Apparently the average viewer spends eight seconds looking at a billboard (really? that long?). So imagine getting people to spend an average of eight minutes looking at a billboard. Well, Survival Billboard did just that. 3.5 million viewers can’t be wrong … or can they? Yes, the power of gamification and social media, with a billboard in the middle. Survival Billboard was the way Xbox chose to promote a reboot of its hit Tomb Raider game, cutting through other game-launching noise to stand out as a true original. Lara Croft lives again!
Agency: McCann, London
Creative Direction: Jamie Mietz, Sanjiv Mistry, Chad Warner, Rob Doubal, Laurence Thomson
Art Direction: Jacob Björdal
Copywriter: Jim Nilsson
Agency Producer: Lois Newcombe
"It was incredibly brave for the client to do this stunt. It made people look at a billboard for hours, not only live but also online. It changed the way I saw OOH, and opened up the possibilities of what an outdoor campaign could be."
- Claudia Illan, Copywriter, Marcel Paris
"Bringing the game into the real world, this campaign blurs the lines between fiction and reality. The outdoor experience not only echoes the game’s content but also redefines how brand essence can be communicated, pushing the boundaries of traditional outdoor advertising to thrilling new heights."
- Alice Chou, Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Creative Taiwan
Of course, this was not just any billboard: this was one turned into a brutal stage where competitors stood on a narrow platform putting up with all the conditions (natural and otherwise) that could be thrown at them, once upon a rather unpleasant time in London. Eight gamers fought it out – the last one remaining gritting it out for 22 hours – while fans voted online for various ordeals to be imposed on the contestants. Combining the oldest ad medium with the latest interactive social tools somehow threw us back into medieval times. Can we expect to see the pillory and dunking supposed witches next? Several of our nominators voted for this ad and, for sure, it’s a pioneering work heading in a creative direction we might yet fear to see more of …
