Dexter Morgan is resurrected from the dead… literally.
Showtime’s sequel series Dexter: Resurrection takes place a few weeks after the events of Dexter: New Blood, which aired from 2021 to 2022. This time, Dexter runs off to New York City after surviving a near-fatal gunshot wound, chasing down his son.
The sequel series premieres with two episodes on July 11 on streaming and on-demand for the Paramount+ Premium plan and airs on broadcast on July 13, with the rest of the season premiering weekly.
While the cast features Michael C. Hall reprising his role as the titular character, it also stars returning actors like Jack Alcott, David Zayas, and James Remar. But there’s also new talent being added to the main lineup, including Uma Thurman and Peter Dinklage.
To get fans excited about the new series, the Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios marketing, social, and communications team launched an extensive 360 marketing campaign across different cities like London, Mexico City, and New York City with various creative elements.
“The campaign feels multidimensional, so you can experience the Dexter universe in so many different ways,” Amy Campbell, chief marketing officer, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios & Paramount Media Networks, told ADWEEK. “I’m fortunate to work with some team members who have been working on Dexter for many seasons, and it’s so exciting because we are also fans. It’s exciting to be able to put so much energy into it.”
An immersive multi-room activation debuted in London from July 8 to July 13, where fans had the opportunity to walk into various rooms inspired by the show. In Mexico City, a Dexter: Resurrection takeover took place at Comic Con, where the trailer was shown to fans during a panel featuring Michael C. Hall and other cast members. A separate immersive experience will launch at San Diego Comic-Con later this month.
In New York City, sports fans and theatergoers alike were met with custom sponsorships of the Mets-Yankees Subway Series and Shakespeare in the Park.
On the day of the world premiere on July 11, the Empire State Building was lit up in red in honor of the show’s bloody theme. The premiere itself was also sprinkled with various interactive elements, including a choir, which was brought onto the red carpet before and after the screening of the first episode.
Meanwhile, Showtime debuted custom audio spots in various cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, which were narrated by Hall in Dexter’s first-person monologue style, dynamically targeted with custom messaging that changes based on a user’s location, time of day, and current weather.
Showtime also partnered with Amazon during Prime Week for custom, limited edition boxes that feature the show’s branding.
Though the campaign officially kicked off in April, Campbell said the seeds for the campaign were planted nearly two years ago, when the Dexter social media team reactivated the franchise’s social channels, while also debuting new TikTok and YouTube accounts and gaining 2.2 million new followers. Cumulatively, the franchise’s social footprint has surpassed 14 million followers across platforms, which, according to Showtime, is the largest among any of the network’s intellectual properties.
Showtime previously reported that the last season of Dexter: Original Sin drove 343 million social views and 16 million engagements, while the series finale delivered a 27% increase in audience over its premiere episode. Meanwhile, the recent trailer for Dexter: Resurrection brought in 52.7 million views in its first week and reached No. 4 on YouTube Trending within 24 hours.
“We’ve been seeding their desires with content, compilations, and fan edits, and that’s been our strategy along the way,” Campbell said. “We have these fandoms we create around the franchises, whether it’s Dexter, the Yellowstone universe, or Yellowjackets, where we really super serve them with content everywhere that they are, and social is an important part of that.”
Campbell also said that Hall himself and executive producer Clyde Phillips partnered closely with her teams through plenty of strategy, planning, and creative sessions to ensure the campaign was reflective and celebratory of the show.
“They’re so engaged, grateful, and wonderful to work with, and it just makes it a pleasure,” Campbell said. “It is such a gem of a show because it’s so well-loved. The cast is incredible. The executive producers are amazing, and my teams are really in lockstep around every single thing that we’re doing.”
Going forward, the campaign for Dexter: Resurrection will be extended on social with platform-intentional videos, episodic publishing, compilations, and user-submitted fan edits. Additionally, every episode will be supplemented with an official YouTube after-show, Dexter: Final Cut.
Campbell said that, at the end of the day, it really ties back to the Dexter fandom and how loyal they are to the show after all these years. She added that they even worked closely with Paramount’s research team on the campaign to understand what’s driving fans.
“People love Dexter,” Campbell said. “Dexter has fans of different generations, and I think the one thing they all love is Michael C. Hall. He’s just so iconic to those fans, and keeping them at the heart of what we’ve been doing has been exciting.”