The fourth in Disney's "Descendents" franchise of films, "Descendents: The Rise of Red" is a musical fantasy film focused on Red, the daughter of the Queen of Hearts of "Alice in Wonderland" fame, as she causes waves at Auradon Prep. When the Queen of Hearts incites a coup against Auradon, Red must team up with Cinderella's perfectionist daughter Chloe as they travel back in time to try to undo the traumatic event that set the young Queen of Hearts down her villainous path.
Disney Branded Television looked to TikTok to engage its fan community, drive conversations and provide fans with shareable content, and encourage new viewers and longtime die-hards to tune in for "Descendants: The Rise of Red."
Disney Branded Television knows that its fans want to continually engage with their favorite content on social media, sharing funny, exciting, and stand-out moments. Disney's strategy for "Descendants: Rise of the Red" worked to excite fans and give them plenty to talk about, introducing them to a new "villain kid" in Red and capturing all the best moments of her fierce, often snarky character.
TikTok's short, snappy videos were the perfect form for "Descendants: The Rise of Red." Disney created a variety of shareable content to excite fans about "The Rise of Red," reward the community for their fandom, and attract new viewers to the franchise.
Disney's strategy included:
Disney curated a wide variety of content that was humorous, musical, bold, and fascinating while showcasing the cast and their character’s unique personalities. This allowed the brand to engage with a wide audience on TikTok and expand the Descendants community, deepening the connection with fans.
Disney Branded Television's TikTok campaign was a continual success, with posts generating substantial views and shares from fans. Among all owned posts across Disney’s Descendants Accounts, TikTok saw the highest posting cadence, total impressions, and engagements per post.
Most posts in the campaign garnered hundreds of thousands of views, and some accounted for millions—as many as 25 million for one of the campaign's most successful videos. Overall, the campaign generated 421 million impressions and 27 million engagements from TikTok alone.
The campaign helped "Descendants: The Rise of Red" to draw 6.7 million viewers in its first three days on Disney+ and to go on to gather 33 million views over 12 weeks. It was the fifth-most streamed piece of content during the week of its release.
