Stranger Things season one saw Hawkins Laboratory conduct human psychological experiments resulting in the inadvertent release of a murderous monster that wreaked terror on the town. In season two, the nefarious Laboratory sought to overhaul its image; we decided to create a particularly fitting, long overdue “corporate transparency” campaign to help.

As the 1980s was a relatively analogue decade, it made sense to only leverage analogue communication channels. And so, the campaign began with cryptic OOH placements inspired by 80s art direction and typography. Billboards and subway posters prompted people to call a toll-free number. Curious dialers were transported into an audio experience full of surprises beginning with a warm greeting from Dr. Sam Owens (played by Paul Reiser), followed by a choose-your-own-adventure phone tree. No detail was overlooked. Callers bold enough to leave their contact information were rewarded with a surprise mail package full of exclusive swag.

The unbranded campaign launched on October 16th, 2017 with the cryptic OOH placements on billboards, bus shelters and in subways in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto. It ran for 4 weeks and delivered nearly 214 million OOH media impressions.

The toll-free number launched in conjunction with the OOH and began receiving phone calls from not only fans clever enough to identify it was in fact, promotion for the upcoming season, but also from people who were simply just curious about the mysterious advertisement

The mysterious campaign elicited phone calls as soon as it launched, with the average daily call volume quickly increasing from 100 to 3000+ per day at its peak.

Social activity began with fans posting images of the cryptic OOH ads onto their feeds. Delivery of the surprise kits then sparked a new frenzy of social engagement that fueled even more calls and online conversation from people hoping to receive the coveted kits.

During the 4-week run, the toll free number received nearly 30,000 phone calls and the limited supply of exclusive swag was depleted with in the first week of launch.  

The groundbreaking campaign generated 500 million impressions of national earned media - including local news coverage in markets outside of where it ran.

Ultimately, season 2 drew 15 million views the first 3 days of launch - significantly more than it drew the first 2 weeks of season 1.