2016 Gold Best Digital Performance

Agency MRM Meteorite

Client Microsoft

Campaign summary

Eight people stuck to a billboard and you control the (bad) weather

Campaign overview

Launching the latest Tomb Raider instalment to the gaming community.

This is the toughest Lara Croft game yet, and Microsoft decided to see if gamers had her survival instincts.

Strategy

Big video games, like movies, traditionally launch with a big outdoor presence.

Yet most outdoor ads are glanced at for just eight seconds, so the aim was to target gamers who were otherwise distracted by the imminent launch of other games with larger budgets.

But how could Microsoft Xbox get gamers to engage with the gritty new Tomb Raider reboot during the busiest game launch period in history?

With competitors’ outdoor ads seen as oldfashioned, passive posters (despite gaming being an interactive medium), gamers were targeted by using channels such as Twitch and IGN, and by creating interactive experiences designed to appeal to a gaming way of thinking and responding.

Creativity

Microsoft Xbox turned an advertising channel into an entertainment channel. And put gamers in control of the communication.

Survival Billboard was a billboard in central London on which eight gamers stood in a test of Lara Croft-like grit, endurance and strength.

The prize?

A trip inspired by the game.

The contestants, who made up the billboard headline, faced blizzards, downpours, harsh wind and intense heat - all controlled digitally by the public via a live stream.

The public watched the billboard, to control the weather that the contestants were enduring, as well as to support, discuss and speculate about alliances and romances.

The winner lasted 22 hours.

Results

The ad became an interactive game itself.

Gamers responded with:

1,000 weather votes per hour.

Eight minutes average dwell time.

11,000 viewers for 22 hours straight.

32,000 comments in 22 hours.

3.5 million views.

£3.8 million in earned media.

Survival billboard was a single billboard that reached the world. The action was live streamed on Twitch, the Xbox dashboard, banner ads, digital OOH and a dedicated microsite.

Team

Nicky Bullard (Chief Creative Officer) • Gavin Hardman (Chief Technology Officer) • Matthew Greenhalgh (Creative Technology Director) • Anthony Brooks (Senior Interface Developer) • Soner Ali (Snr QA Analyst) • Keith Charlton (System Engineer) • Jon Wells (Associate Creative Director) • Sam Bone (Creative Director) • Andy Walker (Experience Design Director) • Mitesh Mistry (UX designer) • Andrew Day (Creative Digital Director) • Sara Viscione (Interaction Designer) • Jose Ramos (Technical Architect) • Ben Hardcastle (Programme Director)

Contributors

Hothouse (Production ) Attention Seekers (Production ) Edelman (PR) EMT/ DENTSU AEGIS (Media Placement)