Amazon MGM Studios approached us in November of 2023 to partner to shape one of their tentpole campaigns for 2024, an adaptation of James Patterson’s beloved Alex Cross character for a new original series called Cross.
Our initial objective was to marry the existing audience of James Patterson and Alex Cross fans with the extraordinary fandom of similar Amazon novel adaptations like Reacher and Jack Ryan. Adding complexity to the ask was evolving Alex Cross to fit in a contemporary context - a strong Black detective grappling not only with the demons of his personal past, but also being a cop in today’s rapidly shifting sociopolitical environment.
Thematically, our strategy centered on positioning Cross and its central character Alex as layered to not just keenly emphasize social justice, but to also highlight the show as an enticing crime-thriller true to the novels’ core tenets. This positioning allowed us to tap audiences familiar with the character and those just looking for their next watch.
On a visual level, this strategy led us to show - not tell - the multi-layered nature of the show, Alex Cross and Aldis Hodge in the titular role and as a Producer. The content came to life in dynamic animations showing Cross’ mind’s machinations and the intrigue of the primary storyline. We also placed emphasis on content with Aldis Hodge ruminating on what drew him to the story and character.
Creatively, the team’s multi-disciplinary detective-centric content for Cross was placed across nearly all media, ranging from original social and digital content, live event support at New York Comic-Con, and hundreds of digital out of home placements around the globe and linear placements during Thursday Night Football and beyond.
The mystery continued to unravel in the audience building on social with our community management team. We satiated our burgeoning community’s appetite with near-constant fan responses over the course of 3+ months, including custom content with James Patterson, cryptic social stunts with talent involvement, and 1:1 fan engagements in post comments.
Ultimately, our efforts coincided with the show debuting at #1 Worldwide on Prime Video with over 40M global viewers in the first week after launch. The only thing that could top the extraordinary achievement of the first season… is the second season, which is coming soon to Prime Video.
