In preparation for the season seven premiere the @Psych_USA team was working overtime to get fans, better known as Psych-O’s, excited for more Sean and Gus hijinks with the #PsychSlumberParty. A six hour seven episode fan favorite marathon that took place on the USA network from midnight - 6 a.m. PST on Saturday, Feb. 16 (9 p.m. - 3 a.m. PST Friday, Feb. 15 – Saturday, Feb. 16 for those with an east coast feed) made Psych-O’s flock to social media proving they appreciated the effort. It was an excellently thought out and well executed social media campaign.
What didn’t they do to prepare for this massively successful campaign? Not much.
The official Psych website was decked out for the festivities including a party planning home base with ideas and tips to make your sleepover both awesome and delicious. Official invitations were available to send to all your guests along with suggestions on party favors and tips for the perfect jammies. Suggested activities were also listed including pranks, a ticklefight, a pineapple juice drinking game and fort building. Links for Psych themed recipes were available including pineapple smoothies, psych seven layer dip, psupersize psych psundae, blueberry pancakes and of course Quatros Quesos Dos Fritos.
Psych-O’s could sign up to receive calls from Sean and Gus throughout the evening to remind them to watch.
One effective motivator to get Psych-O’s involved was a prize-a-thon conducted on Twitter. In the two hours prior to the event Psych snuggies and DVDs were won by many loyal fans for their knowledge of Psych trivia and for sharing slumber party pictures.
The Psychville community page was created to display various media and posts from Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.
The Chatter page collectively shared all Psych-O thoughts throughout the party. A constant display of loyal fans who truly love this show was evident from the start. Various chatter included fans quoting the show, declaring their love for the characters and the actors who play them, sharing their pictures from their own slumber party and favorite moments from the first six seasons. The chatter could also be seen along the bottom of the screen during the episodes.
Psych-O’s were encouraged to post videos on Tout that were played during the commercial breaks. These included fans singing songs, snacks they prepared and some tap dancing teens.
A set of 7 code words were displayed during the slumber party to give Psych-O’s a chance to win a trip to the set in Vancouver and unlock a sneak peak look at season seven.
Checking in on GetGlue during each episode gave users the chance to earn eight special edition stickers. The current tally for Psych check-ins is over 690,000.
The cast was highly involved live tweeting during the party including: @dulehill, @maggielawson, @Omundson and @nelsonKristen. They were interacting with the Psycho-O’s and increasing the frenzy. Shorts of Sean and Gus’ own slumber party with their guests Juliet and Lassie were also filmed and played between episodes.
With #psychslumberparty and #lastnightGus both trending on Twitter and over 18,000 people checking in to GetGlue at its peak to watch repeats of this highly popular show, The Mentalist could only wish they had this social media dream team.
USA’s longest running original programming announced an eighth season long before next week’s season seven premiere and it would seem that Psych and Psych-O’s will be around for years to come. Be sure to catch the premiere Wednesday, Feb. 27 on USA.
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