Xbox turned an advertising channel into an entertainment channel, and in so doing, put gamers in control of the ad.

Survival Billboard was a billboard in central London on which eight gamers stood in a test of Lara Croft-like grit, endurance and inner strength, to win a trip inspired by the game. The contestants, who made up the billboard headline, faced blizzards, downpours, harsh wind and intense heat – all controlled digitally by the public via a live stream.

Survival Billboard was a single billboard that reached the world, as the action taking place on it was live streamed on Twitch (the number 1 game streaming site), the Xbox dashboard, banner ads, digital OOH and a dedicated microsite. The public gave up on sleep to watch the billboard, to control the weather that the participants were enduring, as well as to support, discuss and speculate about alliances and romances. The winner lasted 22 grueling hours, yet In that one day, the oldest advertising medium was reinvented as a gripping, interactive reality show.

8 minutes average dwell time (vs. 8 seconds for a regular billboard)

1000 weather votes per hour

£3.8 million in earned media

11000 viewers for 22 hours straight

3.5 million views

32000 comments in 22 hours

Survival Billboard was a highly targeted idea with an tantalizing call-to-action.

It targeted gamers not simply by using gaming channels such as Twitch and IGN, but by creating an interactive experience that was designed to appeal to a gaming way of thinking and responding.

Survival Billboard was, in actuality, a real world game with a unique, irresistible call-to-action for gamers: you control the weather.

The aim was to target gamers who were otherwise distracted by the imminent launch of bigger games with bigger budgets, such as Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront.

We noticed that the outdoor ads for our competitors were all old-fashioned passive posters (despite gaming being an interactive medium). So our approach was to create a single, interactive experience that tapped into the gamer mentality of total control in order to increase engagement levels.

In essence, the strategic approach was to treat an ad for gamers as a game in itself.

Big video games, like big movies, launch with a huge outdoor presence. It’s become the battleground for new game launches. Yet most outdoor ads are glanced at for just 8 seconds. So how could Xbox get gamers to engage with the launch of the gritty new Tomb Raider reboot during the busiest game launch period in history?