ABC tried to stay ahead of the curve with their newest show Happy Endings. The show, which stars Elisha Cuthbert, premiered Wednesday Night after a very aggressive social media heavy campaign from ABC. Happy Endings used a Mobile to Facebook campaign, which ABC is apparently trying to use to roll out new shows in the future. ABC also paid for a promoted Happy Endings hashtag on Twitter this week. Let’s take a look at how each of these tactics paid off.

ABC’s Happy Endings – Mobile to Facebook

ABC teamed up with mobile video marketing company Mogreet to launch a campaign for Happy Endings. Mogreet currently is promoting the last movie of the Twilight franchise, Breaking Dawn. For Happy Endings, users would text “happy” to a number and get a video message sent to their phones every Wednesday. The video would be a short promo for Happy Endings. Once uers opted in, the video would also be placed on their Facebook walls.  I’m guessing that standard texting and data rates applied.

ABC hopes that social media will lead to good things for "Happy Endings"

I don’t know if I like this idea for a brand new show like Happy Endings. Since it’s an ABC comedy it has a high chance of failing. (see Mr. Sunshine for an example) If a show that I liked, for example Parks and Recreation decided to do this before the launch of next season I would be interested. It’s not a bad idea at all, I just wouldn’t want to share videos from what could turn out to be another failed comedy.

ABC’s Happy Endings – Twitter Hashtag

ABC also promoted  Happy Endings by purchasing a promoted hashtag (#HappyEndings) on Twitter. Hashtags are very iffy things, and it looks like ABC might have struck out with this one. In a quick search of all things #HappyEndings related on Twitter, not a single one in the initial look through mentions the show. Ouch!

The right way to use a hashtag is of course to increase your visibility on Twitter. Make it easier for users to find your message, or messages of similar quality. #HappyEndings is being used for everything from the inappropriate (think massages) to  love advice (HA is there ever any  #happyendings like really? tweets a user) I know Twitter often tends to get out of hand with it’s trending topic, mob mentality but ABC should’ve narrowed this down and drove the hashtag traffic toward their show Happy Endings instead of letting it get this bad.

ABC’s Happy Endings Results

The numbers from last night are in. According to the fine folks over at Entertainment Weekly Happy Endings got 7.3 million viewers last night, which was called “decent”. That number is down 27% from the premier of Mr. Sunshine in the same time slot a few months ago. To be honest though Matthew Perry has quite the following, not that Cuthbert is a slouch by ANY means.

"Happy Endings" examines Dave and Alex's break up and how it affects their friends.

I haven’t watched the show yet, so I can’t give an opinion on it, but Entertainment Weekly breaks Happy Endings down pretty well in their most recent issue. Yes, the one with the Scream 4 cover. Don’t act like you aren’t going to see it!

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The concept of a break up and then dividing your friends is certainly one that is intriguing. The show seems to be already drawing a few comments comparing it to Friends. That’s pretty good praise. It’ll be a little bit before we can fully take a look at the affects this ad campaign had. In my eyes, the Modern Family lead in helped Happy Endings more then the campaign itself.

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