Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSCVC) is a real working NASA facility actively preparing future missions to Mars. So with the release of the highly anticipated film, The Martian, we thought it was only natural for the brand to take to Twitter – in its debut advertising on this platform – and engage in the conversation and buzz.

Adopting a humorous yet informative tone, we centered the campaign around follower and keyword targeting, strategically positioning KSCVC within the dialogue. Hashtags like #BringHimHome and #TheMartian paired with relevant keywords – Mars, Matt Damon and everything in between – allowed KSCVC to add an element of reality to the cultural conversation.

Set against a 3% engagement benchmark, our Twitter campaign blew past this, with an average engagement rate of over 9%. Incredibly, our most popular tweet (see below) garnered over 11%, was a top shared photo for several days and was featured under the hashtags’ results, proving there is no better combination than pizza and space.

KSCVC was part of a beta for tweet engagement targeting – we were able to retarget users who saw our tweet but didn’t necessarily engage with it. Within the time frame of the campaign, KSCVC had the highest engagement with our prioritized keywords than any other brand.

We were able to share NASA-vetted facts in a fun and engaging way while keeping within the brand’s voice and point of view. It was through this balanced and authentic tone that our contributions to the pop culture topic were a success.