What if you found yourself in possession of a Narco’s best friend: a burner phone?

And what if this phone started ringing? How would you react, what would you reply and most importantly, what choices would you take? Cartel Com is a 48-hour interactive thriller in which you could communicate in real time with seven characters.

We sent influencers the burner phone of Carlos, a young narco who was an informant for the CIA. He has gone missing and you have 48 hours to help his family escape the wrath of the cartel.

First, we sent over 75 phones to entertainment influencers and journalists in France and the UK. They received a craft paper envelope in which there was a letter introducing the project: this is the phone of Carlos, a young narco that has gone missing. The letter encouraged you to turn on the phone. As soon as you did, you received a message that started the story. You could interact in real time with each of 7 characters in your phonebook, call and send them messages.

To achieve this, over 48 hours we had 7 writers and 5 voice actors communicate and respond in real time with the influencers. Each text received a response and you even received phone calls with clues and hints. Thousands of texts were sent, each a custom reply. In the end, it was up to you to decide how you want to end the story.

Over 90% of the carefully targeted influencers and journalists (such as BFM, Shots, LBB) responded and engaged with the operation. The operation generated over 400k€ of free press.