WITSEC Confidential
- Brand
- In Plain Sight
- Year
- 2008
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Big Spaceship
Objective
USA Network was launching In Plain Sight, an original summer drama built on an unfamiliar premise — the federal witness protection program — and needed a way to make that world tangible while pulling viewers back to the network's site between weekly airings. A digital companion offered the most direct route to that first-hand experience, ahead of a full seasonal push across TV, radio, print, outdoor, airports, and social.
Solution
Players registered on the microsite and stepped into the role of a rookie WITSEC marshal stationed in Albuquerque. Each week opened with a video briefing from the show's star playing Marshal Marshall Mann, laying out a new case — a witness has vanished, a kidnapping to unravel, a murder to solve. From there the player worked the case solo: reading through case files, questioning people connected to it, and searching the city for evidence using three tools — a phone, a government SUV, and a computer. A case was built to be cracked in one short sitting, and a new one opened each week for eleven weeks, timed to land alongside the next televised episode.
- 1
Players log into the WITSEC Confidential microsite with their account; the week's case only opens after signing in.
- 2
Players take on the role of a U.S. marshal in the witness protection program, working alongside the show's characters as fellow investigators rather than playing as any of them.
- 3
Each week opens with a video briefing shot exclusively for the site, in which series star Marshall Mann (Fred Weller) hands down that week's assignment.
- 4
The assignment is one of WITSEC's standard case types: tracking down a witness who has fled, unraveling a kidnapping, or investigating a murder.
- 5
Players review the case files — the witness's dossier and background on the situation — to get up to speed on the investigation.
- 6
Players question people connected to the case using the interview tools built into the site.
- 7
Players search Albuquerque for clues using three marshal's tools — a phone, a service SUV, and a computer — to make calls, travel between locations, and pull up records.
- 8
Solving the case closes out that week's episode, and a new case opens on the microsite the following week after the next TV episode airs, repeating across an eleven-week run.
