The Covert Affairs Tweetcast: Mission Budapest is an interactive, multiplatform digital narrative designed to enrich the Covert Affairs audience experience and offer fans an exclusive, expanded look into the inner workings of the CIA. The Tweetcast will star the show’s Christopher Gorham as Auggie Anderson, and will unfold over six weeks in real-time on Tweetcast.USANetwork.com and via the Covert Affairs series Facebook page.
The Tweetcast will center on CIA Tech Operative-In-Charge Auggie, offering a glimpse into what he does when he’s not “running” Annie Walker. The story will center on Auggie’s management of CIA operatives on a top-secret mission in Budapest. When a simple intelligence-gathering exercise hits a dangerous snag, the assignment becomes a complex, high-stakes mission. As the story proceeds, audiences will get a taste of spycraft and will be given the opportunity to participate in the action by retweeting and responding to specific story points.
Over the course of the six-week campaign twitter conventions including hash tags, @’s and retweets will be used to establish a fictitious secure communication system, allowing characters to speak to one another and Auggie as they navigate the overseas operation.
The ongoing storytelling experience will be told through daily tweets, original videos, photos, audio streams and classified documents. Interactive opportunities also offering fans the unique ability to influence the mission and weigh in on the final resolution of the story, which will be unveiled during the third all-new episode 7/12.
“At USA, we are always looking for innovative ways to engage audiences and expand the series’ narrative beyond the weekly telecast,” said Alexandra Shapiro, SVP/brand marketing and digital for USA. “We believe the social landscape is the new frontier in storytelling and offers unlimited possibilities for creating organic and complimentary extensions to our hit franchises.”
RBR-TVBR observation: This is almost a new level of interactivity, with the ability to influence the mission and outcome of the storyline. Another good component of this is it’s a way to really know who the show’s core fans are, and those fans are just the ones the show’s advertisers want to reach – tech-savvy and heavily engaged in new media.
