Marcel Friday

Tidal

Sr. Social Strategist (2023)

I’ve been able to use my 16+ years as a music & culture journalist to step in and help the TIDAL social team with top level strategy, ideation, copywriting, community management, and culture alignment.

Some of the micro-strategies I’ve built from scratch around key dates & cultural moments have been: Black Music Month, GRAMMYs, the release of De La Soul’s catalog on streaming platforms, and the TIDAL’s Artist 2 Watch feature. I’ve also develop evergreen strategies and content ideas for Elliott Wilson, esteemed journalist and TIDAL’s Chief Content Officer.

2K

Social Media Manager (direct hire, 2022)

AAA*: AAA is a video game industry classification to denote games and franchises of the highest budgets and profiles, often considered “blockbuster” titles.

My first foray into the video game world was to lead social for the AAA* franchise Borderlands, produced by Gearbox and published by 2K Games. Borderlands is a first person, action role-playing looter shooter set against a futuristic, space Western backdrop. Having shipped well over 80 million games worldwide, Borderlands is one of the best-selling video game franchise of all time.

I managed a small team that oversaw the organic social marketing efforts for the main Borderlands handles and the social campaigns & accounts for the spin-off games such as Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. In my time there, we successfully launched the latest edition in Borderlands spin-off games, New Tales From The Borderlands. I oversaw the launch of Borderlands onto YouTube Shorts and introduced new content series to help bridge the gap between pop culture and video game culture, such as 2K Style that highlights the different character customizations – a first for narrative based games.

My team & I were able to activate at PAX West, hiring a production team to shoot and edit convention content with fans and big name influencers that we were able to package into 20+ different assets to drive our entire social campaign for New Tales from the Borderlands.

My team also closed out the social campaign for the AAA* narrative-based game The Quarry, capping off a successful campaign that saw us extend its life by an extra 2 months, helping to keep sales high through key sales dates.

HBO Max

Associate Manager, Digital Marketing & Creative Marketing (direct hire, 2020-2022)

Titles worked: Looney Tunes Cartoons, Expecting Amy, American Pickle, Superintelligence, Locked Down, Frayed, Close Enough, Fresh Prince Reunion, West Wing Reunion, Hacks, Made For Love, It’s A Sin, Station Eleven, DC’s Doom Patrol, DC’s Titans, DC’s Harley Quinn The Animated Series, DC’s Peacemaker, Justice League Snyder Cut, DC’s Pennyworth, DC’s DMZ.

(bold denotes marketing/creative campaign award wins)

I got to the HBO Max Originals Marketing team – pre-launch – as one of the first 10 employees hired in the department. During my first few months, in addition to my job responsibilities, I also helped to fully scope out the roles & responsibilities for the department and set the standard for how social & community management would be carried out. I developed an organic social centered, fan focused community management approach built around crafting the right voice and tone for our content, copy, and community engagement.

With my specialized approach to voice & tone and community management, I was able to more than double the follower count for DC’s Doom Patrol across all platforms in 3 months while the show was on hiatus. Due to the success of growing the social following in the offseason, I was able to raise the marketing budget for the show going into season’s 2-4 and raise its overall priority. Over my time as the voice of Doom Patrol on social, I grew the Twitter following from 19k to 79k and the Instagram following from 40k to 110k. I also had the pleasure of conceptualizing and developing Doom Patrol’s highest viewed and engaged content series, the F**K Counter, which has taken on a life of its own. It is the only content series that any DC Comics show continued on social from season to season!

Following up my success with Doom Patrol, I took those learnings into launching the official Justice League Snyder Cut social handles, reaching 10k followers on Twitter in less that 3 minutes after going live and 100k by the end of the 2nd day. Fan inclusion is everything and our social campaign leaned on empowering each and every Associate Producer fan on the Snyder Cut to feel a part of the marketing. Using social listening, we were able to be both proactive and reactive in how we super served the fan base responsible for bringing the film to life.

Taking the steam and learnings from 2 years of working on large fandom and culturally massive IP’s at HBO Max, my team & I were able to deliver a fully robust marketing campaign for Peacemaker. Our Shorty Award winning community management presence and voice & tone won over fans so well that cast members of the show was convinced the title’s star, John Cena, was running the accounts himself! We were able to successfully launch and maintain a powerful social presence for the first 4-5 months of the campaign with no content to market with or against. Using Peacemaker’s unique voice, I crafted a robust community management plan built around engaging with and playfully antagonizing rivals in a way only Peacemaker can!

