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The Walking Dead, Walkers Kill Count
BRIEF & OBJECTIVE Fox asked us to create an innovative way to reignite excitement for the return of the second half of Season two. Offering fans a new, social way to engage with the zombie series. Balancing engaging fans whilst not detracting from watching their favourite TV show. We wanted to give something back to the army of existing fans and entice new viewers by giving existing fans a reason to share the love of the show. The idea had to balance audience attention, as most dramas demand 100% attention so not to miss anything. So the central challenge was to maximise engagement without compromising the drama. The opportunity for the second screen experience clearly lay either side of the primary narrative. Further audience research into the show’s fans revealed one final truth. Not only did they love talking about the show in social media, fans simply loved a good zombie ‘kill’. CREATIVE SOLUTION Our idea was the “Walkers Kill Count’ companion app. Syncing the app to the show itself, viewers can predict the number of zombie kills in each episode and watch as the action unfolds. (both live and on-demand). Achieving a UK FIRST of using digital audio watermarking in a TV companion app. Which embeds inaudible watermarks into the TV show, which triggers interactions within the app. Fans can predict the number of zombie kills in each episode, which characters did the most dirty work and the most used brutal weapon. Fans can see what’s being said on the Twittersphere and join in the conversation. To reward fans before/after the show, they can re-live their favourite zombie kills. RESULTS & EFFECTIVENESS The app offers a beautifully crafted, cutting edge, first of its kind second screen experience that compliments the main show. Giving fans that extra content and excitement they were craving. Available in the Apple Store as a free download to iPad and iPhone users. Over 62,000 people have downloaded the app within the first weeks of Season 2. Over 300,000 Game sessions. Including in the TOP 5 on New & Noteworthy on iTunes. It also has been named as one of the 50 most innovative mobile apps by UK Trade & Investment recently. Promoted across the FXUK Channel with on-air teasers and online through the FXUK website and Facebook pages. It also included a seeding campaign to maximise awareness. -
The Walking Dead, Left Behind
After the hugely successful Season One of ‘The Walking Dead’, FOX challenged Red Bee Media to help broaden the audience and drive the ratings even higher for Season Two. Creating something new, alternative which gets the show talked about as much as the nature of the promotion as the actual show itself. Red Bee created an innovative personalised Facebook app, centred on a specially shot first person POV film, that immerses the viewer into the show’s premise – what it’s like to be ‘Left Behind’ by the Walking Dead. The innovative use of Facebook Connect and users’ own webcams seamlessly create a personalised survivor experience. Heavy post‐production work in After Effects ensured we achieved the required dark, claustrophobic look of a horror film. A custom tracking plug‐in was authored for After Effects to extract frame‐by‐frame tracking data, which was then fed into the Flash application. The user’s personalised data was tracked on seamlessly into the original footage without the need for locked‐off shots or hard edit cuts. A live feed from the user’s webcam added a real‐time element to the final scene, which helped to enrich the fear factor. We believe that we have established a new benchmark in what’s possible within a personalised video experience. The app launched early October and is running across FOX Facebook pages in over 20 global markets. It is also integrated onto the FX UK website. After the first few weeks there have been over 290,000 page views and 73,000 unique visits, with an average dwell time of 3 minutes, so users engaged for the duration of the experience. It has recently won a GOLD award at the Promax UK awards, for Best app or game. It also featured in Campaign Magazine and Campaign Live. -
The Walking Dead, Left Behind
After the hugely successful Season One of ‘The Walking Dead’, FOX challenged Red Bee Media to help broaden the audience beyond the comic fanboys who love the show and drive the ratings even higher for Season Two. The challenge was to create something new, digitally-led which gets the show talked about as much as the nature of the promotion as the actual show itself. Red Bee created an innovative personalised Facebook app, centred on a specially shot first person POV film, that immerses the viewer into the show’s premise – what it’s like to be ‘Left Behind’ by the Walking Dead. The innovative use of Facebook Connect and users’ own webcams seamlessly create a personalised survivor experience. Heavy post‐production work in After Effects ensured we achieved the required dark, claustrophobic look of a horror film. A custom tracking plug‐in was authored for After Effects to extract frame‐by‐frame