So began the creative challenge, which was actually the subject of an in-depth New York Times article. http://tinyurl.com/bingzombie.

Working directly with the show creators, the AMC marketing team, the media agency and Bing's marketing team, our agency lead the project through the complex issues of post-apocalyptic zombies using a mobile search engine and delivering humorous spots which show creators, clients and most importantly, the fans, adored. During the lead-up to the Season 2 première, Season 1 episodes of The Walking Dead ran frequently on AMC. Integrating into the look/feel/action of TWD, these contextually relevant spots ran in adjacency to the Season 1 repeats build-up, and in prominent placement during the Season 2 premiere. Creating a powerful landscape to reach fans in an 'insider' environment to deliver the brand message, we also encouraged fans to enter for a chance to be a zombie, and find out more about Bing on AMCTV.com.

The initial positive client creative reaction was overwhelming. Bing adored the spots, increasing frequency and impressions by increasing the ad buy. According to Nielsen, the contextually relevant ads over-indexed and outperformed all other same-brand broadcast and cable norms: Likeability +82%, Brand Opinion +90%, General Recall +48%, Brand Recall +60%. 231,581 sweepstakes entries were received and, according to the clients, the campaign generated the most Buzz of any Bing media program in 2011. TWD première delivered 7.3m instant/11m with repeat viewers, becoming the highest rated première on AMC, and the most watched episode of a drama in the history of basic cable television (18-49&25-54).