What lurks below is only one click away. Carefully placed media was used as bait to draw YouTube fans to a central location where the series host and the latest batch of water-bound stars were introduced.

Prospects browsing Television, Entertainment and Outdoor content were intercepted with invitations to “click-through” to a central page on YouTube via search, mobile and display. There, they were met with an unexpected YouTube experience where River Monsters’ host, Jeremy Wade, crawls out of the video window and addresses the viewer. Within seconds, a slew of NASTY UNDERWATER CREATURES escape the video window as well, snapping, biting jaws and swirling spiny tails in the viewer’s face. Working in conjunction with Discovery Networks’ in-house creative agency and YouTube, an immersive, 35 second experience of Shock, Delight and Horror left viewers breathless, but thirsty for more. Using social media links, viewers were able to share the video.

Over 1.1m visits occurred within one week. Animal Planet knew they successfully created brand evangelists as nearly half of those visits (47%) came from social referrals.Consumers were engaged with the content. Not only were there 930,000 video views, but the average time spent on the site was 3 minutes and 45 seconds!All of this contributed to a massive 17% ratings increase for Season 3 versus the Season 2 finale, adding more than 200,000 viewers to the existing audience base of 760,000. Animal Planet became the #1 rated cable network on Sunday nights when River Monsters was airing.