How do you immerse French people in the universe of Columbian narco traffickers in the 80s, a world which is far from their daily lives? By showing them that even today, we all have cocaine in our pockets. Fact: in France, 50% of bills contain traces of cocaine. We are all part of the drug business. One possible way to detect cocaine on bills is to expose it to vivid light. The same type of light which comes from the flash of every mobile phone. So, we tampered with everyday bank bills and turned them into #Narcos Bills by using an ink that resembles cocaine and immediately reacts to the flash of a phone. When people took pictures of their bills with the flash on, they discovered a “#NARCOS” on them. Everyday bills became an outdoor media for a campaign that was directly in your pocket!

Firstly we produced thousands of #Narcos Bills which reacted to any phone’s flash and revealed the dedicated hashtag for the show #Narcos imprinted in a cocaine look-a-like directly on real bank bills. The use of the hashtag on the bills was crucial to create conversation and social virality. We then rolled out the campaign in three phases:

1. We spread thousands of #Narcos bills all accross France, during the summer 2015

2. We invited major influencers to 3 simultaneous pre-launch events in the 3 biggest French cities and had them flash their bills, the reaction was immediate, they shared with their communities inviting them to flash their bills too.

3. On the next day, France awoke knowing they could also have #Narcos bills in their pockets too. The campaign went viral across social media websites and most importantly, everyone was intrigued and wanted to discover Narcos!

By turning everyday bills into #Narcos bills, this mobile-first, user-centric social campaign was able to build, increase and drive Narcos' social media presence in France. On the eve of the premiere of the show, influencers present at the pre-launch events immediately shared pictures and videos of their #Narcos bills with their communities. #Narcos became a trending topic on Twitter France the day before the international launch and the experience generated 14M tweet impressions. As the #Narcos bills spread all across France and Europe, pictures popped-up in various cities and countries making Narcos a must-see show. More than 6 months after the French launch of Narcos, people kept sharing their #Narcos bills on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Ultimately, the social pocket-media campaign achieved its goal by involving French people in the Narcos story. Since, it has become one of Netflix's most watched shows in France.