MAKE THEM FALL IN LOVE FIRST
Building audience investment in a character before revealing his story's biggest twist
Make Them Fall in Love First
What if the best way to sell a romantic comedy wasn't to sell the romance?
For Solo Mio, the theatrical social campaign centered on Matt Taylor, a humble high school art teacher preparing to marry the love of his life in Italy. The film's trailers deliberately kept its biggest turning point under wraps, creating a unique challenge for social media: audiences needed to become invested in Matt's life without knowing what awaited him at the altar.
As the lead social media manager for the film's official theatrical channels, I developed and executed an organic campaign across Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok that introduced audiences to Matt, highlighted the film's ensemble cast, built anticipation around his Italian wedding, and ultimately invited audiences to follow his journey into theaters.
The strategy was simple: get audiences invested in Matt Taylor first. Then make them want to know what happens next.
Organic Social Strategy
✳︎
Character-Driven Storytelling
✳︎
Talent & Theater Collaborations
✳︎
Short-Form Content
✳︎
Organic Social Strategy ✳︎ Character-Driven Storytelling ✳︎ Talent & Theater Collaborations ✳︎ Short-Form Content ✳︎
The Character-First Strategy
Introduce audiences to Matt as more than Kevin James.
His career as a high school art teacher, his students, his artwork, his personality, his upcoming wedding, and his hopes for the future all helped establish him as a person audiences could root for.
1 · Build Matt Taylor
The campaign leaned into Matt's excitement about marrying the love of his life in Italy.
Rather than revealing the film's central disruption, social content allowed audiences to experience the anticipation alongside Matt.
2 · Sell the Wedding
3 · Matt wasn't the only reason to see the film
The campaign also highlighted the ensemble cast, including Jonathan Roumie and Kim Coates, giving their existing audiences another reason to discover the film.
The Results
17M+
Post Impressions
2.5M+
Post Engagements
40M+
Reel Views
Top-Performing Posts About Matt Taylor
The official Solo Mio theatrical social campaign supported the broader Matt Taylor character campaign through story-driven movie content, without managing or operating the separate Matt Taylor promotional accounts.
Top-Performing Posts About the Movie
Character is everything.
The Solo Mio campaign reinforced something I have seen repeatedly in organic social: audiences don't become invested in a title simply because they know it exists. They become invested when they have a reason to care about the people inside the story.
Matt Taylor gave audiences that reason.
Rather than revealing the film's biggest turning point, the campaign introduced audiences to Matt's life, his work as an art teacher, his relationship, his upcoming wedding, and the people around him. Curiosity around the character could then become genuine investment in his story.
My role was not to operate the separate Matt Taylor promotional accounts, but the official theatrical social campaign could support that larger character ecosystem by building anticipation for Matt's wedding, highlighting the film's cast, creating opportunities for talent and theater collaborations, and ultimately giving audiences a reason to see where Matt's story went.
The result reinforced one of my core beliefs about social marketing:
Interest gets someone to stop scrolling. Investment makes them want to see what happens next.