Hacking the feed – Amazon created a groundbreaking show launch with a Facebook LIVE video campaign. A global zeitgeist manifesto layered with local socio-political issues, broadcast LIVE to people’s mobile devices.

Amazon’s bold concept for the season 2 launch used Facebook LIVE to deliver a series of multi-market simulcast rants against corporations, greed, politicians and control. Working closely with the agency, Amazon conceived a gripping scenario in which “f-society” – the anarchist computer hacker group at the centre of the show – could hack the Facebook News Feeds of its first season viewers to spread their global message.

The 9-week campaign began in early July 2016 with a teaser video on the Mr Robot Facebook Page that cryptically warned of an upcoming announcement, asking people to join the ‘movement’ and keep an eye on their News Feed. A further teaser video came a couple of days later with a video message saying:

THE WORLD WILL KNOW THE TRUTH.

7/7.

WATCH YOUR FEED.

On 7th July 2016, live broadcasts from members of f-society started rolling out across the globe. In the localised live performances – which started in the US and were gradually deployed to 12 countries – masked hackers delivered rants live to people’s News Feeds. The broadcasts ended with a brand-new and exclusive clip from the new show giving fans a tease of the cliffhanger that Mr Robot fans had been debating since the end of the first season.

The Live campaign for Mr Robot produced exceptional results, with a Facebook Brand Lift test confirming that it had driven huge gains in ad recall and intent to watch.

• 31-point increase in ad recall (rising to a 39-point lift among 25- to 34-year-olds)

• 15-point lift in intent to watch (rising to a 24-point lift among 18- to 24-year-olds)

• Over 5 million video views across all 12 markets

• 80% shift in affinity towards the franchise