Brief

MTV asked us to launch Catfish - The TV-show, based on the documentary with the same name, The show is about people hiding behind false profiles on Facebook - they are called catfishes - and how they interact online to make people interested in them.

Challenge

Most people don’t know that a Catfish is someone hiding behind a false profile on Facebook.

Strategy

Our strategy was to explain the term, while involving and intriguing the potential viewers and getting attention from reporters: We decided to create our own Catfish and challenge people to reveal him. By doing this, the media coverage was guaranteed to explain the whole concept of a catfish.

Execution

We tucked away Steve Angello from Swedish House Mafia behind a false profile on Facebook and set up a campaign site where people could engage themselves in the search. To get leads to use on the search on Facebook you had to answer educative questions about Catfish. We integrated Facebook Graph Search while still in Beta, to get even more publicity.

Outcome

We engaged tens of thousands of people in the worldʼs largest hide and seek game and reached 8 million people through twitter alone.

The campaign spread to 124 countries.

The TV-Show had a stunning 126% increase in ratings above channel average.

Influential tech blogs acknowledged the campaign as the first using Facebook Graph Search.

The media reach was 87m - and in 97% the term catfish was explained.

We tucked away Steve Angello from Swedish House Mafia behind a false profile on Facebook and set up a multi-language campaign site. To get leads in the search on Facebook you had to answer questions about the show and we integrated Graph Search while still in Beta, to get even more publicity. We conducted a survey, showing that a lot of people try to appear better on Facebook and Twitter.

Campaign period: One week

Step one: Survey on Catfish behaviour

Step two: Prepare false profile and adapt leads.

Step three: Detailed Q&A

Step four: Planning of social media engagement for campaign week.

Step five: Prepare press material

Step six: Launch of campaign site and competition in 35 countries, through own social media channels, including Steve Angello’s.

Step seven: Extensive international media contacts, online monitoring and directing.

Step eight: Elect winner, who gets to meet Steve Angello in Miami.

We reached 8m people through Twitter alone.

The campaign spread to 124 countries.

The TV-Show had a stunning 126% increase in ratings above channel average.

Several of the world’s biggest tech blogs acknowledged the fact that it was the first major campaign using Facebook Graph Search, which contributed to the wide spread.
 The media reach was 87m- and in 97%of all articles and blog posts the term catfish was explained.

We engaged tens of thousands of people in the worldʼs largest hide and seek game and at the same time we introduced the Catfish concept to the world. After understanding what a Catfish is there was really only one option left: Tune into the show.