Late last month, mysterious packages popped up around Toronto. The anti-static bags were adorned with “#ANewSocietyRises” and a picture of the black and white mask fans of the TV show Mr. Robot recognized as the symbol of the show’s fictive “Fsociety” hacker collective.
Inside the bags: a real $50 bill decorated with the same Fsociety mask. Discovered by consumers who’d been following a set of clues online and in OOH ads, the packages were the pot of gold at the end of a branded scavenger hunt put on by Shomi to promote the launch of Mr. Robot on the streaming service.
Crafted by Rethink, the campaign took its inspiration from Mr. Robot‘s themes, such as hacking and re-distributing wealth. The agency “hacked” its OOH ads half-way through the campaign with stickers promoting region-specific hashtags. Consumers who searched for the hashtags online discovered an Instagram account where a hooded figured – another piece of imagery borrowed from the show – was pictured hiding packages around Toronto and Vancouver.
According to Rethink partner and creative director Dre Labre, this transmedia approach was inspired by alternate reality gaming (ARG); a type of gaming that pairs real-world actions with a narrative that takes place online or in other media. The idea, Labre said, was to connect the real world with the web and add a game layer onto the campaign that would pull fans into the show.
The campaign’s TV spots, by Corus Entertainment, also follow the hacking theme. One of the 30-second spots appears to be a simple re-run of a previous Shomi brand spot, then a few seconds in the ad is “hacked” by Mr. Robot and turned into a spot promoting the show.
Rita Ferrari, senior director, head of marketing and communications at Shomi, said Rethink’s original idea was to cover the brand’s OOH with graffiti part way through the campaign.
“The media companies weren’t too thrilled about that,” Ferrari said with laugh, explaining her team eventually settled on stickers instead.
Ferrari said the Mr. Robot promotion marks Shomi’s first big, integrated campaign for a single show. In terms of investment, it’s also among Shomi’s largest campaigns to date.
Ferrari said the company saw Mr. Robot as an opportunity for a big push in part because the show is rooted in the digital world. While the hacking theme provided fertile creative ground for the campaign, Ferrari said she also saw it as a fit with Shomi’s brand DNA as a digital service.
The show is also popular among the service’s core demographic of 25 to 34-year-olds and is a considerably buzz-worthy property. In January, it picked up a Golden Globe for Best TV Drama after debuting to great critical acclaim last summer. Usually Shomi reserves its marketing dollars for shows that are exclusive to the service, Ferrari said, but because its first season aired on cable in Canada (on Showcase Canada) rather than network primetime, the company decided it could introduce it to an audience that hadn’t caught its original run.
Shomi rounded out the campaign with a party put on by North Strategic at Nightowl in Toronto. Like the rest of the campaign, the party was inspired by the show itself, drawing its look and feel from an “End of the world” party that took place at a similar arcade bar in the show.
Using Shomi’s user data, the PR agency was able to invite fans it knew had already watched the show on Shomi, rounding out a guest list of about 100 that also included press and pop culture influencers.
The OOH ads ran in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Kitchener/Waterloo. OMD handled the buy.
Shomi is a joint venture between Rogers Communications and Shaw Media (now owned by Corus). Marketing and MarketingMag.ca are also owned by Rogers.
