Spartacus Vengeance Gets Social

Spartacus: Vengeance has plenty of power in steel and the drive for revenge but the Starz series is also harnessing the power of social media to gain even more power among fans and those who have yet to encounter the swords-and-sandals series by using Facebook to spread the word.

The newest installment of the Spartacus series premieres on Starz in January and the cable network is tapping the far-reaching power of Facebook to interact with both old and new fans of the series with the multi-phase Facebook application, Take Up Arms.

Starz was so thrilled with how well the SuitUp Challenge game did on Facebook when they were promoting Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, that the network decided to expand on the social media idea and promote Vengeance with a variety of games that will reward fans with prizes, including a grand prize that will send one lucky winner to New Zealand to visit the set.

The Facebook application will reveal new games as the premiere date gets closer, with the first phase including the return of the SuitUp Challenge. Fans can earn points by recruiting friends to play but Facebook users don’t have to worry about getting tons of spam invites because only a handful of invitations per day are allowed. Another feature that will be unveiled towards the end of the month, called the Mash Up Challenge, will allow Spartacus fans to use provided video and audio clips, along with other graphics, to create their own videos, and players will then be allowed to vote for the most popular videos.

Spartacus: Vengeance debuts on Stars on January 27 and if this new social media marketing strategy works, you can probably expect more networks to follow in Starz’ footsteps.

I don’t know about the rest of the features, but since fan-made trailers are already so popular, I expect the Mash Up Challenge to be a huge success. Will you be participating?