outstanding Contemporary Costumes.

More importantly, Schitt’s Creek had formidably cemented itself in the comedy lexicon of the United States and quickly became the new “it” show that everyone was talking about in the post-water cooler world. Eventually, Schitt’s Creek went on to win nine Emmy awards the following year and continues to make a lasting impression on audience around the world.