Following on from the success of the transmedia project developed for Thomas@, LAPA came back to us with a new brief. Generate web traffic to their newly launched website. We weren't interested in executing an SEO campaign.

We decided to put one of LAPA's readers into an upcoming novel as the main character in the story. We partnered with a well-known Afrikaans author and created an ARG that required players to complete 20 tasks ranging across multiple media.

Players had to search through Facebook profiles, candid photos, security footage, calendar appointments, voicemail messages, company websites and of course entries on LAPA's website to find clues. Clues that told the story about Dr Renzo Hattingh, a mysterious plastic surgeon (Snydoker in Afrikaans).

An in-game investigative journalist, Xander Stroewig, is working on a story about the the disappearance of Dr Hattingh. Stroewig is busy carrying out his other duties as the editor-in-chief of Netwerk (Network) magazine, so the responsibility falls to the player.

The game became an extended job interview, where players were auditioning in realtime to prove that they have what it takes to be the main character. The campaign worked so well that LAPA's website crashed multiple times under the traffic - and the players learned all about the content on the site how easy it was to navigate through.

Campaign done at Etiket Brand Design.