Hulu x The Kardashians S5
To authentically welcome our community of music enthusiasts into the world of The Kardashians, we created a custom content program that celebrated the legacy of the iconic Californian family, ahead of the series' fifth season premiere.
Team
GENIUS
DELIVERABLES
Creative Strategy, Concept Development, Copywriting, Brand Identity, Creative Strategy, Content Creation, Social Advertising
Year
2024
Role
CREATIVE IDEATION + MARKETING STRATEGY
Season five of The Kardashians marked a renewed moment for the franchise, and Hulu was looking to reintroduce audiences to the family in a way that felt fresh and intimate, almost like watching the first season again. Rather than relying on traditional promotional tactics, the goal was to spark renewed cultural excitement by tapping into conversations that were already shaping fan communities and modern entertainment culture at large. Hulu partnered with Genius to tell a different kind of Kardashians story, one grounded in music, where fandom, social conversations, and cultural influence naturally intersect. Genius' core audience turns to music to understand culture, and music has long been one of the places where the Kardashian family's influence subtly appears, whether through direct relationships, viral moments, or references that turn their name into a symbol for glamor, ambition, or cultural relevance. By leaning into this lens, we were able to bring Hulu closer to viewers through a space that felt authentic to both brands.
Instead of retelling tabloid moments or amplifying celebrity spectacle from past seasons, we brought Hulu closer to our shared audiences by taking a music-first approach and highlighting the ways the Kardashians have shaped culture not just on screens, but through lyrics, references, and name drops embedded across hip-hop and pop music.
At the center of the program was a custom editorial feature titled The Lyrical Legacy of the Kardashians. Leveraging Genius’ proprietary Music IQ data, we examine how celebrities, athletes, and entertainment franchises appear in lyrics and here, we applied that lens to one of the most referenced families in modern pop culture. From rappers with direct relationships to the family to artists using their names as shorthand for luxury, fame, aspiration, or controversy, we unpacked the moments that turned the Kardashians into cultural icons long before the fifth season premiered on Hulu.
To expand the reach and social impact of the article, we also created an in-feed post that teased the editorial and its sharpest insights into a visual, shareable format built for conversation. The post highlighted standout lyrical references, invited fans to weigh in with their favorite Kardashian mentions in music, and sparked renewed dialogue about how deeply the family is woven into the fabric of pop culture. Designed for discovery and built with social-first pacing, it pushed the story into the feeds where our audience naturally gathers.
To further embed the family in the world of music, we tapped into Genius’ signature ethos of spreading music knowledge through an interactive IG Story trivia experience. The trivia challenged our community to test their understanding of the family’s prominence in music, from iconic name drops to unexpected references. This layer of interactivity transformed the editorial from a piece to read into a moment to participate in, strengthening fan engagement and inviting audiences to see the Kardashian's’ cultural footprint through a music-educated lens.
By breaking down iconic lyrical mentions, extending the story across social, and activating fans through interactive knowledge-based content, the program revealed how the family has been immortalized in music and cemented their presence not just on television, but in the creative vocabulary of artists across genres. In doing so, we extended Hulu’s storytelling into a space where our audience already engages daily: the language of music.
The program drove significant performance across every contracted deliverable.16.7 million total campaign impressions exceeded the contracted 6.4 million, demonstrating strong audience demand for music-driven cultural storytelling. The custom editorial feature delivered 1.9 million impressions against a 650K guarantee, and our social extensions generated 11.2K clicks, surpassing the contracted 10K and validating the decision to expand the program across in-feed and interactive formats.
The result was a partnership that felt fresh, intentional, and reminiscent of Season one by tracing the family's influence through the soundtrack of the past decade.
together we positioned Hulu as a key player in bringing fans closer to the music while delivering a premiere moment that resonated with culture-driven audiences beyond traditional TV marketing.