Audible x Twitch: 1984

The background

With George Orwell’s iconic novel, 1984, launching as an audiobook on Audible, the streaming service wanted to drum up excitement amongst listeners by getting them involved in an interactive Twitch activation that played into the themes of the dystopian tale. UNIT9 partnered with our friends at Le Polish Bureau to bring it to life.

The execution

The 1984 Twitch stream was a complex, narrative-driven activation that complemented the novel’s plot whilst drawing gaming influencers and their followers into the action.

Taking on the role of a rebel group aiming to take down propaganda centre ‘TruthHQ’ and unlock a teaser of the new audiobook, three popular Twitch streamers were set a series of challenges to solve with the help of their audiences in an immersive experience that felt like it came straight from the book’s pages.

We used Unity to create bespoke games, integrating various mechanics tailored to each influencer’s role – Engineer, Operator and Artist –  and ensuring real-time interaction between the streamers and their audiences. Involvement from this wider Twitch audience was crucial – without their chat interactions, the streamers alone wouldn’t be able to complete the challenges. We even had some fun introducing AI imposters into the mix to mislead participants and spew propaganda in the Twitch chat, adding extra complexity in the quest for truth.

‘TruthHQ’ itself was a 3D environment powered by Unity and operated continuously over a 24 hour period to showcase AI-generated propaganda content created specially for the activation – 900 pieces in total. This carefully crafted virtual space added an extra dimension to the experience, ensuring Twitch audiences felt fully immersed.

To build anticipation for the three main game streams, we employed mini stunts or “injections” as a pre-promotion strategy. The three streamers played along, allowing us to hack their feeds with propaganda videos and receiving mysterious letters on camera which gave them their instructions and helped drive the narrative forward. 

Balancing the creation of new content with respect for the original story of 1984 was a challenge, but one which we gladly accepted – it’s not everyday you get to build out a narrative for one of science-fiction’s most iconic worlds.

The results

With 12k users following along, the activation successfully introduced the Twitch audience to the world of 1984, inspiring them to learn more and directing them towards the Audible audiobook. It was a huge honour to put our spin on one of literature’s greatest works and ultimately set a new standard for what can be done on Twitch, creating a shared immersive experience that got gaming fans talking.