Monica Foronda - MR MERCEDES S3

Mr. Mercedes, Season 3

Mr. Mercedes, an AT&T Original Series on Audience Network is based on Stephen Kings “The Bill Hodges” Trilogy Novels. In season 3, retired detective Bill Hodges — played by Brendan Gleeson investigates the murder of a solitary writer and those linked to his missing cash and manuscripts.

My goal was to create an organic social media campaign and a well-designed public-relations kit that would bring awareness to the show and its premiere date, while increasing impressions and positive fan engagement across all media platforms.

With a very conservative budget, I designed and developed a public-relations kit that mirrored the reclusive writer in the woods theme of season 3. My first idea was to build a small container that resemble a typewriter which dispensed post-it notes that had preprinted plot lines. The post-it note box was then adhered to a faux folio that I designed which served as a carrier for an embossed moleskin notebook, slick USB pen (which contained episodes) and a brochure. The Mr. Mercedes branded yellow was used in small touches over deep blacks. Cast and prop images, and clever taglines were placed throughout the kit, as well as on social media assets. These components helped capture the mysterious and daunting nature of the show and allowed to further develop material that was used throughout the print and digital campaign.

CAST Brendan Gleeson, Holland Taylor, Justine Lupe, Jharrel Jerome, Breeda Wool, Maximiliano Hernandez, Gabriel Ebert, Kate Mulgrew, Rarmian Newton, Brett Gelman and Bruce Dern.

CLIENT

AT&T & Audience Network

ROLE

Art Director

Designer

Animator

DELIVERABLES

Print & Digital Advertising

Public Relations Kit

Social Media Content

CATEGORY

Advertising

Page Layout/Packaging

Organic Social Media

Animation

Social Media Content

In season 3, I knew that my approach when creating social content needed to resonate deeply with the fans of the show and the network’s audience — to drive engagement and awareness of the season premiere and weekly episodes.

When preparing for our photoshoot I researched different trends that were being used on various social media platforms. I later sat with our in-house illustrator and comped storyboards that helped direct both our photographer and the actors. The results were amazing. While picking selects I saw opportunities to create unique stop animation videos. So, I sat with my copywriter, showed him my ideas on screen and paper, and suddenly — some amazing lines started bursting out. They were infused with a newfound sense of comedy and suspense. Our collaboration helped truly bring out the personalities of many of season 3’s characters.

I conceptualized and designed the following social media creative.

The following videos and gifs were built using frame animation. I used gallery and stock images, and bold yellow and white type treatments in both the static posts and video animations.

These two videos were my favorite. I wanted to reward both Stephen King and Audience Network Fans with posts that added a little touch of the unexpected.