From the outset of our campaign, our goal was to explore the cultural impact of a fictional manned mission to Mars and create a narrative that followed the events of the mission in a way that blurred fiction and reality.

We partnered with pop culture’s favorite scientist—Neil deGrasse Tyson—to create a stunning CG mini-episode of his show StarTalk set in the year 2035.

We worked with the film’s cast (Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Aksel Hennie, Kate Mara, etc), on set as The Martian was being filmed. We worked on a punchy, agile script, with room for improvisation and worked with each actor as they were available in between shooting scenes for the feature film.

And finally we even created a faux- ad with Under Armour, which was positioned as the Ares 3 mission’s “Official Training Partner,” highlighting the importance of fitness, design, and innovation to long-duration Mars missions.

The entire prologue series was distributed across social channels on a global scale in the months leading up to the film’s release. The short “Our Greatest Adventure” featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson also aired on National Geographic during commercial breaks in the weeks leading up to The Martian’s release. This allowed us to generate excitement and momentum create momentum without succumbing to Hollywood's habit of flooding the market with every spoiler-ridden plot detail.

Each video upon release generated millions upon millions of multiplatform views.

Audiences and the press press devoured the campaign, praising the collaborations and brand integrations as “a pretty ingenious bit of publicity” (Slate) and “one of the cooler cross-promotional moves in recent history” (AV Club). The effort was collectively heralded for its realistic nature, authenticity and innovative marketing. The Nerdist even called it “one of the best, most creative, and frankly most awesome promos for a movie ever.”

Best of all, The Martian went on to become one of the biggest pop culture events of 2015, opening at #1, becoming the second-highest Fall opening of all-time and Ridley Scott’s most successful movie ever.