HATFIELDS & MCCOYS AGENCY FEUD

When HISTORY was coming out with Hatfields & McCoys, their first ever scripted drama, they called on us to develop excitement around it and create a buzz with Media Buyers and Marketing Clients. We came up with the Hatfields & McCoys Agency Feud Competition, and pitted agencies against each other in a fierce battle for family supremacy and great prizes. This multi-platform campaign was designed to educate clients about Hatfields & McCoys, and to immerse them in the HISTORY brand while getting them pumped for the show and all the advertising opportunities within it. We developed a slew of materials for the campaign, including an interactive agency feud website, fun promotional mailers, and a game show-style event we called “The Final Showdown.”

ALLIANCE PACKS

We divided all agencies into two families, you were either a Hatfield or a McCoy, and sent out Alliance Packs to each participant before the online competition began. These packages contained a family-branded tin mug, desktop flag and propaganda pamphlet. Family members were encouraged to fly their team flag proudly, drink from their mugs often, educate themselves about the opposing family and their atrocities, and to get fired up for the feud!

PROPAGANDA PAMPHLETS

We conducted independent research on the Hatfields & McCoys story, and wrote punchy copy for the propaganda pamphlets. They asked the reader to join the family call-to-arms and study up on the opposing family, and they provided extra motivation by dragging that family through the mud! Details of the promotion were also explained, and readers were directed to log on to the Agency Feud Competition Website. The pamphlet information was used to create the daily trivia questions on the site.

WEBSITE

We created the Agency Feud Competition Website, where players answered daily trivia questions about Hatfields & McCoys, the actors in the show, and the HISTORY brand in general for chances to win awesome prizes. Players earned points for correct answers, and a leader board was shown on the homepage once the competition began to show which family was in the lead and to encourage more people to play.

EMAIL BLASTS & E-SIGNATURE

Email blasts and a customized e-signature were created to drive traffic to the website. Actual HISTORY Account Executives were featured in each email blast to further connect with media buyers, and encourage them to participate in the competition.

PRIZES & FULFILLMENT

We sourced, fulfilled and shipped out all prizes for the Agency Feud Competition. From iTunes gift cards to 3D TV Entertainment Suites – 85 prizes were awarded daily, weekly and at the Final Showdown Event.

PRIZE INSERT CARD

Insert cards were sent out with each prize congratulating the players and encouraging them to keep playing. They also drove traffic to the main HISTORY website.

FINAL SHOWDOWN EVENT

Click on the thumbnails below to view photos from the event:

The two top scoring players (one from each family) were asked to gather some other team members and come to the Final Showdown event, where they would battle the other family team “gameshow-style” for ultimate supremacy and big grand prizes. We created the entire gameshow, complete with interactive scoreboard and sound effects, and held it at a sleek yet rustic and cabin-like venue in Manhattan as part of a happy hour. Upon entering the event, each guest was given a Team Hatfield or Team McCoy button to show their allegiance. We even created red and blue cocktails – Hatfield Hooch and McCoy Cooler. The families battled it out, but in the end Team Hatfield was victorious. Everyone had a great time, and all winners were published on the website following the competition.

Team Hatfield and Team McCoy buttons

MY ROLE

I came up with the idea for the competition, pitched it to the client, helped formulate its game play and created all UX and UI for the website, worked with a sweepstakes partner to write the official rules and restrictions, designed the overall look and feel of the game and promotional components, wrote and edited a lot of the copy, managed & provided creative direction to both the design and web development teams as they implemented it into all materials, oversaw prize sourcing and fulfillment, and managed the day-to-day running of the live competition (data collection, client communication, etc.)