Branded Entertainment, specifically user-generated, has exploded in recent years. As more and more consumers have become creators in the digital space, companies have utilised UGC for premium placements, and avenues have opened to organise crowd sourcing. More recently, consumers crave connections between their analogue and digital worlds. How can analogue content become more digital, and how can digital content become more analogue?

While Facebook does not allow advertisers to use user data in advertising, we chose the path of a live show that showcased users' data within the framework of entertainment. Our mission was to create an unforgettable event that encouraged mass participation and entertained while educating people on the importance of protecting their social media data. We called it 'Stuff Theatre': a 24-hour performance-based webcast inspired entirely by the profile information, status updates and photos from people’s Facebook pages.

Before the event, we drove people to the Norton Stuff Theatre page through Facebook ads and videos where participants were able to opt-in. On the day of the event, we used a proprietary admin tool to pull information from participants’ pages, which writers used to create scripts and sketch ideas in real-time. The ideas were then given to a wide range of performers - improv actors, musicians, graffiti artists, even chainsaw carvers - who had just minutes to prepare before going on stage. Participants were notified by wall post when their Facebook 'stuff' was to be performed. Streaming live on the Norton Facebook page for 24 straight hours, Stuff Theatre put on 683 performances. After the event, more than 600 customised performances were posted directly to people’s Facebook walls for them to share with friends.

Average view time: 45 minutes. Norton’s reach on Facebook increased 245% over the previous month. 46,339,635 total media impressions, which included coverage on CNN, NY Times and NBC. By making people’s digital lives the centrepiece of our communication, Stuff Theatre reminded them that big or small, Norton protects the Stuff that matters.