2016 Promo & Activation

HACK SOCIETY

TitleHACK SOCIETY
BrandMEDIASET PREMIUM
Product/ServiceMR. ROBOT
Category E01. Integrated Campaign led by Promo & Activation
Entrant DUDE Milan, ITALY
Idea Creation DUDE Milan, ITALY
Production DUDE Milan, ITALY
Credits
Name Company Position
Livio Basoli DUDE Executive Creative Director
Lorenzo Picchiotti DUDE Executive Creative Director
Nicolò Carrassi DUDE Copywriter
Luca Riva DUDE Art Director
Lorenza Patella DUDE Account
Ivan Merlo DUDE Executive Producer
Patrizia Gatto DUDE Producer
Valentina Mentasti DUDE Producer
Luca Costantini Freelance Dop
Seba Morando DUDE Editor
Nico Angelone Freelance Video Mapping Producer
Francesco Briganti Freelance Video Mapping Producer
Proxima Proxima Post Production

The Campaign

The story and the world created in the show were very familiar with the Italian audience. As a country with a recent history of hackers attacks, and our fair share of Anonymous campaigns, we knew our audience would have reacted and connected to the themes of the show, if brought to them in a believable way. Our idea was simple but ambitious: to create a believable hackers attack on the Italian society, with a specific focus on celebrities and the world of show-business, and spread a simple message. Online, nobody is safe. We knew that, for the campaign to work, we needed our audience and news and media outlets to become part of the story and tell it for us. We built the campaign around a few unique and impactful “attacks”, the chapters of our PR story, in a natural crescendo that could fuel the interest of our audience.

Campaign Success

Over two weeks we built a crescendo of impactful activations to tell our story: a full-on hackers’ attack on Italian society, ready to leak VIP’s secrets. The face of our campaign: a masked man, in the style of Anonymous and Mr.Robot, acting as a spokesperson for our fictional group of hackers. Our first hack: a billboard in the center of Milan. By day, a regular ad from a cybersecurity company. By night, it was hacked through a projector to tease our incoming attack. Our second hack: we delivered an unbranded package to influencers and media, asking them to join our cause. Our third hack: a simulated social hacking of the most famous Italian celebrities that sparked spontaneous news coverage and word of mouth. Our final hack: a simultaneous interruption of TV regular programming on 9 different channels, with a 30” message announcing the upcoming leak on our landing pag

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

“Studio Aperto”, one of Italy’s leading News Programs on public TV, covered the campaign with a 60 seconds newsflash, reaching almost 1 millions viewers. Some of Italy’s most popular radio programs covered the story, also thanks to our mysterious recruiting package that we sent them. More than 3 million people engaged through PR coverage, earned media and spontaneous conversation. The social VIPs’ Hack totaled almost 6 million people in reach who commented, shared on the celebrities profile and ultimately believed our story. Over 9 million people witnessed the simultaneous interruption on TV channels, and immediately spread the news online via twitter and Facebook. Ratings for Mr. Robot first episode on Premium reached 7.19% of total audience. (versus less than 1% of similar launches on Premium) with a increase of more than 700% above average.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

The Mr. Robot "Hack Society" campaign is a unique mix of bespoke media placements and organic storytelling delivered through earned and unconventional media. We managed to create a relevant and believable PR story in a crescendo of hackers’ attacks, both in the real world (OOH and TV) and online (social networks). The audience was key in building the campaign, as the spontaneous word of mouth and social conversation around the operation was the main fuel for the launch.

We needed to reach a target as wide and as diverse as possible. Our media strategy was completely creative-driven: we set out to create a mix that, over the course of a two weeks teaser phase, would have created a compelling series of hacking attacks, through all media. By working in partnerships with all media agencies, we managed to create tailored media space that could be both believable and highly impactful. A highly visible billboard, in the center of Milan, became, with a projector, the first ever billboard attacked by hackers. Celebrities and influencers were brought on board to become part of an attack on celebrities, giving up their profiles and letting us control it long enough to make news. And instead of your average 30 seconds commercial, we created 30 seconds interruptions in the middle of regular programming to launch our message to the world.