This multimedia experience combined a mix of word, image, illustration and sound to create an immersive experience. Animated illustrations were also created, leveraging parallax scrolling technology, to make the experience both visually compelling and responsive. The result of dozens of hours of research, writing, shooting and editing, the piece was unified by striking visual design. The piece was visually enriched by infographics that put relevant data into context and compelling pull quotes. A slideshow of portraiture highlighted the faces of the women referenced throughout the piece. Audio recordings were added to connect readers with the first-person voices behind these stories.

The piece was viewed by nearly half a million readers who spent 4.5 minutes on average in engaged time — six times the average of stories on NYTimes.com. Traffic came in large part from organic social actions by the show’s cast and fans, along with our own newsroom journalists who praised the piece’s quality. Soon after publication, it was among the site’s 10 most popular articles. Over 2014 as a whole, the piece ranked in the top 1% of most highly trafficked pieces on NYTimes.com. Post publication studies verified the piece substantially lifted Netflix’s brand.

We created compelling custom content surrounding the theme of women’s experiences of incarceration. The target audience included New York Times’s readers among whom Netflix hoped to expand interest in its original series, Orange Is the New Black, along with current Netflix subscribers to boost awareness of the second season. This project took a unique approach, thanks to an insight that current and potential viewers alike would be interested in the real-world stories of women’s experiences in prison and the impact on their families, health and personal lives. This created a gripping, personal narrative that connected with viewers in authentic way, and attracted buzz from within the show’s own cast, among extant fans, and newcomers to the show.