On October 11 2013, the creatives set up Tinder profiles for beautiful young ladies and connected with hundreds of 18-25 yr old guys in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. The girls started chatting with anyone who matched with them, but a few days before Walking Dead aired we revealed that these girls weren't what they appeared to be.

Using TV quality make-up, we gradually changed the girls' profile pictures as they were ‘bitten’ and decayed into zombie Walkers. The girls’ chat changed from being friendly and flirty to being outrageously zombie-esque, culminating in a reveal driving awareness of the first episode of Walking Dead that night, October 15.

The Tinder campaign generated valuable social media buzz prior to the show with an overwhelmingly positive response to the campaign. It was supported by promos on TV2 and via Facebook.

87% of the guys contacted through the Tinder campaign actively engaged with the zombie girls, chatting and sharing photos.

Once revealed, the #TV2WalkingDead hashtag trended on Twitter before the first episode aired on TV that night.

TV2’s Walking Dead won the 9.30pm Tuesday time slot.

The first episode was watched by nearly twice as many 18-25 yr old guys as rival channel TV3 (which aired competitive programming aimed at the same market).

After the reveal, many of the guys on Tinder responded positively, playing along with the zombie girls (in character) and discussing the upcoming Walking Dead show.