SURVIVAL BILLBOARD

Bronze Eurobest
TitleSURVIVAL BILLBOARD
BrandMICROSOFT
Product/ServiceXBOX / TOMB RAIDER
Category A10. Live Brand Experience
Entrant McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement EMT/DENTSU AEGIS London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR EDELMAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production MOMENTUM WORLDWIDE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company MRM METEORITE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company 2 HOTHOUSE IWG London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company 3 ATTENTION SEEKERS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company 4 CRAFT WORLDWIDE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Rob Doubal McCann London Co-President & Chief Creative Officer
Laurence Thomson McCann London Co-President & Chief Creative Officer
Sanjiv Mistry McCann London EMEA Creative Director
Jamie Mietz McCann London EMEA Creative Director
Chad Warner McCann London Integrated Creative Director
Jim Nilsson McCann London Creative
Jacob Björdal McCann London Creative
Anja McGuiness McCann London Associate Legal Counsel
Sergio Lopez McCann London Head of Integrated Production
Michael Thomason McCann London Head of Art
Colin Lee McCann London Digital Designer
Danny Elliot McCann London Designer
Thomas Keane McCann London Planner
Clare Mann McCann London Senior Project Manager
Lois Newcombe McCann/Craft Producer
Chris Cartwright McCann London Senior TV Producer
Tom McLoughlin McCann/Craft Executive Producer
Sailesh Jani McCann London Business Director
AJ Coyne McCann London Account Director
Tom Oliver McCann London Account Manager
Charlotte Walters McCann London Account Executive
Ellis Faint McCann/Craft Studio Manager
Liam White McCann/Craft Print Producer
Andy Tusabe McCann/Craft Editor
Paul Jenkinson McCann/Craft Editor
Tim Sutton McCann/Craft Sound Engineer
Chris Gilbert McCann/Craft Sound Engineer
Robert Freeman McCann/Craft Artworker
Muhammad Qasim McCann/Craft Artworker
Ellis Faint McCann/Craft Studio Manager

The Campaign

Xbox turned an advertising channel into an entertainment channel. Survival Billboard was a billboard in central London on which eight gamers stood in a test of Lara Croft-like grit, endurance and inner strength, to win a trip inspired by the game. The contestants faced blizzards, downpours, harsh wind and intense heat – all controlled by the public via a live stream.

Creative Execution

Survival Billboard was a single billboard that reached the world, as the drama taking place on it was live streamed on Twitch, the Xbox dashboard, banner ads, digital OOH and a dedicated microsite. The public gave up on sleep to watch the billboard, to control the weather that the participants were enduring, as well as to support, discuss and speculate about alliances and romances. The winner lasted 22 grueling hours, yet In that one day, the oldest advertising medium was reinvented as a gripping, interactive reality show.

8 minutes average dwell time (vs. 8 seconds for a regular billboard) 1000 weather votes per hour £3.8 million in earned media 11000 viewers for 22 hours straight 3.5 million views 32000 comments in 22 hours

Survival Billboard reinvented the oldest advertising channel as an entertainment channel. By using an existing medium in an entirely unexpected way (turning it into a gripping, interactive reality show), it challenged the norm of what billboards can do, in terms of engagement, entertainment value and expected results. To its audience, Survival Billboard was more than a piece of advertising. It was a highly watchable spectacle that kept them up all night both glued to the drama as well as influencing it.

The aim was to target gamers who were otherwise distracted by the imminent launch of bigger games with bigger budgets, such as Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront. Our approach was to create a single, interactive entertainment experience that tapped into the gamer mentality of total control, and by doing so upped the engagement levels. In essence, the strategic approach was to treat an ad for gamers as an entertaining game in itself.