'Bridezillas' pop-up museum boosts WE tv social engagement by 178%

Dive Brief:

To promote the new season of its reality show "Bridezillas," which debuted March 2, WE tv created the Bridezillas Museum of Natural Hysteria in New York City's Times Square that attracted 10,000 visitors, according to news made available to Marketing Dive in an email.
The museum, open from Feb. 23 to March 4 and made with the agencies Doner LA, BeCore and Cataldi Public Relations, helped the network increase its social media engagement by 178%, with only 5% of comments carrying a negative sentiment. Among the content generated from the out-of-home experience, 60% came from Instagram and 30% from Twitter. WE tv earned more than 800 million impressions, representing an ad dollar value of $10 million, according to the release.
The 3,000-square-foot space featured a dinosaur wearing a wedding dress at the entrance; a Bridezillas Rage-O-Meter Punching Bag; a Tantrum Tank; the Cray-Cray-nial Massage Zone; a Mother-In-Law Muzzle; a Bridal Party Shock Collar; the Worst Bridesmaid Dresses in the World and several other interactive exhibits.

Dive Insight:

Social media engagement around WE tv's "Bridezilla" pop-up museum highlights the power of OOH activations in driving awareness. WE tv created highly visual exhibits that doubled as photo ops, including When Bridezillas Attack, where visitors could pose as being crushed under a giant white pump shoe. Visitors were also rewarded for sharing photos of their experience on social media with the hashtag #BridezillasMuseum.

OOH campaigns let marketers create memorable moments for consumers, giving them a chance to interact with a brand in person and then post that interaction online. Among millennial women, likely a target audience for the "Bridezillas" promotion, 72% report spending on experiences makes them happiest, a study by Merkle and Levo found. Creating relevant, shareable experiences is key for marketers to appeal to younger consumers, who tend to be more social media-savvy but also regularly report feeling a fear of missing out, or FOMO. More than 70% of Gen Z girls and women said they often feel FOMO because they spend so much time on social media.

TV networks and Hollywood studios have been experimenting with OOH to promote new releases. To generate buzz around the renewal of its sitcom "Roseanne," ABC recently wrapped a New York City shuttle train to resemble the living of the main characters, played by Roseanne Barr and John Goodman. Ahead of the release of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," Disney used digital billboards in Times Square and Toronto's TEC Towers displaying fans' real-time Twitter reactions. The day before the film's nationwide release, the campaign had generated 1.8 million tweets.