Watchmen is a rich, complex IP with a passionate, discerning fandom. Our challenge was to honor the original comic’s legacy while embracing the adaptation’s bold exploration of white supremacy, American history, and racial justice. The campaign required precise, culturally fluent storytelling that met longtime fans’ expectations while deeply engaging multicultural audiences, especially Black viewers. Every creative touchpoint was intentional and layered for authentic resonance.

Objective
Design a nuanced, multi-layered campaign to generate excitement for the Watchmen series debut. The mission was to spark curiosity, engage longtime fans of the comic and related IP, and foster a genuine cultural connection—particularly among African American and multicultural audiences—through authentic stories, moments, and platforms.

Approach
Launching a campaign for Watchmen, a property rooted in comic culture yet reimagined for today’s social context, required a culturally sensitive, strategic approach. We honored the legacy while thoughtfully introducing bold new themes. The integrated campaign leveraged strategic partnerships, original content, social influencers, and experiential activations to meet existing fans and welcome new audiences. Highlights included:

• Collaborating with The Atlantic to create a custom digital graphic novella on the Tulsa Massacre, followed by a live panel in Washington, D.C. featuring prominent journalists and historians.

• Partnering with CultureCon for an exclusive screening and fireside chat with Regina King.

• Creating a Community Lounge at New York Comic Con with live discussions led by For All Nerds and Black Nerd Problems, interactive photo ops, and comic-style portraits.

Impact
The collaboration with The Atlantic shattered benchmarks—achieving 90x average social shares, 17x more page views, and becoming their top-performing collaboration by return visits. The campaign successfully built buzz and cultural resonance, driving strong early engagement with the series.