Frenzied Waters was an immersive transmedia experience created to bring the visceral terror of shark attack directly to people - creating an environment of frenzied excitement to launch Discovery Channel’s 2009 Shark Week lineup.
We developed and launched Frenzied Waters as though it were a horror movie, crafting fictional shark attack stories - set in the first person - placing the viewer behind the eyes of the victims.
We also engaged influencers in the entertainment community, giving them their own stories to tell and then harnessed the resulting buzz through using social media and a powerful digital experience and an innovative application of Facebook Connect.
All of this resolved in a strong drive to tune in that helped create the most watched week on Discovery in 2009. James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter even went so far as to call it "The Creepiest Network Marketing Effort Ever".
Capsule Seeding
To help start the distributed narrative, we created a capsule for each of our stories. These capsules contained intensely personal pieces of each shark attack story. And the capsules were detailed and aged to appear as if they had long ago been thrown to the sea - perhaps by a loved one. Capsules were seeded into locations in 11 cities (antique shops, fish and chip shops, aquariums, all hand selected locations) across the US with a new capsule being released each Monday for the duration of the campaign.
