Pirates of the Caribbean

The ask was headline video and social creative to make the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales feel like a must-see. It was a new adventure, and it was also the latest chapter of a long franchise, so the work had to speak to both.

The tone was the reason people love these films: whimsical silliness sitting right next to real darkness. And six years had passed since On Stranger Tides, so a sizable new audience had arrived. The work had to land with die-hard fans and first-timers alike.

Disney needed globally adaptable assets that kept character authenticity in a social-first environment: extending a legacy IP without it feeling like a museum piece.

Motion, social, and headline video assets used worldwide: anchored by real-world magic: Depp as Jack Sparrow surprising fans on the ride itself.

It began as one slide in the first creative round: a spiritual sequel to the Mad Hatter surprise, with Johnny Depp replacing his own animatronic on the Disneyland ride and surprising the guests.

The social rules were to stop the thumb and to put motion in every post. The motion posters, the countdowns and the character portraits blended with animation all started as ideas in the first round.

On Instagram, the profile grid itself became the countdown. Six posts made one picture, one picture for each day from three days out to now playing.

The film grossed ~$796M worldwide ($623M international). The surprise content hit 16M+ views, #1 trending on Facebook and Reddit, #6 on YouTube, 120K Facebook shares: a globally shared cultural event, and Depp's final completed campaign appearance as Sparrow.