Advertising characters can give brands recurring entertainment properties when audiences continue to engage after a campaign ends.

Xfinity is bringing Frank, its version of Frankenstein, back for Everyday Scaries with Frank , a three-part social comedy series premiering Tuesday on Instagram and TikTok . The first episode features Comedy Bang! Bang! and Jury Duty comedian Lisa Gilroy behind podcast microphones with Frank to discuss dealing with life’s hecklers and his chances of going viral.

Frank debuted last year in Xfinity’s two-minute Imagine That brand film. Xfinity later paired Frank with creators across social media, and the campaign generated more than 26 million views and 431,000 engagements and earned recognition as a Shorty Awards finalist and Bronze Honor recipient . The new series gives Xfinity another measure of audience interest in the character.

Kareem Rahma , who hosted Frank on Subway Takes during last year’s campaign, returns on Oct. 13 for an episode about starting over. Comedian and Nailed It! host Nicole Byer joins Frank on Oct. 20 to discuss finding love.

Dina Morocco , executive director of Xfinity social and direct marketing, said to me in an email that Gilroy and Byer’s improv backgrounds fit the unscripted format.

Last year’s campaign put Frank in different settings, including an NBA game and a Philly cheesesteak taste test. Morocco said Xfinity watched how audiences responded to those appearances and continued to hear questions about when Frank would return, which helped inform the decision to bring him back this year.

Xfinity chose short podcast-style clips for Frank’s return. “We’ve seen how podcast culture, and particularly highly shareable, bite-sized clips, has become its own form of entertainment on social,” Morocco said.

The series adds another format to Xfinity’s social programming. In August, the company launched Best in Class , a seven-episode vertical reality competition featuring six college creators competing for a six-figure brand partnership. The two projects explore different forms of short-form entertainment for social audiences.

“We want to keep testing formats, learning from what earns attention, evolving what works and moving on from what doesn’t,” Morocco said.

Frank gives Xfinity access to entertainment IP within Comcast NBCUniversal. Universal Pictures owns Universal Monsters, and Xfinity worked with Universal Pictures and Universal Parks on last year’s Imagine That campaign.

Xfinity can draw from a character audiences already know through entertainment. Other companies are building similar social strategies around characters their brands own, using new storylines to bring them back to audiences.

In February, Procter & Gamble briefly retired Mr. Clean , with social content following the character as he tried new hobbies before returning to the brand. In August, Crocs introduced Niles, a six-foot version of the crocodile in its logo, through a social series about his first days as a Crocs employee.

Duolingo used a similar strategy in 2025 when it announced the death of Duo , its green owl mascot. Users could help bring Duo back by completing lessons, connecting the social storyline to activity on the app.

Entertainment IP and brand-owned characters give companies a familiar starting point for new content. New plots, settings and formats can keep those characters active, but each campaign still has to give audiences a reason to keep watching.

Xfinity will track how people watch and share the series, but Morocco said the company places greater value on reaching people outside its current audience. She called a “moment of breakthrough with newer audiences” the bigger measure of success.

A character’s value can grow when each appearance does a different job for the brand. One campaign can establish recognition, while later appearances can reach new people and give companies more information about how audiences respond. For Xfinity, Frank’s second year will show how much more the company can get from a character that already proved he could attract attention.