In 2024, the Roman Empire was my Roman Empire, as I worked with the Peacock team on the launch of the gladiator series Those About to Die. The show was a 10-episode, fictional depiction of early arena sports in Rome, filled with gladiatorial fighting, chariot racing and political backstabbing, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and led by blockbuster action director Roland Emmerich.
My role on this series was co-leading the strategic positioning for the show, as well as kicking off teams across design, creative, social, activations, press and more on a 360 marketing campaign to promote the series. Our strategic approach was to tap the launch timing (summer 2024) to thematically align our series against the cultural backdrop of the Summer Olympics, setting up TATD's arena sports as the "games that started it all". This meant leaning heavy on themes of sport, arena visuals, and more, and using the violent "rise or die" stakes to boldly pop against the comparatively less dire modern Olympics Games. The campaign, led by our creative, design and cross-functional teams ended up including key art, AV trailers, an arena-based activation at Comic Con, and more.
