2023 Bronze Launch

Agency: Wavemaker UK

Client: Paramount +

Entry Title: The Algorithms of Control

Executive Summary

With the streaming market more competitive than ever, Paramount+’s new show, Rabbithole, needed impactful, attention-grabbing media to cut through, persuading consumers to subscribe and watch.

Strategy

The team identified a key scene from the show called the Algorithms of Control - the four pillars needed to control the world - and hatched a plan to find the most disruptive, impactful way to distribute them.

From TGI audience analysis, it knew a male, action-drama fan target audience was 31% more likely to be heavy cinema-goers. Combined with its unrivalled ability to capture attention, cinema became the focal point for the campaign.

The strategy hacked the entire cinema experience for every John Wick: Chapter 4 cinema-goer, bringing to life the themes of Rabbithole to drive maximum impact and intrigue. The full range of media and creative opportunities that cinema advertising offers was used, from blipverts, media owner ident takeovers, premium positioning trailers as well as use of foyer Out Of Home.

Creativity

10-second ‘blipverts’ with glitching visuals and sounds appeared to abruptly interrupt other ads on the cinema showreel. This was a sequential space to showcase each of the individual algorithms of control in the most attention-grabbing way.

Viewers then saw the iconic Pearl & Dean and DCM idents morphing as they were manipulated into a mix of glitching graphics and alarm sounds, with Charles Dance’s ominous expression emerging from the shadows and Kiefer Sutherland’s desperate words, “I can't tell the difference between what’s real or not”; before morphing back into the logos.

This culminated in the full 30-second asset, revealing the exciting new show that had taken over the pre-film experience.

As cinemagoers left the big screen, they were targeted with a foyer domination, glitching over all other advertising, for the 10 minutes after every John Wick: Chapter 4 screening. Taking the cinema activation off the big screen and into the real world created an immersive advertising experience at over 75 hand-picked cinemas nationwide. Supported by TV and bus-side executions, Rabbithole was everywhere.

Results

Rabbithole rapidly became the most viewed title on the platform for a male audience and remained so until the end of the campaign. It was also one of the top performing shows on platform for First Streams, showing the campaign was successful in driving people to sign up and watch.

Paramount+ was able to overtake Apple TV in the Streaming ‘Big 4’ in the total volume of hours watched and total monthly reach.