Universal Pictures: #Candyman

Candyman, co-written and produced by Jordan Peele, is a modern remake of the 1992 cult classic.

You may remember that – according to the legend in the original film – if you look into a mirror and chant the “Candyman” five times, he will appear behind you and kill you with his hook.

Playing off of this horrifying legend, the film’s director Jordan Peele dared the Twitterverse to say #CANDYMAN five times in one Tweet to unlock a direct response from the Candyman himself with first look at the trailer.

The people who are brave enough to Tweet #CANDYMAN today will be rewarded: They’ll be the first to the full trailer this Thursday.

This is a first-of-its-kind activation for Twitter and Universal Pictures. To do this, Universal and Monkeypaw worked with Twitter Next – Twitter’s global team of strategists, technologists, program managers and designers who help brands create human-centric ideas worth talking about. The team leveraged Twitter’s Conversation Card ad format to allow users to Tweet a phrase to "summon" the Candyman. A custom listening mechanism was built to prompt the Candyman handle to respond to anyone who tweets the correct words.