Creating Trans-Atlantic Connection

Five was re-launching Five USA, and we wanted people to see it not just as another TV channel, but as a direct window onto America.
 
The appetite was there – Obama’s triumphant campaign had helped to refresh young people’s perspectives on the USA, and President’s Day offered us a great chance to launch our new campaign ‘Are You Watching America?’. But we needed to make this window on America feel more immediate.  
 
Asking commuters ‘Are You Watching America?’, we developed an installation at Oxford Circus that transformed an entire Central Line platform in to an experience of today’s America.  
 
Working with Hyperspace and CBS, we broadcasted real time video footage of New York’s Times Square directly onto XTP screens. 
 
On the length of the wall we provided another ‘window’ – a single shot presented a mirror image of a platform at Times Square Shuttle Station.  
 
Using the flexibility and ‘live’ capabilities of the modern media world, we had created a genuine window on America that commuters found fascinating – and a concept that could be amplified in a broader PR and advertising campaign. 
 
As a result of this campaign launch, viewing of Five USA increased by a third within a week, and then sustained at 25% above previous norms. 
 
A great demonstration that when you innovate to engage with people on their own terms, you can really get noticed.