12 hours ago
Is your favorite social media sitcom actually a marketing campaign?
The scripted series 'Roomies" made something of a splash on social media this summer with two-minute vignettes about a young woman from Ohio who finds herself living with two strangers as she tries to make her way in New York City.
The weekly show makes plenty of jokes about Midwestern transplants and sometimes-grim urban life—a costumed Spider-Man performer from Times Square is an early villain—following a classic sitcom formula.
It's also a marketing campaign.
'Roomies" is written, produced and directed by the marketing team at Bilt, a financial startup whose products include a credit card that members can use to pay their rent while earning rewards at local businesses. The Bilt name, however, has yet to appear in its first nine episodes.
'Audiences are so adept at spotting advertising," said Zoe Oz, chief marketing officer at Bilt. 'How do we start to get people to pay attention, to engage with us without us having to, you know, throw it in their face?"
Consumer fatigue with traditional ads and 'corporate" social-media posts has further encouraged marketers' perennial urge to produce their own entertainment.
Brands lately have been embracing episodic social content. Jewelry brand Alexis Bittar since last year has been producing a series of Instagram skits called the 'Bittarverse."
This summer alone, magazine brand InStyle launched the second season of its scripted mockumentary-style series 'The Intern," pizza chain Little Caesars spoofed the reality show 'Survivor" with 'Pretzel Crust Island," and cosmetics retailer Sephora created 'Cute at Work," a series documenting the beauty routines of women in jobs as disparate as professional surfer and firefighter.
Bilt appears to be one of the first brands to avoid featuring itself in its series. Its decision to start a new account for the show also plays to social-media algorithms that have evolved to feed users several posts from the same accounts without annoying them with more overtly promotional posts, according to Rachel Karten, a social media consultant and author of the 'Link in Bio" newsletter.
'When the account is dedicated to one series, it's likely that the next video a person is served in their scroll is within that same world and is something they'd be interested in," said Karten.
The series stood out in the 'for you" TikTok feed of Veronica Stern, a 26-year-old New Yorker, because of its high production values and a lead character who seems like a fellow musical theater lover.
'I am 100% that lead girl. I was like, wait, how do I get on this show?" said Stern, an actress who works in social media.
Stern said she didn't realize it was marketing until she read the @RoomiesRoomiesRoomies account bio, which is the only place that Bilt's name has shown up so far.
That is exactly the response that Bilt is looking for.
But 'Roomies" won't be brand-free forever.
Bilt plans to eventually integrate some of its corporate partners into the characters' lives, according to Oz. The roommates might, for example, use their Bilt benefits to pick up a complimentary shake after attending a fitness class at gym chain Barry's, which announced a partnership with Bilt earlier this year, she said.
The inevitable follow-up question is familiar to all marketers: How can Bilt demonstrate returns on what appears to be a considerable investment?
The series doesn't cost Bilt much, said Oz. The company declined to provide specifics.
In the short term, the company is primarily concerned with engagement, said Oz. How many people are watching the show and commenting? Do they seem to want new episodes? The series' debut currently has a combined 3.2 million views across Instagram and TikTok, though Bilt didn't pay to promote it, said Oz.
The series also coincides with Bilt's efforts to emphasize that it is more than a credit card brand.
Most marketers would struggle to get such a project approved, according to Lia Haberman, a social-media consultant. A startup like Bilt that has a $10 billion-plus valuation is in a different position than a legacy brand, she said.
'When you've got, you know, shareholders to report to, this is probably not the kind of series that you're gonna be able to produce," said Haberman.
Alexis Bittar's 'Bittarverse" also didn't promote the brand or its products at first, but the posts now allow followers to buy the jewelry worn by key characters like Margeaux, an elderly denizen of Upper East Side society played by actress Patricia Black.
The brand's namesake founder says he created the series primarily to entertain himself and take control of his brand's identity after buying it back from Brooks Brothers in 2020.
Bittar says that some items have sold out after being featured in skits. But the real value of the project, he said, is attracting new fans through the 'fierce community" that has developed in the videos' comments and furthering Alexis Bittar's reputation as a brand that explores social topics and pokes fun at its own industry.
'I totally understood or understand how luxury needs to trick the consumer into spending $2,000 on a bag, but there's a pretentiousness that I've never agreed with," said Bittar. 'I love taking jabs at it."
The 'Bittarverse" will soon expand with a new series, he added.
