NBC Universal
Transmedia Launch Campaign: 360 Strategy, ARG, Digital, Mobile
For NBC’s 2010 pilot launch of “The Event,” we tapped directly into the show’s main premise of conspiracies and took aim at the emotional core of a multicultural audience already predisposed to government mistrust. We set about accomplishing this by building a series of events around “The Event;” first developing our own mythological back story to the Event's conspiracy, then creating a "citizens-type advocacy group" to begin unveiling it. From there, we utilized multiple platforms to initially tease, then amplify and reveal as the show's launch date approached.
Campaign cover: THE EVENT title art.
Sponsored by our "advocacy group," we tap into one's emotional response towards injustice and drive viewers online to WeDemandTheTruth.org
Digital billboard: a live true-or-false vote by text message, tallied on screen in real time.
Wild postings: redacted government documents and the WeDemandTheTruth.org fist, pasted street-level.
Bus-shelter poster: “Everything you thought was true, is a lie.”
We created a URL for a grassroots organization called WeDemandTheTruth.Org. Its purpose? To expose U.S. government conspiracies while protecting and defending the freedoms of its citizens. This most recent conspiracy, surrounding the possible existence of a secret, Abu Ghraib-type detainment center in Alaska.
Written as a mix of documented fact and hearsay, the content followed the exact format structure of other grassroots conspiracy sites, hyperlinking key words to Wikipedia and published articles to give the site an air of legitimacy.
WeDemandTheTruth.org: the conspiracy blog, seeded with leaked footage and hyperlinked citations.
We "leak" an app to influencers that uses geo-tracking, geo-caching, and augmented reality to drop cryptic messages around the country, alluding to a government conspiracy about an impending event. Users follow GPS coordinates to "dropzones" where they switch to video and search for messages, in real time, through the screen.
Operation Horizon AR: scanning a dropzone through the phone for hidden messages in real time.
This suite of smartphone applications links episode content, providing utility, information and entertainment. Once activated, the home screen would begin counting down the days/ hours/ minutes until "The Event."
Operation Horizon: the mobile app suite. THE EVENT title screen and the Situation Room entry point.
Utilizing touch-screen technology, upon launch, the user would be directed to hold their thumb against the screen, allowing for "satellite uplink" and "Code Level Clearance." Once unlocked, the viewer would be treated to blacked-out documents alluding to an unraveling situation that would be unveiled during the pilot episode.
Post pilot, its continued use would allow viewers to work through the app, unlocking episode recaps, character bios, behind-the-scenes interviews, and short clips of future episodes not released to the web.
The Situation Room app: thumbprint clearance unlocks episode intel and previews.
ADOBE AIR: "Operation Horizon"
Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a cross-platform runtime environment developed by Adobe Systems for building rich internet applications that can be deployed on desktops. Using the built-in webcam and facial recognition software, the viewer is granted "Code Level Clearance." Once unlocked, the viewer would be treated to previews, blacked-out documents and video surveillance profiling character dossiers. Links to Twitter and Facebook allow for simultaneous engagement in social networks while exploring content.
The AIR app console: Code Level Clearance unlocks the episode player, intel feed and cast dossiers, with social sharing built in.
We recreate the “thermite vortex” from the trailers as a 3-D projection against a building at night. The wind builds as litter, vegetation, birds, concrete and even furniture are ripped from the environment and sucked into the core, revealing the debuting pilot’s time and network.
For NBC’s launch of The Event, Husani Barnwell helped build marketing that behaved like the show it sold: an invented mythology, a fictional advocacy group with a working conspiracy blog at WeDemandTheTruth.org, digital billboards and wild postings, an augmented-reality geo-caching stunt seeded to influencers, and a mobile app suite with countdown and clearance-level mechanics. Created at GlobalHue. A transmedia playbook from before transmedia was the playbook.
CD Art: Husani Barnwell · CD Copywriter: Jason Lambert · CCO: Michael Jacobs · ACD Art: Arnaud Giroux