YES – Deus AI

How do you launch a TV series for teens, about an A.I. computer program gone wild? You create it in real life! This is what we did with “yes” satellite TV’s series DEUS.

Stage 1: First they invited teens to enter a sweepstakes by filling out a form with personal data, while secretly installing a cookie file in their computer.

Stage 2: 2 weeks later, DEUS came to life: using the hidden cookie file, they surprised them with personalized banner ads wich seemed to know their birthdays, hobbies, schools and even best friends’ names – in the same way DEUS knows everything about the teens in the series. These messages created panic in the Israeli web: forums and blogs discussed about the hacker who accessed their info. Warning emails were spread, and popular websites got thousands of emails and phone calls from worried parents.

Stage 3: A week later, personalized banners were online again, this time revealing the campaign for the new series DEUS. The campaign was a huge success. It was widely discussed, the first episode brought record TV ratings for “yes” and the series became one of the most watched ever among teenagers.