The Alienest

Challenge

In the lead-up to the premiere of “The Alienist,” TNT’s latest high-stakes dramatic series with a $50 million budget, we faced the challenge of differentiating the show in a saturated market and building a dedicated fanbase.

Solution

To tackle this, we produced an inventive five-part documentary series that paralleled the show’s historical backdrop and modern-day relevance.

1. First, we profiled Dakota Fanning’s character, who is based on the NYPD’s first female detective. We took cameras to Budapest to film her on location, while also following a real-life NYPD SVU female detective to compare experiences from the 1890s to today.
2. Next, we ventured into the psychology of serial killers. We sat down with a psychologist who has interviewed over 300 serial killers, offering chilling insights into their minds.
3. We also engaged actor Daniel Brühl to read writings from real-life serial killers. To amplify this, we turned these readings into an augmented reality experience.
4. Lastly, we took viewers to an unsettling location—an abandoned asylum on a scarcely known island off New York’s coast, where over a million bodies are buried.

Distribution

We used our social activation platform, Launchpad, and syndicated the documentary across various social media platforms to maximize visibility.

Results & Impact

• The premiere of our digital short smashed TNT’s previous digital launch records, racking up over 4 million minutes watched.
• The series sparked more than 10 million social engagements.
• Subsequently, “The Alienist” won an Emmy, received five more nominations, and was renewed for a second season in 2019.

Takeaway

Through multi-layered storytelling methods and taking advantage of cross-platform distribution, we dramatically boosted viewer engagement and set new industry benchmarks for digital series launches.