The main Virgin1 site has the first episode up for review as well as some Behind the Scene videos and extra information, if you haven’t already overdosed on spoilers and information coming out of the US where the series has been on air since the beginning of the year. The supporting site, Terminate a Mate, is where they have some fun, utilising mobile (or email) for a personal experience. Add you and your friends details and you can get a video delivered to your phone warning you that the Terminator is tracking you and knows where you are. It uses the network cells to trace where you physically are, showing you a map of your current location. I was slightly disappointed to find the system was about 1 mile out for me, instead of the reaction I should have which was ‘damn, that’s a good use of these tools’. It is really a good use and the speed of turnaround, delivering the personalised video in a minute or so is impressive. The email version sends whatever message you type in, not quite as much fun as the mobile version, but good if you want to say something extra special to a friend.

I’ve see they have learnt from a similar campaign last year for Dexter, where personalised video caused some upset. The text you get with the video link states that they network is providing the location, I guess so that people don’t get too paranoid that the Terminator is really after them and using the phone network to track them (we should just leave that to the intelligence services). A great use of the device, something I expect to see a lot of this year as marketing and digital agencies really get to grip with what they are capable of.

Post from: EveryJoe