We decided to create an 'ambush' on Hyves using the Hyves API: a tailor-made action video that, disguised as a YouTube clip, would reveal along the way that it was about the person currently logged on.

Hyvers could send each other a 'Hyves video message' which was a fake layout identical to the 'Hyves message inbox'. The title of this message was 'You are more famous than you think!' and included a personalised video wrapped in a fake YouTube player. The video showed a group of criminals in a basement, speaking a made-up language, collecting personal data which, as the film progressed, turned out to be from the person currently logged on.

We've worked to make this all look and feel as realistic as possible, with different outcomes dependent on relationship status, location and gender, creating a shockingly realistic outcome that had not been done before in personalised campaigns.

We went live by releasing a single link on Twitter on a Wednesday. This spread and resulted in 50,000 page-views on the first day and 2,500,000 page-views the following Friday. On Friday the campaign was picked up by all leading online and offline news channels and main item in NOS Kids News (Jeugdjournaal) in the evening.

In just seven days the viral was sent around 7,000,000 times and viewed 5,000,000 times, making it the biggest social media viral campaign in the Netherlands ever (total Dutch population is 16,500,000).

Media buy was € 2,500 (Hyves minisite), with free-publicity valued at € 1,200,000.