WJEC, MS4, Section A, TV industry, Case Study, The Walking Dead, TWD, Marketing, advertising, distribution, PR

1. Marketing & Advertising

2. • AMC’s The Walking Dead Website posted a
making-of documentary primarily about the
first episode, as well as a number of other
behind-the-scenes videos and interviews.
• Several scenes from "Days Gone Bye" were
screened on 23rd July 2010 during the 2010
San Diego Comic-Con International.
• During the Comic-Con briefing Hurd stated
that “we really are doing six one-hour movie“.
AMC’s Marketing methods

3. • Poster
• Magazine
• Trailers
• Comic Con
• Synergy
• Star Image & Production Crew
Traditional Marketing Methods

4. Posters

5. Magazines

6. The Walking Dead was included on the cover of the December 2010
edition of Entertainment Weekly, which featured Rick Grimes pointing a
gun at a horde of walkers.
According to the journalist of the magazine, it "examines the past,
present, and future" of the television franchise; "from the comic book's
humble beginnings, to unlikely path to the small screen, to even more
unlikely path as a bona fide hit."
Kirkman was ecstatic upon hearing of the news. "I've got to say—not to
kiss your magazine's a– or anything—but when they called me and said
Frank [Darabont] wanted to do the show, I was like, 'Yeah, I'll believe it
when I see it.' And then when AMC was like, 'We're picking up the show,'
I was like, 'Yeah, alright, whatever.' When they actually started shooting
the pilot I was like, 'Well, this is kind of real, this is neat.' But when they
called me and said, 'Your show's on the cover of Entertainment Weekly,' I
think that was the first time I was like, 'Oh my god, I can't believe this is
happening to me!’”
Entertainment Weekly

7. • Official trailer (long)
• Official trailer (short)
• Teaser Trailer
Trailers

8. Announced at Comic-Con 2010

9. Promotional Booth at ComiCon 2010

10. Theatrical trucks
during morning &
afternoon rush
hours
PR Tactics

11. • Converse all stars
Synergy

12. Synergy
• The Walking Dead: A TellTale Game Series

13. Synergy
• The Walking Dead: A TellTale Game Series
• The Walking Dead has earned Game of the Year honors from over
80 media outlets including Metacritic, USA Today, Wired, E!
Online, Yahoo!, The
Telegraph, Mashable, Polygon, and GamesRadar, and recently
won theBAFTA Video Games Awards for Best Story and Best
Mobile Game.
• IGN.com gave the final episode of the season an Editor’s Choice
Award and a score of 9.5 out of 10 saying, “People will reference
the series over and over as the benchmark for story-telling in
games,” and summed up the game’s emotional impact by
stating, “I cried in the final minutes, sat silently through the credits,
and was speechless after the epilogue.”

14. Star image
Andrew Lincoln has had previous roles in TV such
as BBC’s This Life and Channel 4’s Teachers, as
well as the films Love Actually and Enduring Love.
Jon Bernthal previous works include: the TV
series The Pacific and the film The Ghost Writer
Norman Reedus had roles in films, such as Mimic
and Blade II, as well as adverts and music videos
e.g Judas by Lady Gaga.
The actors, as well as others from the first series,
were used during the Comic-Con panel in 2010 to
raise the profile of the show.

15. Promise of Pleasure – Production
Crew
• Frank Darabont (director) - The Shawshank
Redemption, The Green Mile
• Gale Anne Hurd (Exec Producer) - The
Terminator, Aliens, Armageddon, The
Incredible Hulk),
• Charles “Chic” Eglee (Exec Producer) – TV
Shows : Dexter, The Shield, and Dark Angel

16. • The Walking Dead was release for home
entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray on 8th
March 2011 (US) and 16th May 2011 (UK).
• Distributed by Entertainment One
Distribution

17. • The Walking Dead debuted during the same week
in 120 countries.
• As part of an expansive campaign to advertise and
heighten anticipation for the premiere,
international broadcasting affiliates of AMC and
Fox coordinated a worldwide zombie invasion
event proceeding days prior to premiere of the
episode in the United States.
• People were told that if they catch sight of a
walker, snap a picture and post it on Twitpic using
the hash-tag #ZombieCommuterDay
Distribution

18. • The show's official website released a motion
comic based on the first issue of the original
comic and voiced by Phil LaMarr.
Traditional Marketing Methods

19. • The event occurred in 26
cities worldwide, and were
hosted in select locations
including New York City,
Washington D.C., London,
Istanbul, Athens and
Madrid. The campaign
events commenced in
Hong Kong and Taipei, and
culminated in Los Angeles.
#ZombieCommuterDay

20. • “Guerilla Marketing should surprise
consumers, create a memorable impression
and create a large amount of social buzz.”
• Not only is Guerrilla marketing helping The
Walking Dead succeed, it’s also contributing to
the “coolification” of AMC — they’re trying to
appeal to a wider, younger audience, and
what’s cooler right now than zombies and
over-the-top marketing tactics?
Guerilla Marketing

21. • The “creepy countdown” display in Toronto’s
Union Station (bonus points for creating a
Twitter contest in which people tweeted a photo
of themselves with the hashtag #TWDFeb10 for a
chance to win one of the severed fingers).
Countdown Clock

22. Cinema Screening

23. Twitter
#TheWalkingDaughter, #visionaryleader and #O
neLeggedHershal are just a few of the weekly
conversational hashtags The Walking Dead has
leveraged on Twitter.
The use of clever hashtags provokes an ongoing
social conversation throughout the entirety of
the episode, and allows that conversation to
continue throughout the ongoing week, leading
up to the next show time.

24. Hype generated for Season 2

25. Twittersphere

26. Facebook
• The Walking Dead
Facebook page has over
34 million followers.
• By using the site to
create hype and
generate interest keeps
the audience actively
engaged in the show
even when the show is
between series.

27. Instagram
• Their instagram account: amcthewalkingdead
also keeps the viewers engaged.

28. tumblr
• Their tumblr account:
thewalkingdead.tumblr
.com also keeps the
viewers engaged and
allows fans to upload
their own fan made
artwork/images/gifs.

29. • To further the social conversation around the
series, AMC brilliantly decided to include a
follow-up segment that airs directly after each
episode of The Walking Dead.
• Creatively enough, the network promotes The
Talking Dead during commercial segments,
which is when they usually introduce the
weekly hashtag surrounding the hot topic of
the episode.
The Talking Dead

30. • A Walking Dead spin-off, set in Los Angeles,
following two families who must band
together to survive the undead apocalypse.
Fear The Walking Dead

31. • AMC also launched Fear the Walking Dead
Story Sync, which gives fans a great second-
screen experience and lets them interact with
the show while it’s on air.
Story Sync

32. • “Story Sync will weigh your interactions and, at the
end of each episode, tell you which character
you’re most like and whether you would have
survived the episode.
• You can also rate other characters’ survivability via
the Apocalypse Preparedness Meter, and weigh in
on what you’d do if you were in their shoes.
Curious how the world fell apart while Rick was in
his coma? Check out Story Sync’s documents that
track society’s collapse step-by-step. Then tally up
the milestones at the end of each episode with
Story Sync’s Road to the Apocalypse feature.”
Story Sync