This wasn't just an ad; it was a live human experiment on a London billboard.
Dubbed "Survival of the Grittiest," I provided UX Design for this experiential campaign for Xbox, challenging eight fans to stand on tiny ledges and endure everything from arctic winds to sudden heatwaves.
The UX of suffering
The challenge was to bridge a physical billboard endurance test with a global digital audience.
Through a real-time voting system integrated with a live Twitch stream, users unleashed actual blizzards and heatwaves on contestants, turning a brutal challenge into must-see entertainment.
The perfect storm, by design
Where digital votes met real-world weather.
I oversaw the end-to-end experience design for this award-winning campaign, serving as a key connection between the creative concepting team and the physical experience builders.
This project required a unique level of design governance – balancing an evolving digital narrative across three phases with the ambitious technical requirements of real-world software and hardware integration.
I architected flows and screens that evolved through three strategic phases: an initial puzzle-led recruitment drive, a high-intensity countdown phase, and a final, live event whereby the site transformed into an interactive broadcast platform, allowing a global audience to watch the live stream and vote in real-time to control the brutal weather conditions unleashed on the competitors.
Results
A huge hit with the public and juries alike, the campaign picked a brace of awards and was subsequently voted Campaign’s Creative Experience of the Decade.
3.5m
views in 24hrs
1,000
weather votes every hour
56k
hours of streamed content watched
90+
awards
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5 Gold, 9 Silver and 6 Bronze
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2 Gold
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3 Gold, 4 Silver
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4 wins, including the Grand Prix
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2 Gold
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Grand LIA, 3 Gold, 4 Silver, 2 Bronze












