We invited the world to actively participate in every step of the journey as if it was currently happening. The multi-phase digital experience was set in the year 2033 and presented by the IMSF. The microsite launched almost 6 months before the series premiered and detailed the first crewed mission from Earth to Mars. Their progress was tracked via an interactive countdown to landing clock and daily status posts from both the IMSF and Daedalus. Several weeks before premiere the microsite launched a Martian Colonist Recruitment Campaign. During this realistic interactive challenge, participants were tested as potential recruits for the next colonization mission. Visitors would experience a collection of engaging features that worked to promote science, futurism, and technology. Concepts that would make a future Martian mission a success. The recruitment phase was concluded with a dramatic reveal of an established, interactive, simulated, Dzlivedz Mars base.

The initial phase launched the world-building IMSF website. Blurring the line between reality and fiction, it presented the Mars mission within a futuristic aesthetic, and included the #countdowntomars social media campaign that began a 6-month lead-up to premiere with posts from the year 2033.

One month before premiere, the IMSF opened the Colonist Recruitment campaign that featured:

?Five training simulations with an optional mobile Virtual Reality mode for visitors tosharpen their Martian skills by controlling various spacecraft, habitat systems, and robotics.

?Ten casual-style games and evaluations, based on real astronaut tests, that cultivated recruit strengths.

?Personalized recruit profiles ranked performance while leaderboards showcased the Dzbest of the bestdz and enabled participants to form their own Facebook friend crew. Beyond premiere, the site released:

?DzLivedz CRT video feeds from the Mars base

?A 3D rotatable Mars-Base interactive

?Videos featuring the top scientific minds of 2016 detailing mission challenges.

The MARS series premiere was the most-watched debut of any new series in the network’s history and became the network’s most DVR’d show ever while garnering 15.5 million viewers globally. The social campaign generated 462 million impressions, 50.5 million video views, 5.4 million engagements, and started 1.3 billion conversations. The IMSF’s MakeMarsHome.com experience had 660 thousand pageviews while the average time spent by audiences engaging within the digital Mars Colonist Recruitment piece clocked-in at 21.5 minutes of training for the next mission.

The MARS campaign endeavored to reach out to a varied audience of 18-55+ year old futurists, educators, and space enthusiasts. The targets were segmented into three unique groups: Fact Finders – predominantly inquisitive and tech-savvy males, Sophisticates – self-improvers interested in expanding their knowledge, and Page Turners – predominantly social media engaged females interested in a strong drama. While each has its distinct facets and points of appeal, all three were drawn to the Dzintriguedz and Dzcuriositydz aspects of MARSthat we leveraged across all messaging. The Dzuser journeydz pulled the audience from seeded and constantly evolving posts on social, TV, print, and OOH into a cohesive web experience that retained them in the story of the universe with consistently new content released over time to keep them coming back.

MARS was a global television miniseries that projected the future history of humanity’s greatest adventure: the quest to colonize the Red Planet. Set in both the future and in the present day, the series told the story of the International Mars Science Foundation (IMSF) - the fictional organization that sponsored the Mars mission, the crew of the spaceship Daedalus, and the first Martian colonists. The series blended scripted dramatic elements set in the future and documentary vérité interviews with today’s brightest minds in science and innovation, illuminating the space technology that will make the fiction a future reality. Our goal was to create a digital experience that would entice audiences with the world of the show and keep their interest during the months preceding premiere as well as throughout the run of the series.