While most brands went quiet during Pride Month 2025 due to the political climate, HBO Max wanted show up in a way that was as loud and proud as its audience.
Fans were already turning the brand’s iconic queer characters and moments into memes, reaction videos, and cultural conversations online. Rather than create another traditional Pride campaign, we leaned into what HBO MAX's audience was already doing to create an anthem designed to be remixed, shared, and celebrated by the community.
Turning Brand IP Into An Anthem for Queer Joy
We treated the HBO Max library as a sonic palette for self-expression rather than relying on traditional advertising. To bring this vision to life, we collaborated with global drag icon Trixie Mattel to mix an original track that transformed rhythmic arrangements of viral soundbites into a club-ready beat. Since local resonance was essential, we also partnered with activist DJ Barbara Butch in France. She re-engineered the global track with French-specific audio cues, ensuring the anthem felt like a native piece of local nightlife culture.
We treated the HBO Max library as a sonic palette for self-expression rather than relying on traditional advertising. To bring this vision to life, we collaborated with global drag icon Trixie Mattel to mix an original track that transformed rhythmic arrangements of viral soundbites into a club-ready beat. Since local resonance was essential, we also partnered with activist DJ Barbara Butch in France. She re-engineered the global track with French-specific audio cues, ensuring the anthem felt like a native piece of local nightlife culture.
Fueling a Movement through Remix Culture
We launched these tracks as open-source Sounds on social platforms, inviting immediate participation on TikTok and Reels through remix challenges that leaned into the very same fan passion that inspired the idea to begin with. The work was also released on Spotify and Apple Music. This approach empowered a decentralized network of creators to adopt the audio as their own vocabulary. Relinquishing creative control to trusted community voices allowed the brand to establish a participatory relationship that felt like a grassroots movement.
The anthem breathed new life into the brand's relationship with the LGBTQ+ community during a season of widespread industry silence. These efforts resonated far beyond a standard campaign, generating 27.7 million impressions and 16.6 million video views—a reach over six times greater than the brand’s previous Pride content.
We saw nearly one million active engagements as fans embraced the track for their own dancing and meme-making, turning a brand asset into a global cultural moment. With participation spanning over 100 countries, the results proved that authentic advocacy is most powerful when it empowers a community to lead the conversation themselves.
