Things are not what they seem in season two of hit Netflix series Wednesday, as star Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams character encounters new foes and woes in the Gothic halls of Nevermore Academy.
Leveraging that sense of dark mystery and intrigue, creative agency GIGIL transformed one of the main character’s frightful experiences–crying black tears–into an audacious and attention-grabbing installation in one of Manila’s busiest commercial hubs, the Venice Grand Canal Mall.
In the series, black tears signify Wednesday’s severe exhaustion due to the excessive and intense use of her psychic powers. The condition, also experienced by the character’s Aunt Ophelia, is also a warning that her powers are becoming too much for her to handle, signaling a dangerous path ahead for her and her family.
To drive engagement for season two of the series, GIGIL worked with the Venice Grand Canal Mall, a popular immersive Italian experience featuring a man-made 650-foot long, 50-foot wide replica of the city’s Grand Canal, complete with gondola rides, Italian-inspired architecture, and replicas of iconic Venetian landmarks.
The agency’s “Black Tears” experience included a large stage in one end of the canal featuring a billboard-size image of Wednesday’s face, streaked with her signature black tears. During peak shopping time on the first day of the activation, an environmentally friendly and filtered black dye was released from beneath the stage platform, slowly seeping its way into the waterway and gradually turning the entire canal black.
At the end of the two-day experience, the dye was filtered from the water, restoring the canal to its pristine condition.
The canal’s eerie transformation captivated the thousands of shoppers as they strolled the edges of the waterway and peered down from the mall’s numerous walkways, bridges and mall balconies over the two days. The experience quickly went viral, generating more than 145,000 engagements. Below is a case study film.
Wednesday season two went on to be the #1 show on Netflix for three weeks.
“We safely spread the character’s black tears through one of Manila’s most romantic streams, literally spreading her woe,” said Brandon Talip, copywriter at GIGIL. “It was a striking way to mark Wednesday’s return, and drive curiosity and engagement from the target audience both at the mall and virally though social conversations.”
