Terminator: Dark Discovery

Client Scenario

In late 2007, Fox turned to Millions of Us to create an alternate reality experience in the Terminator story universe to build a buzz for the new series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles."

Approach

The MoU creative team concocted a live action thriller that let the audience actually interact with the characters from our reality bending "Terminator: Dark Discovery" project. The story began with a Silicon Valley tech company called Enitech Labs, creator of an advanced device that generated imagery of the future using particle technology. As the research team made their discovery public with weekly videos on their website, the imagination of viewers around the world was ignited.

Participants enthusiastically blogged, posted, started Facebook groups, and chatted their own theories and opinions about the events unfolding. Ultimately, the researchers found themselves being hunted by a deadly entity seeking to stop their work permanently. The drama built to an explosive conclusion with a confrontation with a deadly 30-foot robotic Skynet spider in the parking lot of Enitech's offices:

Results

Over 2 million people touched some part of the Dark Discovery project. Blogs and forums around the world covered the saga of the researchers. Media outlets such as Wired, Aint it Cool News, BoingBoingTV, Gawker Media, and more found something to discover inside the Dark Discovery project.

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" scored the highest opening-night ratings of any new TV show in three years and was described by industry publication Multichannel News as the season's "number one new show."