September 22, 2024

WWE Snuck a White Rabbit QR Code Into Its “Happy Holidays” Message

Happy Holidays #HappyHolidays

WWE’s social media accounts uploaded an animated “Happy Holidays” message on Wednesday, only to sneak in one more White Rabbit reference right at the end. The video centered around Sami Zayn saving Christmas by getting all the WWE Superstars to agree to help Santa. The clip ends with Zayn flying Santa’s sleigh while various wrestlers serve as his reindeer, but then a QR code pops up right as the sleigh passes the moon. 

If you scan the code, you’ll be taken to WWE.com where a short video of a white rabbit is seen playing in the snow before getting run over by Brock Lesnar driving a tractor. It then pops back up wearing an Uncle Howdy mask before closing out with the message “Happy New Year from WWE.”

After months of speculation, Bray Wyatt revealed himself to be the White Rabbit upon his return to the WWE at Extreme Rules in October. The viral campaign surrounding Wyatt was praised across the company. Paul Levesque even discussed it on a quarterly investors’ conference call.

“One specific initiative that led to success on socials and led to linear viewing success as well is what we internally called the White Rabbit project. A multi-week-long campaign that played out across television, socials, and in arenas. We started the campaign by introducing moments into our live events, in arenas with no mention of our direct digital, social, or linear platforms,” Levesque said. “We let our fans discuss it amongst themselves and try to figure out what was going on. We then started to weave in more elaborate elements including QR codes within episodes of SmackDown and Raw. And when they went to those QR codes it led viewers to more clues like interactive games and puzzles that they had to figure out. It would also lead them to cryptic messages to decipher that literally led you further down the rabbit hole. The buzz and excitement continued to increase as we moved forward. The QR codes and links leading to the September 23rd SmackDown drove viewership to the 9 pm hour by 20% alone as viewers tuned in to see the campaign. This was the most-watched episode of SmackDown since March of 2020.”

He later added, “The WWE White Rabbit project is a perfect example of how we can use a multimedia approach to drive engagement, excitement, and ultimately, revenue. Look for us to do more of these strategic creative stunts and extend storylines to different platforms that are executed beyond just our traditional television windows. WWE truly is 24/7 programming.”

h/t TJRWrestling

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