THE CHALLENGE
ASSEMBLE 50K OF THE MOST TALENTED DEVELOPERS IN THE WORLD.
THE SOLVE
GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO LEAVE IT.
Rapyd - a little known fintech startup with out of this world aspirations - set out to amass the brightest minds on the planet into an online developer community to start solving the biggest problems of our time.
So we did our research and combined developers’ shared love of puzzles, space and William Shatner into Hack the Galaxy: an puzzle solving competition for developers to compete for a chance to win a ticket to space.
PHASE 1: PREPARING FOR LAUNCH
We needed serious help to stump these nerds. So we teamed up with professional puzzle masters David Kwong and David Shukan to create a labyrinth of interconnected mindbenders to keep developers engaged for months.
We worked along side “The Davids” with a design team to to incorporate Rapyd’s new brand identity and keep each puzzle fun and engaging. We created over 50 puzzles!
And our audience loved them.
In the meantime, we seeded intrigue about the upcoming hackathon on social.
Until…
PHASE 2: LIFT OFF
We released a long-form How-to-Play video and puzzle demos, so players had everything they needed to get solving.
We made reminder videos to help build and keep momentum…
PHASE 3: BOOSTERS
We had to keep players on the edge of their keyboards for months. So we released videos, puzzle reminders and awarded interim prizes between space ticket drawings to keep the energy up.
And when the time came, released a universal CONGRATULATIONS video to the winners of each phase of the contest.
RESULTS:
We surpassed 51K members in 2 months. Meeting our goal in half the time. And earning 545,093,147 impressions along the way.
CREDITS
Agency: Known NYC
Director: Evan Silver
Production Co: TOMORROW
Editor: Tina Mintus (Carousel)
ECDs: Soren Youngren & Michael Rovner
CD: Kevin Karp
Sr. Copywriter: Anna Tucker
Sr. Art Director: Nath Cochran