Young man lying on a couch by a navy box reading "MAN COLDS ARE REAL", with caption "POV: a man has a cold"
Submitted by TRIBEAgency IPI Score 32/100

HALLS Man Cold Comedy Creator Reels

Influencer Marketing

VaynerMedia used TRIBE to cast two comedians for HALLS Man Cold Reels, then boosted them in paid media, where Maya & Hunter's awareness videos drew over 100M impressions.

10MOrganic Views
8.3xViews vs Audience Size
17K+Organic Shares
100MPaid Impressions

Case in 60 seconds

HALLS set out to become the go-to relief tool for Millennials and to drive sweepstakes entries for its Man Cold Relief Kit, so it needed creator content that could carry both awareness and participation.

TRIBE treats the Man Cold as material for a wink rather than a warning, because comedic content draws shares, and shares carry Reels well beyond the followers a creator already has.

VaynerMedia handed the Man Cold to comedians from TRIBE's opt-in creator community, so the brand's tongue-in-cheek debate would be told as creator comedy rather than as a cough drop advertisement.

Dozens of TRIBE creators pitched ideas, and @tuckercomedy and @mayaandhunter each made an awareness Reel and a sweepstakes Reel on Instagram, which VaynerMedia then boosted across Meta, TikTok and YouTube alongside HALLS' brand-generated assets.

TRIBE reports over 10 million organic views and 17,000+ shares for the four Reels, while in paid media Maya & Hunter's awareness videos drew over 100 million impressions and Tucker's 35 million.

Strategy Breakdown

Millennials, and men with colds, whom HALLS addressed through the joke of the Man Cold.
The page treats the Man Cold as a mock epidemic, with 'terrifying' and 'terrible' set in scare quotes, so HALLS joined the joke rather than disputing it and offered relief for the condition.
TRIBE presents a cough drop as a product that comedy can carry, claiming a comedic approach cuts through no matter the product, which is why the brief went to comedians.
HALLS plays the straight man rather than the joke, supplying the Man Cold Relief Kit and the sweepstakes while the comedians carry the humour and send traffic to HALLS' new TikTok account.
Audiences will watch a longer advert if it gives them a reason to, and TRIBE names a laugh as that reason, citing Tucker's 90-second video against HALLS' shorter brand ads.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • YouTube

Partners

  • VaynerMedia (lead agency)
  • TRIBE (platform partner)

Participation mechanic

  • Viewers entered a HALLS sweepstakes through the competition post for a chance to win a limited-edition Man Cold Relief Kit, with the creators' sweepstakes Reels driving entries.

Creator role

  • Tucker — creator
  • Maya & Hunter — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Organic Views10M views
Views vs Audience Size8.3x audience size
Organic Shares17K+ shares
Paid Impressions100M impressions
Additional Impressions23M additional impressions
YouTube Engagements vs Brand Ad2.6x more engagements

Why TRIBE's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Shares rather than likes drove the organic reach here, because TRIBE names the 17,000+ shares as the strongest algorithm driver, so comedy that people pass on outran the creators' own audiences.

  2. 2

    Creator content held its own when run beside brand assets, since the sweepstakes Reels matched or beat HALLS' own creative on engagement rate and VTR on all three platforms, with Meta VTR at +8.8x.

  3. 3

    Length matters less than a reason to keep watching, because Tucker's 90-second sweepstakes video reached a 36% VTR while running past the 60 seconds that usually defines short-form video.

  4. 4

    Opening casting to creator pitches rather than a fixed shortlist let VaynerMedia choose comedians on fit, which its senior media planner credits with nailing the exact type of creators the brand wanted.

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