Social Media Tactic: Five Night’s at Freddy’s

This article highlights how Five Nights at Freddy’s succeeded by leaning into its existing online fanbase, particularly a younger audience that grew up with the games through YouTube reaction videos, Let’s Plays, and lore breakdowns. Even during the SAG-AFTRA strike, when traditional cast-led promotion was unavailable, the film maintained strong momentum because fans were already actively creating, sharing, and discussing content across platforms.

From a social media standpoint, this reinforces the power of community-driven marketing over top-down promotion. Rather than relying on actors or heavy studio messaging, the campaign benefited from fans acting as amplifiers, turning speculation, nostalgia, and lore discussions into sustained buzz. It’s a strong example of how social platforms can function as a self-sustaining marketing engine when a film respects and activates its core audience.

For distributors, this shows that identifying and nurturing existing fan ecosystems, especially for genre or IP-based films, can be just as impactful as traditional awareness campaigns, particularly in crowded release windows.

Social Media Executive - Daniel