Ok folks, our pleas and prayers were answered… we got our
renewal! Halt and Catch Fire is coming back for season 3 and as we have all
expressed in various ways, we are all beyond thrilled! We’ve cheered and
rejoiced and celebrated and breathed a big sigh of relief.
We earned it. We worked hard.
Now it’s time to get back to work. And we really do need
EVERY SINGLE ONE of you to help out.
#SavedHCF is excited to announce PHASE TWO of our campaign:
SPREAD THE WORD!!
On the 80’s Reboot Overdrive podcast Rachel talked about how
she used the time between season 1 and 2 to spread the word to everyone she
knew. Now we are asking all of you to do the same during the next 7+ months. SPREAD THE WORD!! Let’s get more people
watching this show! When season 3 starts we need to see those numbers go up.
AMC has been amazingly patient in letting Halt find its audience, but the fans
really need to help out in this effort. We need to tell everyone we know about
it, we need to host Halt and Catch Fire viewing parties, we need to use our
social media to create the buzz this show so desperately needs.
There are many ways to get people to watch the show, the
simplest being, word of mouth. TELL
people about it, everyone you can think of. Tell them exactly what you told
AMC: What it is, why you love it, what makes it worth watching. Don’t inundate
them, but drag them in and hook them. Give them enough to make them salivate
with anticipation so they will want to watch season three. If they have Netflix, let them know they can catch
up on season one while they wait and eventually season two once it is released
(we don’t have a date yet, but I imagine it will be around April like the
season one release).
We’re not asking people to go “Clockwork Orange” on their
friends and family, though. No strapping people to chairs and prying their eyes
open to watch every episode in one sitting. We can inform, discuss, encourage
and recommend the show to people, but we cannot force anyone to watch it and we
cannot force anyone to like it. We want them to enjoy it, not feel like it is
an obligation.
Use your social media to
POST about the show. Again, why you love it, what makes you watch it, your
favorite aspects, etc. Include various links to AMC’s official website so those
not familiar can gather as much information as they want about the show and its
incredible premise. We will provide these links in the blog as well to make
them more convenient for you, along with links to season one available on Amazon if they’d like to purchase the
DVD for viewing.
FAN ACCOUNTS: There are so many wonderful fan accounts,
whether for Lee Pace or Halt and Catch Fire itself on all social media platforms.
Let’s rally together as we did for the first campaign. Some were so helpful in
spreading the word and creating images for the #savehcf campaign. Now it’s time
to put those powers to work to get people watching during the hiatus before
season three. For example, Bailey was chatting with @daileepace (Instagram),
accounts can make edits encouraging their followers to
repost/reblog/retweet/share, which would then encourage their followers to do
the same, but it would also peak interest if these third party followers were
not already fans of the show.
Some other things to keep in mind:
- Tell EVERYONE. Don’t discriminate. You do not need to be a computer geek to like this show. You do not need to be able to remember the 80’s to like this show. This show is about the characters and their struggles and conflicts and developments. Tell EVERYONE you know who watches TV. The only people you might not want to bother with are those who don’t really watch TV at all.
- Do not underestimate the power of word of mouth and please do not think “I am just one person, I can’t make a difference.” I think the success of our fan campaign proves that isn’t true. We are a TEAM and word of mouth absolutely CAN be effective if we are all working together as a team. The idea is, you tell X number of people, some of them will like it enough to tell people they know and so on and so forth.
- Tell the non-subscribers!! Converting people who do not subscribe to cable/satellite is not a wasted effort. Think of it this way, they may not be able to tune in and help with ratings, but if they like it enough, they may tell other people who DO subscribe and who can help. Once again, TELL EVERYONE!!
- Make it fun! Host Halt and Catch Fire viewing parties for your friends to get them started with the first few episodes. Or host multiple parties and watch all of season 1 in chunks.
- Not everyone will like it. This is ok. It’s a numbers game, the more you tell, the more will hopefully watch and will hopefully like it. Tell as many people as possible, but if some of them don’t take to it, don’t force it.
- Season 1 is already on Netflix! Last year, season 1 was not released on Netflix until about a month before season 2 started. This time, we can start trying to convert people right away!
- Halt and Catch Fire is a bit of a “slow burn” and everyone seems to take to the show at different rates. Encourage people to stick with it. The second half of the first season significantly picks up the pace from the first half. Let people know, it may take longer to get hooked, but it’s worth it once you do. Rachel tried to encourage her friends and family to AT LEAST stick with it for the first 6 episodes because it had taken her 5-6 episodes to fall in love with and become addicted to the show herself. If someone watched 6 episodes and still did not care for it, she backed off. (Fortunately, this only happened once, most people liked it).
- International fans count too!! AMC realizes this is a global market and the show will inevitably be expanding to those markets if it hasn’t already. International fans are also encouraged to spread the word at home and abroad and get as many new people watching as possible.
The entire idea of generating fire beneath this incredible
show is a trickle-down effect. Once one person lights the first match and
tosses it on the wood the flame grows stronger. One more match and even
stronger. Eventually the flames will be so strong it’s impossible to contain.
More people will watch, ratings will spike, this show will live on like we know
it deserves. We can do this because we’ve done it before.
Let’s write the code that gets people on board for season
three. Pull out your Ranger soda, your chips and your headphones. It’s time to
get back to work.
What was it Joe said? “Computers aren’t the thing; they’re
the thing that gets us to the thing.” That thing, in this context, ladies and
gentleman, is such a vast amount of people watching this show that AMC won’t
know what to do. Who knows? They may even give us that official merchandise
store we’ve all been desperately waiting for.
The links for the DVD/Site/Episodes:
-- Rachel and Bailey
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