THE BOYS / SEASON 3

from campaign to canon

Supe orgies, comment cosplay, and evil corporate PR...how we used the wildest show on television to dominate social.

Client: Amazon Prime Video
Role: Creative Director / Copywriter / Producer
Agency: Movement Strategy

  • 1.3B organic impressions in one year

  • 47M organic engagements

  • Zero paid media

When I took over as the creative lead for The Boys' social handles, I wanted to push beyond the typical marketing agenda - hey here's a still! Wow a funny quote! Key art, shiny! I saw an opportunity to engage the growing fandom and speak with them, not at them, and create social content with enough of the show's signature bite that they'd want to pass the work around themselves.

THE VOICE

what would butcher do?

Fans know ball, so we should know ball. I used Billy Butcher as the test for every idea. If the account sounded like him, fans would know we were in on the same joke.

  • Punch up. Go after the people with power.

  • Be edgy with a point. Don’t swear just because you can.

  • Know the playing field. Join conversations where the team knows ball.

That second rule came in handy when Amazon let us make Valentines insinuating that one of the lead characters f*cks fish.

THE TEAM

run it like a writers’ room.

Anyone could pitch. If an idea stalled, we’d find the good part, kill the rest, and rebuild. I wanted the team to understand the thinking well enough to challenge my ideas. Giving them a character and three rules meant they could make the call themselves.

I treated Amazon and the show team as creative partners. I listened for the problem behind the ask, overdelivered when we saw a chance, and spent the trust we earned on bigger swings.

I disappeared to Italy for two weeks during launch. The work kept moving.

THE WORLD

vought went canon.

I led the transformation of Vought International into the PR department the show’s fictional corporation would actually run. We used the account’s propaganda and corporate spin to tell stories between episodes and seasons.

Working from scripts nearly a year ahead, we planted ideas in fans’ feeds before those ideas showed up in the series. The show team trusted Vought enough to let those stories operate within canon.

THE OUTCOME

what the work earned.

Instead of buying our audience, they became the media plan. The account went from roughly 200K Instagram followers to more than 1M by the end of Season 3.

According to the client, a proactive campaign deck I led generated more internally approved ideas than any other global marketing department working on the show. Soon after, the agency received an unprecedented 18-month extension.

The creative framework we established kept shaping the accounts for roughly five more years.