tracking data, which was then fed into the Flash application. The user’s personalised data was tracked on seamlessly into the original footage without the need for locked‐off shots or hard edit cuts. A live feed from the user’s webcam added a real‐time element to the final scene, which helped to enrich the fear factor. We believe that we have established a new benchmark in what’s possible within a personalised video experience. The app launched early October and is running across FOX Facebook pages in over 20 global markets. It is also integrated onto the FX UK website. After the first few weeks there have been over 290,000 page views and 73,000 unique visits, with an average dwell time of 3 minutes, so users engaged for the duration of the experience. It has recently won a GOLD award at the Promax UK awards, for Best app or game. It also featured in Campaign Magazine and Campaign Live. -
Watch Primeval You Tube Takeover
An addictive shoot 'em up game as a You Tube takeover to publicize series 5 of hit TV show Primeval moving home from iTV exclusively to Watch. Specially rendered CGI assets immerse the player into the the narrative of dinosaurs breaking through an anomay and into our world. Pushing the boundaries of engagement, interaction and use of 3D assets within a You Tube takeover experience. The intro video with talent was specially shot, then the page gradually degrades and surprises fans with an unexpected immersive game. The game also includes sophisticated game logic, so the user has different types of ammunition to ramp up points and point system. The game also has an incentive for sharebility and replay value, such as cheat codes for more time, bullets or health. On the day of launch, we had a homepage takeover banner on Youtube.com In a parallel Facebook campaign revealing exclusive daily unlocks, with the takeover being the final unlock to get fans buzzing with excitement about the new series on Watch. Over 750,000 people watched the first episode of series 5 which is almost triple the usual viewing figures. In the first few days of launch, over 40,000 people played the game and it was one of the most watched YouTube videos in the UK on the day of launch. It has been awarded You Tube ad of the week by Campaign magazine and also won a FWA site of the day. -
Primeval Series V Launch
The objective To communicate the arrival of new series of Primeval on Watch to the existing hardcore superfans and broader fan base. The You Tube takeover We created a You Tube takeover game to communicate that Primeval is moving home. The idea is really pushing the boundaries of engagement, interaction and use of 3D assets within a You tube takeover experience. The intro video was specially shot, so is an exclusive call to action to the fans. The page then gradually degrades and surprises the fans with an unexpected immersive game and challenge to get the dinosaurs through the anomaly to Watch. The game itself whilst simple to play, is very addictive and the 3D animation effects of different dinosaurs breaking through, revealing an ‘anomaly’ behind and destruction of the You Tube page is very believable. (The 3D anomaly is what the team and the dinosaurs go through to go to different dimensions!). The game also has some sophisticated game logic, so rather than just simple shooting the dinosaurs, the user has different types of ammunition to ramp up points and a point system depending on how you shoot the dinosaurs. Also the page degrades depending on how you shoot the dinosaurs, so is very reactive. The game logic also includes an incentive for shareability and replay value, such as cheat codes for more time, bullets or health. We are already seeing people talking about this on forums to better each others score. The campaign overview A big component of the campaign was a You tube takeover game which was designed to reach a broad audience and create excitement that Primeval was coming to Watch. A fake youtube page disintegrated into a game where users could help the Primeval team capture the dinosaurs on the loose and get them over to Watch through the anomaly, then send onto their friends to challenge them to better their score. The game included a specially shot piece from Becker who stars in the show to invite audience participation. Other media included on air TV trails, national press and TV guide fractional space ads to highlight that the new series was to air on Watch before ITV. Online banners and a seeding campaign directly targeted the hardcore fans with the release of exclusive content every day for 30 days leading up to launch.
Agency profile
Red Bee Media
We are world leaders in the creation and promotion of media brands across multiple platforms.
We're connection makers. We build bridges between content and viewers; bringing them together with smart technology and persuasive creative thinking.
Get in touch with Red Bee Media
Contact Email:
katrina.howell@redbeemedia.com
Website:
www.redbeemedia.com
Address:
Broadcast Centre
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TP
Country:
United Kingdom
Telephone:
0208 495 5000
