Zombies under the sidewalk. Vomiting devil babies. The marketing world is saturated with “prankvertising” that might still spook people on the street - but feels expected to everyone else online. To promote the launch of AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, we flipped the concept on its head and got a real reaction out of the social media masses.

We created “The Fear Experience” – hiring actors for a movie screening where “something goes wrong.” Invisible ink in participants’ CINEMA stamps that glowed bright blue under UV light – and then sent in a HAZMAT team to do a sweep for “infected” moviegoers. Chaos and fear erupted when the theater was put in lockdown mode. It looked exactly like a prank gone dangerously wrong.

The staged movie screening was filmed on 11 Aug 2015. The teaser video was posted on a key influencer’s Facebook page on 15 Aug 2015

https://www.facebook.com/smrtsg/videos/1040185206005691/

and the reveal video was shared on 18 Aug 2015

https://www.facebook.com/smrtsg/videos/1041687739188771/

In total both the teaser and reveal video garnered over 400,00 views and reached over 1 million people (20% of Singapore’s population) in just 4 days. They also generated over 7,000 likes, shares and comments, most of which revolved around the ‘prank gone wrong’ and Singapore’s kiasi nature.