The official website we created for Looper aimed to show, not tell, the rules of time travel and break down the complex world of the film. The HTML5 parallax scrolling experience functioned across desktop and mobile devices and broke the mold of traditional press kit sites, earning industry accolades including a 2012 Key Art Silver Award and finalist status from OMMA in Website Excellence and One Show Interactive in User Experience Design.
We wanted to put a new twist on the behind-the-scenes features our sci-fi fans crave. We achieved this with LooperVideo+, a customized viewing of the official trailer with designated hotspots that unlock filmmaker and talent commentary on key scenes, bonus video content and questions connected to the characters’ perspectives. This interactive feature acted as a Looper “cheat sheet,” increasing users’ accessibility to the complex world of the film. Users were encouraged to earn “gold” and “silver” with prompts inciting them to share Video+ material with their friends via Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr. Additionally, users had to complete each step of the Video+ experience in order to unlock a special video message from the film director, Rian Johnson. The payoff proved a successful motivator — over 93% of users that interacted with the Video+ answered every question in the experience.
In addition to the official website and Video+, we created the Looper Network site so fans could connect with the brand on a personal level and feel like they had been inducted as members into a highly elite society of criminal loopers. This six-week, alternate reality gaming experience invited fans to face the ultimate challenge of becoming a looper and completing online missions to chase their future selves. We rolled out the Looper Network in two phases: Recruitment and Missions. We launched the Recruitment phase at Comic Con, where we introduced Looper Network to our target demographic and offered them the opportunity to create and share their own looper profile. Next, we seeded the link to Looper Network on the official website for fans to discover. Once Missions commenced, players were notified via email and Facebook posts that their loop was on the run, and they must return to Looper Network to receive their first assignment. Players were given a clue on Looper Network that led them to a Mission site where they found a hidden 4-digit code. Entering the code on the map in Looper Network eliminates an area of the map and brings them one step closer to catching up with their future selves. This campaign went viral and received mentions from media sources as varied as The Hollywood Reporter, Firstshowing.net and Hitfix.
