Client
Five

Brand
Prison Break

Campaign
'Locate the 8'

The Challenge

Prison Break is one of the 'crown jewels' in Five's portfolio. However, the target audience of young 18-34 year old 'Experience Seekers' are notoriously difficult to reach and engage. Five looked to digital channels to communicate to this group, realising that for such a sophisticated (at times even cynical) audience, the communication solution would have to be both brave and innovative if it was to engage them.

The Solution

In the TV show, the eight prisoners are out of prison and on the run. We took this concept and turned this into an online manhunt alternate reality game, the eight deadly fugitives were hiding out at popular second-generation sites in the 'Locate the 8' campaign. Users had to solve the clues to capture each prisoner, with new hints and clues released on a weekly basis. Big prizes were at stake - including a trip to the world's most infamous prison: Alcatraz, California.

The campaign was supported by online and offline communications, with viewers of the TV hit being prompted after every show to go online and 'Locate the 8'. The Prison Break microsite was at the focal point of all communications - this is the first time Five has made a digital hub of content the focal point of an ad campaign. This has allowed them to engage with their audience more richly than ever before.

The Results

  • Prison Break 2 delivered a rise of 14% vs its peak figures for the previous series. Equally importantly, audience figures maintained at a similar level through the lifetime of the competition.
  • The online manhunt proved very popular and highly engaging, with approximately 50% of entrants catching all 8 prisoners.
  • The campaign delivered well within the social media spaces, with the average entrant experiencing thirteen touchpoints across the multiple second-generation sites.
  • Not only did the campaign perform extremely well in the sheer numbers of people that interacted with it, but it also delivered quality engagement with Five and the Prison Break property. Five's target audience of sceptical 'Experience Seekers' actively participated and even created content within the social media spaces – engaging in dialogue with site content, and even with each other.
  • The 'Locate the 8' competition was a brave leap into unfamiliar territory for Five. No one had done a massive online manhunt like this before, using multiple second-generation sites. This is one of the few campaigns to successfully utilise second generation websites such as MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube in an engaging and genuinely interactive way.