What's Your Spy-Q?
- Brand
- Epix
- Year
- 2016
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Quiz & Trivia
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- WP BrandStudio
Objective
WP BrandStudio built this for Epix to promote the October 16, 2016 premiere of "Berlin Station" by linking the show's espionage premise to The Washington Post's own credibility on national security and intelligence reporting. Rather than running a standard display campaign, the studio used an immersive branded experience to pull readers toward the premiere date while giving Epix a way to borrow the paper's investigative reputation.
Solution
You're cast as a CIA officer posted to the Berlin station, tasked with tracking down the source of a security leak inside the US embassy. The game moves you through a run of full-screen scenarios styled after the show's look: you practice tailing a target and blending into a crowd on the street, try to make contact with a fellow agent without blowing your cover, and crack a coded message intercepted from an enemy operative. Between scenarios, short briefings drop in real tradecraft — how surveillance works, how a smartphone gets tapped. Finish the run and you get a "Spy-Q" score rating how well you'd hold up as an actual intelligence officer, which closes out into a plug for the Berlin Station premiere.
- 1
The player lands on a full-screen splash built around "Berlin Station" key art, inviting them to test their intel know-how and find out whether they'd make a good CIA agent.
- 2
A briefing sets up the premise: the player is a CIA officer posted to the Berlin station, tasked with uncovering the source of a data leak inside the U.S. embassy's security system; tapping "Start the mission" moves them into the first operational episode.
- 3
In the street-surveillance episode, the player chooses how to behave to blend in with the crowd and avoid detection, then judges an ambiguous encounter — reading a child as a possible enemy asset or an innocent bystander and deciding whether to leave the premises after an unexpected delivery.
- 4
In the tradecraft episodes, the player handles a phone or device that may be compromised by hackers or spyware, which typically shows no outward sign of surveillance, and separately arranges a secure way to meet a fellow agent.
- 5
In the final challenge, the player decrypts an intercepted coded message from an enemy agent.
- 6
After the last episode, the player receives a "Spy-Q" score rating their aptitude for espionage, followed by a promo for "Berlin Station," premiering October 16 at 9 p.m. on EPIX, with a sponsored-content disclosure for WP BrandStudio.
