In the midst of a pandemic and turbulent election, Chelsea Handler wanted to make us laugh.
In October 2020, HBO Max enlisted our help to promote her new standup special. It was a tough time for comedy, and a tough time for any kind of content production as COVID cases continued to rise.
Chelsea is not one to mince words, and her fans love her for telling it like it is. So when ideating promotional concepts, we leaned into that ethos: She’s stuck at home just like we are. She’s frustrated, depressed, anxious, and furious like we are.
So let’s talk about it!
The initial RFP was for some simple clip-outs of the special, and 2-3 custom videos…
…but Chelsea liked our ideas so much, HBO Max increased their order to
8 custom social videos and double the clips & GIFs.
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A heartfelt message.
HBO Max, Chelsea Handler, and our team at Movement Strategy were all well aware of the dangers of trying to make light of the situation we were all living in. So we took a very stripped down approach, with a simple “here’s why this special is important to me” video. It’s raw, unpolished, straight from Chelsea’s mouth to her fans’ ears.
It’s a rare (and intimidating) opportunity to write jokes and lines for a famous comedian, so I’m honored at how many she kept in!
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Finding brand cohesion.
HBO Max Pop, a targeted social page for Gen Z, wanted Chelsea to be a part of their Tiny Mic Interview series.
Most of the interviewees for the series are young actors in teen favorites like Gossip Girl and Genera+ion, so the scripted questions didn’t exactly work for someone like Chelsea.
I rewrote the script for HBO Max, finding crucial common ground between Chelsea Handler’s audience and the Max Pop audience — namely shopping, political awareness, and weed.
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Give it to them straight.
Much of the Evolution special touched on her experiences in therapy. We decided to flip the script and pitched this idea for Chelsea play therapist to her fans. In this longer IGTV video, Chelsea answers real questions about life and love in the modern age with her characteristic wit and candor.
A year later, she would go onto start a podcast, Dear Chelsea, where she gives advice to callers about similar problems.
