The Challengers with Amy Brenneman x Private Practice Cast Reunion

OBJECTIVES

In partnership with Amy Brenneman, DMM leveraged The Challengers podcast and the quarantine trend of virtual cast reunions to engage with Amy’s existing, enthusiastic Private Practice fan following, drive podcast downloads/subscriptions and Facebook Group memberships, and raise money for No Kid Hungry. The reunion episode provided the show’s main cast with an open forum to discuss show memories, answer fan questions, and discuss the timely topic of social distancing and its many challenges.

DMM worked with Amy on a strategic rollout plan for the reunion episode (both audio and video versions) and bonus content to support her objectives. From ideation to execution, DMM facilitated the virtual reunion with production and tech support, fan engagement, distribution strategy, and amplification of social and fan engagement. We coordinated an exclusive release window of the audio version of the episode several hours before the video rolled out in order to drive podcast downloads/subscriptions and released the cast gag reel first to The Challengers Facebook Group to incentivize new members to join – resulting in record download numbers and nearly doubling the size of the Group. We also drove fans to consume the reunion episode and bonus content and supported the No Kid Hungry fundraising efforts through multiple posts across Amy’s social media accounts, including utilizing native fundraising features.

DMM additionally secured social promotion by creating social toolkits for Private Practice Executive Producer Shonda Rhimes (1.7M Followers), her production company Shondaland (50.6K Followers), No Kid Hungry (131K Followers),and all participants from the cast, in addition to securing a share from Entertainment on Facebook (4.8M Followers), which increased the episode’s total downloads and overall social impressions.

RESULTS

The strategic rollout of the episode and bonus content paid off, with the reunion episode becoming The Challengers’ most-downloaded episode to date within a matter of hours (12.5K and counting), and the Facebook Group nearly doubling in size with the addition of 900 members in one day. By prioritizing engaging with Amy and the full cast’s existing Private Practice fandom, we successfully increased engagement and growth for both Amy and The Challengers’ social channels in addition to podcast downloads. Amy received over 12K new followers in the two days following the reunion’s release, and her posts announcing the release of the episode received over 295K+ impressions combined across platforms. We also raised over $300 for No Kid Hungry through related fundraising efforts.