Alice in Borderland is a Netflix original series that was set to premiere its 2nd season in December.

To build excitement and buzz among devoted Filipino fans and to invite new fans to the franchise, we made them experience what it’s like to live in the dystopian world of Alice in Borderland—a place similar to the gritty, congested train stations of Metro Manila. And we created a game to help them escape this place for good.

We mirrored the life-or-death card games in the series by creating a real-life card game for fans to experience Alice in Borderland.

The game is called ESCAPE BORDERLAND, and like its name, we turned commuters into players and challenged them to escape the horrendous Manila commute by looking for hidden cards in the form of posters across 13 train stations stretched along the longest road in the city. The first one to look for the most cards wins a car so they can escape congested trains for good.

Just like in the series, players had access to a mobile app that told them the rules of the game. ESCAPE BORDERLAND bridged the digital game into the real world and vice-versa, making it an immersive experience for the players.

We brought Alice in Borderland to the heart of Manila, where Filipinos so badly want to escape their own kind of Borderland–the horrendous train commute. We turned commuters into players and challenged them to hunt for 16 cards in the form of posters across 13 stations using a web app that mirrors the phone game in the series.

The posters were strategically designed to combine elements of the train commute and classic playing cards, and they carried a distinct red color to elicit the adrenaline of a life-or-death challenge. They were placed in 13 train stations stretched across the longest road in the city and players had to race and run around stations to be the first ones to find the most cards.

The prize? A chance to escape the Manila commute with a car so they’ll never have to take the trains again.

The campaign successfully mirrored the energy of the games in the series and fans all over the world wished their country had a similar game.

We brought players together just like in the series and they exchanged tips and hacks online and on-ground in order to escape borderland.

The campaign garnered 2,500,000,000 in reach with an earned media of USD 976,000. The game got 20,798 registered players. The web app got an engagement of over 382,000.

Most importantly, Alice in Borderland became No. 1 on Netflix for 9 days, and stayed in the top 10 for 45 days.

Manila has one of the worst public transportation systems in the world.

The game experience was designed for Filipinos who have no choice but use it, much like the seemingly inescapable Tokyo in the Alice in Borderland series.

Since the commuters spend long hours in train stations, we wanted to engage them in a game that would entertain them, and if they won it, would allow them to escape Manila's public transportation system forever.