How Yellowjackets became a must-follow on TV *and* online
If you’re not familiar with the Showtime series Yellowjackets, you probably aren’t online enough [don’t worry, we’re here to help]. The show is a full-on phenomenon that has successfully used digital strategy to drum up buzz and keep the fans talking long after each episode ends.
Here’s a quick overview if you need it: a high school girls soccer team gets stranded in remote Canadian woods after a plane crash. The show flashes between 1996, when the crash happened, and 2021, when the adult survivors are still dealing with their grief and PTSD.
The key word there is “survivors,” because not everyone makes it home when the team is rescued 19 months later, and it’s not just because of the accident. There’s plenty of scary stuff that goes down in the woods - including cannibalism - that, unsurprisingly, comes back to haunt the characters when we meet them 25 years later.
Needless to say, it’s dark - really, really dark. But the mix of mystery and nostalgia have helped Yellowjackets build a passionate fanbase in just one season. The numbers don’t lie: Vulture wrote last year that “per multiplatform data from Nielsen and the network, Showtime’s twisty thriller has drawn an average audience of 5 million linear and digital viewers through its first nine episodes, and will end its season as one of the network’s biggest first-year series since Billions launched in 2016.”
There’s so much to love about this show, so it’s not surprising that it’s been such a hit. First and foremost, there’s the nostalgia. Wired pointed out that we are in prime time for a 90s renaissance, and from the clothes to the music, Yellowjackets is spot on in recreating 1996 (more on the music in a second). That has brought viewers in that might not have given the show a shot if they only heard it was about teenage girls. A recent fan discussion on Reddit proves that if you were in high school in the mid 90s, you’re tuning in: “Class of 96’ was 2 years after I graduated,” one user wrote, “so the nostalgia hits hard.”
[Not to mention, it has everyone pining for pre-cell phone days.]
It’s also worth noting that Yellowjackets is a strong, unapologetic depiction of teenage girls. Writer Madison Malone Kircher captured that well in this Slate story: “What’s most compelling about Yellowjackets, though, amid all the gruesome mysteries, is the treatment of the cast’s younger iterations. It’s not surprising in 2022 to see the elder versions of the soccer team as multi-dimensional, flawed humans. But it is still refreshing to see teenage girls depicted on screen in all their awful, hormonal glory—teenage girls as I remember them being back when I was one.”
What’s fascinating to us in all of this - besides the show itself - is the digital strategy. Showtime could easily let the fans talk amongst themselves and that would still be buzz that a lot of shows would kill for. But Showtime has been masterful at taking that chatter and creating a social media presence that is a must-follow for fans.
We recommend checking out the show’s accounts to see their work in real time, but here are a few highlights:
The Music: Plenty of digital strategies try to incorporate music, but it doesn’t always work. For Yellowjackets, though, the music is key to the nostalgia, and they were quick to capitalize on it. Three episodes into the first season, when it was clear that the soundtrack struck a chord [sorry for the pun], the show started posting graphics listing out the songs in each episode, and continued that for the rest of the season. The result? The official Spotify playlist has over 40,000 subscribers.
Whomever at Showtime was responsible for using the show’s popular soundtrack to get buzz for the second season deserves all the awards. The newest trailer debuted with an incredible Florence + The Machine cover of No Doubt’s 90s hit “Just A Girl” and it’s getting all parties a ton of great press.
The Engagement: The Yellowjackets social media team shows their fans a ton of love. Whether it’s sharing Halloween costumes or posting fan art galleries, viewer content is as much a pillar to the social strategy as the cast and characters themselves. Another fun method is engaging with the Reddit thread, where people spend a lot of time debating the twists and turns - and is over 60,000 members strong. The brand includes those theories as content, which only builds more interest because it could mean they’re giving fans clues - or it could mean nothing. You have to keep following, and keep watching, to find out (genius).
The Multi-Age Demographics: The cast is a mix of social-media-famous starlets and decades-long-famous actors. Case in point: Misty Quigley is played by both Samantha Hanratty, who has 1.3 million followers on TikTok, and Christina Ricci, who is having a total 90s moment between this show and her role the Netflix series Wednesday (she’s a teacher on that show but played Wednesday Addams in, you guessed it, the 90s). The show’s social has something for everyone, highlighting both generations in the cast regularly - including this amazing Tik Tok that features many of them lip syncing to Florence + The Machine cover.
Tik Tok superstar Addison Rae commented: “I’m obsessed” - which the social team obviously capitalized on.
Needless to say, Yellowjackets has given us tons of digital strategy inspo, and it’s been really fun to watch them develop their own strategy in real time. The big lesson here is to be adaptable. The team probably didn’t anticipate the music to play such a role in the fandom, but they jumped on what fans were talking about and built into their strategy going forward.
That’s not the only way the show has adapted. It was super present on both Instagram and Twitter for Season 1, but only joined Tik Tok a month before the Season 2 premiere. With a multi-generation audience like theirs, Yellowjackets needs to be on multiple platforms - but it perfected a couple of key platforms before expanding. Proof that even if you think you’re late, you’re not!