Twitter becomes ‘Mob City’ as new TNT show tweets pilot script

In an effort to draw interest and build buzz, TNT’s Mob City (@MobCityTNT) staged the first-ever “adaptweetion”, as the new show released its pilot script in a series of Tweets in the days leading up to the premiere.

With a script specifically adapted for and published over Twitter, Mob City is a three-week noir mini-series set in 1940s Los Angeles that is airing in two-hour installments Wednesdays on TNT (@tntweknowdrama). The network leveraged the popularity of writer-director Frank Darabont (@FrankDarabont) of The Walking Dead and The Shawshank Redemption fame to promote and tweet the script leading up to the launch of the brand new show.

The premiere of Mob City was ranked as the top drama show Wednesday night in terms of conversation on Twitter, according to Nielsen SocialGuide, with 15,000 Tweets about the show seen by 627,000 people.

For the campaign, a collaboration with advertising agency Deutsch New York, the show’s Twitter handle, @MobCityTNT, tweeted the script, as well as related episode clips, photos and other behind-the-scenes content, all with the hashtag #MobScript.

@MobCityTNT started tweeting regularly on Monday with this message:

The #MobScript Tweets ended at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, half an hour before Mob City aired on TNT. The Tweets, which brought followers up to the point right before the first episode’s end, were embedded chronologically on the website http://mobscript.com/, which was included as a link in most of the Tweets. The website also displayed two countdown tickers: one until the next Tweet, the other until the show’s premiere.

Many Tweets, like the one below, included actual clips of the episode, with music, setting the mood.

Others featured pictures of the characters.

Since @MobCityTNT used Twitter cards, the videos and photos and other elements show up right in the body of the Tweets, with no extra clicking necessary. Of the more than 400 #MobScript Tweets, about 3/4 have media embedded along with the text of the script.

Leading up to the premiere, TNT also ran this promo highlighting the script Tweets.

Members of the cast and crew, including @FrankDarabont himself, tweeted commentary of the #MobScript Tweets, behind-the-scenes photos and more. Those Tweets were also featured on the mobscript.com website.

And naturally, the stars live-tweeted the show Wednesday night.

Do you know of other innovative uses of Twitter? Write to [email protected].