The Million Pound Drop

The challenge
Channel 4 wanted a ‘play along,’ dual-screen game that would engage their audience and add a strong digital element to the show. We were tasked with fleshing this idea out and worked closely with Monterosa to determine the game’s mechanics.
Strategy and execution
We focused on the game UX, design, and developing the Flash front end. Whilst dual-screen experiences had been explored before, this was the first time users could actually play along in real time – using the same questions as TV contestants. We also completed this loop with online users equally influencing the contestants and TV audience, by feeding their results back live into the studio.
By becoming far more invested in the whole gaming experience, online players felt the same tension and nerves as the contestants. Channel 4 was also able to capture demographic information during registration, allowing real-time stats to be fed into the live broadcast of the show. Social sharing tools generated further buzz and interest.
Results
The game was an extraordinary success; so much so that we had to double the site’s traffic capacity following the first night. At its peak 78,000 people played online at once and more than 3.5 million games were played online in the first 6 days. Conversion rates (per centage of the TV audience participating online with a dual-screen element) also set a new precedent at 4.45 per cent – the future of social TV started here.