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The Concept
- Playing on the theme of the Sixth sense, we developed a website in which users were sent on a journey of discovery - Do you have the Sixth Sense? The site revolved around the city of Philadelphia, USA (where the film was shot), where users had to engage their Sixth Sense to "see more".
- We incorporated a "psychic-o-metre", which measured users psychic ability. Their ability level increased the more they travelled through the site and on each return visit.
- The higher the psychic ability - the more of the site they were able to see.
As with all film related websites, the key is to pick up on a central theme and follow through with, and expand, on this theme. For The Sixth Sense, we chose the obvious theme, that of the "6" senses : taste, touch, smell, sight, sounds and ESP. We then expanded on this theme and focused on the sixth of these senses to include things like telekinesis, empathy, precognitive abilities, pyrokinesis, etc. We also needed to portray the feel of the film and tried to create the same tension and suspense.
Execution Mechanics
Initial tests
When users entered the website, they had to go through the "Initial Tests" to discover their psychic abilities. These tests took on the following.
- Telekinesis Test - Users were asked to place their hand on the screen and try and move the cup. We received feedback from several users saying that they "actually felt it move" - we really did touch people!
- Telepathy Test - Here, users were asked to engage the power of Telepathy and try and guess which symbol would appear on the last card.
- Pre-cognitive Test - Here, users were asked to test their ability to see into the future and were asked to guess what number would appear on the dice.
The website closely mirrors events in the film, without giving too much away. We incorporated key scenes from the film and made them into key areas of the website, where a large amount of 'paranormal activity occurs. We also used sequences and sound clips from the film to introduce areas of the site, which helped recreate the tense from the film.
Results
- The site was live for 3 months and in that time it received over 250,000 user sessions, and over 1,000,000 page impressions.
- The site received a wealth of coverage in both the press and online.
- The site received over 30,000 entries to the competitions within.
Testimonial
"Utilising the interactivity of the web to support a high profile title was initially seen as a brave move. No video retail release has ever been supported by a dedicated web site which has in turn been supported by an effective word of mouth campaign."
"The site looks fantastic and I'm extremely pleased with it - well done and thanks for all your hard work, you've done a great job!"
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