We built Dixie Deadzone Diners, pop-up restaurants in places with no cell signal. Using RootMetrics, a cellular signal mapping company, we searched Los Angeles to select three dead-zone locations. Then we custom-designed our venues: a vintage ice cream parlor in a cave, an airstream serving breakfast in a park and a classic American diner in an abandoned underground bank vault in downtown L.A.

Knowing our guests’ phones wouldn’t be working, we placed wayfinding posters at each location to help guide people to the event. We also included conversation starters printed on table-toppers, napkins and interior signage, all to help fill the silences we usually fill by checking our email.

The Deadzone Diners were open for just one weekend, but the activation included multiple social videos, a website and a special menu designed by celebrity chef Carla Hall.

Creating the Deadzone Diners required three full months of production. We began by embarking on a month-long research process, searching for dead zones using RootMetrics (a signal mapping company) and on-the-ground scouting. We tested all four major carriers in three cities and found that L.A. had the most dead zones.

From there, we created three custom-fabricated pop-up diners in three unique locations. Each one had its own look and feel influenced by the physical setting of its location and the type of food it served. We built a nostalgic, classic-style diner in an abandoned bank vault from the 1930s, a vintage ice cream parlor in a cave in the Hollywood Hills, and an al fresco breakfast cafe featuring an airstream overlooking the Pacific.

Each diner was open six hours a day. In total, they served more than 1,000 people, with lines at the door each day before opening.

Dixie’s Deadzone Diners generated 67.3 million earned impressions,19% higher than the highest projections. Our Deadzone Diner videos reached 31 million people, were viewed 22 million times and had a completion rate of 30%. The digital experience lived on after the event with 75% of the more than 121,000 site visits happening afterward, driven by a Facebook carousel featuring celebrity chef Carla Hall.

881 people attended the events, resulting in 1,204 mentions on social media, 121,298 site visits, and 10,611,770 earned impressions on social media.