Before every Apple event thousands of people are scouring the Apple events page on apple.com trying to find anything left unguarded.

The brief was simple, how do we build excitement for the March 25th services-only event and give this core group of customers something to talk about.

On March 25th Hollywood descended on the Steve Jobs Theater for the announcement of Apple’s much-anticipated streaming service Apple TV+.

24 hours before, thousands of people were trolling the events page on apple.com looking for anything left unguarded.

So we hid a link.

If you found it, it appeared as if Apple had mistakenly turned the event livestream on early and you had gained access to the cameras inside the Steve Jobs Theater.

The 24 hour “livestream” was programmed like a television channel. Over 25 different cryptic, odd, humorous vignettes were created—“There’s No Business Like Show Business” played by a solo violinist, a Russian moon landing, a bedtime performance of Brahms’ Lullaby by an animated Schroeder from Peanuts.

Each vignette in the film contained easter eggs that teased shows, partnerships and celebrities that would be announced or appear at the keynote event the following day.

Knowing that the March 25th services-only keynote event would not involve any hardware announcements we wanted to make sure to generate excitement with our core group of consumers who hang on every inference, utterance and rumor.

So we created an idea that went where thousands of members of this audience already reside—sniffing, poking and searching for any kind of loose links, images or code within the events page on apple.com. Data told us that a well-placed “mistake” would be found within minutes and then broadcast quickly on social channels and tech blogs.

Caught on Camera was designed to set a trap and playfully troll the trollers.

To execute Caught on Camera we essentially created a 24 hour film that was meant to look like it was being broadcast live.

Vignettes were shot at the Steve Jobs Theater from camera positions that are traditionally used during the real broadcast. Furthermore, our tease “livestream” lived on the exact place where the real livestream plays within apple.com— adding to the illusion that a mistake had occurred.

The vignettes were then programmed like a television channel for the 24 hours leading up to the event. To make it feel live multiple loops were created, lights pulsed and scan lines and room tone were added.

Five hours before the tease “livestream,” a team began quality checking the clips. They watched in three hour shifts throughout the night. If a mistake was found it was corrected by a team of producers, editors and flame artists and reinserted back in the timeline.

All of the press and social media attention for Caught on Camera was 100% organic.

Caught on Camera generated buzz on social media platforms like Twitter and was picked up by multiple tech blogs including MacRumors, The Verge and Mashable. Viewership trends steadily increased over the 24 hour period with viewership peaking right before the actual event livestream. Many viewers screen recorded fleeting vignettes that only aired once and posted them on Reddit and other tech blog comment boards. There were also social media postings detailing how viewers stayed up all night watching. In total, 156 thousand viewers tuned in for the 24 hour “livestream” that had no advertising, no seeding and no PR support.