The Challenge
Justin Baldoni tapped Elle to represent his now award-winning media studio focused on social good content in back in 2014 prior to their first season of My Last Days airing on The CW. Since then, we have supported the Wayfarer Entertainment team with PR support through a range of projects, including:
Four seasons of My Last Days on SOULPANCAKE; three seasons of the show on The CW
Five years of The Skid Row Carnival of Love
Justin’s personal brand pivot into an expert on modern masculinity, including preparing him for his first TED Talk
Season one of Man Enough
The recent acquisition of the majority stake in Wayfarer by a private company
Special projects with Google, The Ad Council, and other commercial endeavors
Our Approach
As a start-up venture, Wayfarer didn’t have access to the types of marketing budgets some of their competitors did, meaning each time they launched a project we had to get clever with our approach to help them stand out in a noisy landscape. We employed the following strategies in pursuit of our goals:
Our team invested heavily in the development of thoughtful messaging strategies designed to ignite powerful and provocative conversations.
Similarly, we designed intentional strategies for each campaign we launched that typically centered around the stories we knew would create compelling media headlines.
Through the years, we focused heavily on online and social media platforms with proven virility and sticky audiences.
With the benefit of a spokesperson admired by both the media and the public, we have spent a lot of time working with Justin to develop his tone and messaging platforms, and media training him prior to the launch of big initiatives or interviews.
We also invested heavily in opportunities for his ideas to spread, such as through his 2017 TED Talk.
When launching content that was controversial in nature, such as the sexual assault episode of Man Enough, we created relationships prior to the launch with all key people in the public landscape who we thought needed to be “on board” with the content in order for it to be successful. This often meant weekend meetings at Justin’s home with MeToo and Time’s Up movement leaders, showing them the content for them to provide feedback on.
At each moment of success, we worked alongside the Wayfarer team to pursue awards and accolades that would recognize their work, proving their credibility and highlighting the collective success we had in driving viewership.
Our Impacted
We have secured billions of impressions for Wayfarer’s projects in recent years, and helped drive millions of viewers to their content in film, TV, and digital. Highlights included:
Helping to drive more than 70 million online views to the My Last Days series, in addition to the viewership on The CW. We also partnered with The CW on the launch of their platform, CWGOOD.
A regular pulse of stories in the entertainment industry trades such as The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Deadline, which was a key priority for the company.
Working alongside Justin to develop and articulate his new personal brand platform centered on exploring modern masculinity alongside his online show, Man Enough, which was very well received in both men’s and women’s media and hundreds of millions of views online.
Supported the organization in securing the following awards and accolades: The Adweek Arc Award, Telly award, Clio Award, Television Academy Honors Award, Webby Award, and short-listed at Cannes Lion.