Xbox turned an advertising channel into an entertainment channel. 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 faced blizzards, downpours, harsh wind and intense heat – all controlled by the public via a live stream.

Survival Billboard was a single billboard that reached the world, as the drama taking place on it was live streamed on Twitch, 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 reinvented the oldest advertising channel as an entertainment channel. By using an existing medium in an entirely unexpected way (turning it into a gripping, interactive reality show), it challenged the norm of what billboards can do, in terms of engagement, entertainment value and expected results.

To its audience, Survival Billboard was more than a piece of advertising. It was a highly watchable spectacle that kept them up all night both glued to the drama as well as influencing it.

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. Our approach was to create a single, interactive entertainment experience that tapped into the gamer mentality of total control, and by doing so upped the engagement levels. In essence, the strategic approach was to treat an ad for gamers as an entertaining 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?