SpongeBob SquarePants 20th Anniversary

This two-month campaign got kids, parents, super fans, and the entertainment industry excited to celebrate and talk about SpongeBob’s Birthday special episode, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the franchise.

The promotion kicked off with a :60 in-cinema custom “etiquette” video, with SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward demonstrating how NOT to behave in a theatre.

The outdoor campaign featuring Instagrammable creative, leveraging street level placements surrounding highly trafficked family-friendly locations in New York, LA and San Diego. We extended the concept with 26 custom Snapchat geo-filters of the most photographed squares in America like “Logan SquarePants” and “Farragut SquarePants.”

Partnerships with GoNoodle, SuperAwesome, Complex Networks and DC Comics allowed fans to interact with their favorite sponge on social, at school and via games. We partnered with Complex to create a custom story on their Snapchat channel, viewed 420K times. The SpongeBob content created for GoNoodle in the classroom yielded over 5.8MM engagements and was the top performing video during its May flight. An interactive mini-game, where users were challenged to match birthday decorations in 30 seconds, played on SuperAwesome’s network, and exceeded engagement rates 8X. 

Year
2020

Role
Marketing Manager

Results

The campaign got people talking and made the Birthday Special one of the most successful on-air events of the year:

  • 75 million impressions generated across media (P2+)

  • Cinema spot ran in front of family titles like The Lion King and Minions, delivering approximately 24MM impressions. 

  • Snapchat lens’ exceeded benchmarks by 30%.

  • Social buzz leading up to and including the Birthday premiere* totaled 500K mentions 

  • #1 Social Show in the Children and Family genre the night of airing**

  • SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout was the #1 telecast at the time of airing, across all networks and kid demos (K2-11, K6-11).***

 *6/15-7/15 **Nielson Social Ratings  ***Nielson YTD Range 12/31/18 – 7/12/19

Awards
Promax: North America Gold – Children's Program Multiplatform 360 Campaign, SpongeBob Big Birthday Blowout