In addition to my social and creative work, I was able to call upon my previous experiential work and activate as the largest comic book studio presence at San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con. In San Diego, we created an outdoor obstacle course putting fans through the ringer for their chance to join Peacemaker’s team and wrapped up by a surprise appearance by Peacemaker himself!

At NYCC, we were able to activate for Doom Patrol with a full outdoor mini-carnival and complete with a live interview panel with the cast. For Peacemaker, I was able to turn around a last minute idea into a full out guerrilla marketing campaign. In 48 hours, I was able to get “Wanted” posters for Peacemaker printed and flier bombed across New York City, autographed John Cena posters for fan giveaway, and the pièce de résistance – an $800 original print of the Peacemaker #1 comic!

Overall, during my tenure at HBO Max, every DC Comics account that I managed kept a consistent and active engagement rate of over 4% even in between seasons with little to no new content. Every DC account I inherited – Doom Patrol, Titans, Harley Quinn – saw its follower count double during my time managing them.

HBO

Creative Strategy, Social Strategy, Experiential Strategy (agency work, 2018-2019)

HBO’s The Watchmen

The Watchmen is one of the comic book world’s most cherished and acclaimed IP since debuting in DC Comic’s 50th Anniversary Spotlight comic. Since then, the IP has gone on to become a cult classic even amongst casual fans and culminating in a 2009 theatrical movie. About a year before HBO would launch their take on the IP, I was brought in to research and develop a cultural & creative research deck to identify opportunities and target a new, multicultural audience to the title. The 40 slide research deck included a deep dive into the “Black nerd”, or “Blerd” culture with reference points, connective tissues between the African-American community and the science fiction genre, and guidelines on how to effectively market to an otherwise traditionally maligned and ignored consumer base.

This deck would go on to inform the strategy and multicultural marketing approach for what quickly became 2019’s most popular show across all networks.

HBO’s The Shop

Thrusted into the role of Creative & Experiential Strategy, I was given three weeks to plan, program, and execute a robust strategy of how to activate for LeBron James’ talk show – The Shop – at ComplexCon 2018. The end results? My team & I partnered with Universal Music Group/Capitol Music Group to create two days of panel conversations called Capitol Conversations. Using executives at music’s most popular labels and a mix of established and up & coming artists, we recreated the magic of the show live while giving out free haircuts to all who came. Special guests to the activation included: Nas, Grant Hill, Big Boy, Nick Grant, Icewear Vezzo, Matt Ox, Tinashe, Pusha T, Demetrius Shipp Jr., Shiggy, Victor Cruz, Jarrett Jack, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, and more!

Starz

Creative Strategy, Social Strategy, Copywriting (agency work, 2018-2019)

Power, Season 6

To launch the final season of cable television’s second most watched show, my team & I conceptualized and executed the full creative and social strategy focusing on the drama and tension leading up to the jaw-dropping moments of the final season. Throughout the campaign, we: developed, executed, and tweaked-on-the-fly our content and social strategy – using community management and analytics to deliver strong assets, copywriting, and community management.

Netflix

Social Media Management, Social Strategy, & Creative Strategy (agency work, 2018-2019)

Strong Black Lead

To launch their African-American centric social vertical, Strong Black Lead, I was brought in as a Social Media Manager to develop a social calendar, ideate content, and lead community management initiatives. My team & I assisted in developing the branding and collateral and helped to facilitate major initiatives such as A Great Day In Hollywood. In my time on the vertical, I also served in a creative role, having written and produced the highest performing content for the vertical during my time as Social Media Manager and Social Strategist for the vertical such as the Jennifer Lewis tribute and the Titus Andromedon Appreciation video. Leaning into my expertise as a music & culture journalist, I was able to super serve our target demographic the voice/tone and content they wanted while luring in new fans.

Rhythm & Flow

Rhythm & Flow is Netflix’s first Hip-Hop reality competition show. Hosted by rap luminaries T.I., Cardi B, and Chance The Rapper, I was brought on by the team as a Social Strategist and consultant to ensure our social campaign authentically connected with the Hip-Hop culture. Using my decade of experience as a music journalist, I was able to assist my team in capturing and highlighting the important cultural moments in the show to turn into social assets and create moments authentic to the culture and spirit of Hip-Hop.