12 Years ago, I survived a bear attack—hear me out.

We got turned around on the Canadian side of Glacier National Park and had to make camp in what we later found out was the largest grizzly territory in North America. My tent was attacked in the middle of the night and my brain immediately began rifling through everything I’d ever learned about bears. It’s a long story, but I survived. Why am I telling you this and what does this have to do with Bird Box?

Well firstly, I want you to know that I’m a badass who survived a bear attack.

And secondly—I often use this story to explain the nature of the internet. Because although I spent many months meticulously planning, writing, presenting and getting the creative strategy for Bird Box approved and I worked on many, many assets spanning core marketing pieces, social/digital, press day, OOH, experiential etc; they were all overshadowed by the internet’s own memes.

See, the Internet is a lot like bears. Because although you’ll find no shortage of techniques for how to survive a bear attack…nobody really knows if the techniques will work. We just know they HAVE worked before at one time or another. And that’s the best you can do. You learn what your best shot is at surviving and you hope to hell it works. The rest is up to the bear.

I wrote the creative strategy for Bird Box applying everything I believed would be our best bet at “winning.” I called the strategy “The Three B’s.” Bullock. Bindfolds and Birds. True Story.

The long and the short of it was leaning into the three strengths of the film: Star Power, Hot Genre, Interesting Premise. This was the backbone of the high-volume campaign. I’ll post some of my favorite assets across multiple touchpoints below, but I think the important thing to note is that the movie was a runaway hit. Some people say it happened DESPITE the marketing. But I’m not so sure. Because although the bear is always going to do whatever it wants to you, first it has to know you’re there.