Members of Generation X are often lost in the shuffle around talk of millennials and Gen Z – some would even say that they’re “overlooked and underserved.” In producing and released 8-Bit Christmas, HBO Max overturned this thinking by crafting a movie that caters to them in an emotionally powerful way.

Centered around a boy’s quest to purchase a Nintendo Entertainment System in 1980s Chicago, 8-Bit Christmas stars fan favorites Neil Patrick Harris and Steve Zahn in a warm-hearted holiday film that tugs deeply on the heartstrings. 

To present this to the Gen X social audience, we leaned heavy into nostalgia for the time, place, and video game system that captured the public’s imagination. 

But we knew that we couldn’t solely rely on nostalgia and 8-bit style content to reach the full HBO Max demographic spectrum. So in addition to more-overtly nostalgic content, we mined the film’s themes of family, friendship, sibling rivalry, and growing up to show younger demos why they, too, would relate to this film and, at the same time, fall in love with this world.