Our industry is going through a number of changes. But one trend that’s here to stay is content as advertising. Entertainment content, to be more specific.

To publicize the more than 250 million images and videos in Getty Images’ editorial archive, we created a short film and an interactive video – made solely out of our content – about the stories that happened in parallel with the Fight of the Century.

In the short film, you’ll see how the Fight of the Century unfolded, as well as the stories of Frank Sinatra and Frank Lucas.

On the website, you can watch the interactive video to explore the endless possibilities in Getty Images’ editorial archive. By pressing 8 during the video, you can discover more characters in the story, including Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, George Foreman, and other entertainment heavyweights.

To tell the stories that took place on March 8th, 1971, around the Fight of the Century, we only used images and videos from Getty Images’ editorial archive.

More than a documentary, Endless Stories is an experience that blends elements of ‘70s cinematography with technological resources that break up the narrative with every interaction.

The selection of a narrator was fundamental in order to be able to transport people to 1971, as well as the soundtrack, which draws on the burgeoning funk and disco scene.

On the website, the fight is the backbone of the narrative. The site has a simple, conceptually engaging design: the user is invited to step out of the role of spectator and discover other stories from that March 8th. By pressing 8, users become referees, and can pause the match to explore stories about the audience.

The transition between stories comes with a freeze-frame and the superposition of multiple layers, giving a sense of the infinite. Meanwhile, the number 8 appears onscreen and rotates to become an infinity sign, opening up a portal in space-time to transport users into a parallel narrative.

To help users navigate around, we developed a simple, intuitive timeline. It expands to indicate when a user has entered a parallel story, and reverts to its original form when the user goes back to the main video.

If users prefer not to interact, they can see the whole story of the Fight of the Century – and, at the end, they can watch all of the other stories in the project.

At any point, users can see all the images used in the project, frame by frame, access the relevant information about each of them, and buy any content they want.

Since this was purely entertainment content, not a traditional commercial, consumers saw the experience differently, truly interested in the story and the photos. That helped the video and the website to gain more views and shares, both on the brand’s channel and on people’s personal accounts. Ultimately, that increased awareness and sales of the Getty Images’ editorial archive.