Challenge:
Big games, like big movies, launch with billboards. Yet most are just glanced at. How could Xbox get gamers to engage with the launch of the gritty new Tomb Raider?
Solution:
Turn an advertising channel into an entertainment channel. Survival Billboard was a billboard on which eight real-life gamers formed the backdrop for the typography and stood in a test of Lara Croft-like endurance and inner strength, to win a trip inspired by the game. They faced blizzards, downpours, wind and heat – all controlled by the public via a live stream. It was, in a single, constantly moving image, a visual and visceral demonstration of the grittiness of the new Tomb Raider game.
Viewers gave up sleep to watch the billboard, supporting and speculating about the people on it. In one day, the oldest advertising medium was reinvented as a gripping reality show.
Results:
8 minutes average dwell time (compared to 8 seconds for a regular billboard)
£3.8 million in earned media
11000 viewers for 22 hours straight
3.5 million views and 32000 comments in 22 hours