To Promote TV Show, Faux Security Firm Analyzes Your Employee Potential

by Amy Corr, Sep 24, 2012, 3:31 PM

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The most talked-about percentage of late has been 47%. Prior to that, it was the 99% vs. the 1%.

Campfire created an elaborate campaign for “Hunted,” a drama launching on Cinemax Oct. 19, that starts with unbranded outdoor ads running on Wall Street exclaiming: “We’re Not For Everyone, Just The 1% That Matters.”

“Hunted” stars Melissa George as an international operative for Byzantium Security, a private intelligence firm. George survives an assassination attempt that may or may not have been planned by her team. Frank Spotnitz, a writer and executive producer of “The X-Files,” created the series.

The unbranded outdoor ads, along with online ads running on The Wall Street Journal site drive passersby to ByzantiumSecurity.com, where users can watch corporate videos and take a 20-question test to determine their potential as a Byzantium Security employee.

Upon first view, the site appears to be an average corporate website, with “who we are” and “what we do” sections. Sadly, on the bottom right hand of the home page is a whole section about Cinemax, probably needed for legal purposes, that  immediately gives away the whole mystery of the unbranded outdoor and online ads.

Campfire worked with a cognitive psychologist and a magician from The Magic Circle, a London-based magician society, to help create the “Do You Have What It Takes?” test.

The series of multiple-choice questions includes one where you must choose from a series of pictures to describe your happiness, for example, or something more out there like “Can you be normal when required?” The four selections to choose from are: "I am normal.” “I look normal.” “I am myself” and “I am many things.”

After taking the test, I found out I was an “enduring fighter with masked passions. “ I placed in the top 20% of the country, earned a GetGlue badge and was invited to unlock additional content.

“I think the biggest challenge of this campaign was the storyline,” said Steve Coulson, Creative Director at Campfire. “While the site uses some pretty complex technology - including Facebook Connect, facial recognition, and emotional responsiveness - it's all in service of a story that slowly unravels over the course of the tests. In a way, it's more like an interactive episode of the show than an online game.”

To get TV critics and bloggers in on the fun, Campfire sent them a wooden puzzle in the shape of the Byzantium Security logo. Anyone who unlocks the box will find a minute flash drive full of different, additional content, including surveillance files and a link to a mysterious personality test.

“Executive desktop toys are another well-known artifact of large corporations.,” said Coulson. “We imagined that to seek out those worthy of becoming a Byzantium agent, the Company might hide a secret puzzle within an innocuous toy. We've sent out a couple hundred of these puzzles to fan communities, bloggers and journalists, enticing them to try to unlock it.”

And those outdoor ads implying that only 1% of the country matters? Coulson said they’ve been defaced.

 

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