Submitted by OgilvyAgency IPI Score 95/100

Potatoes on Mars

Content Creation

Ogilvy streamed a 24/7 live feed of an attempt to grow potatoes inside a Mars-simulating CubeSat for CIP, reporting 100 million viewers worldwide.

100MLive-feed viewers

Case in 60 seconds

CIP needed the world to care about the potato as a resilient crop that could help solve hunger, a cause that is easy to overlook.

Real science, staged as an event people can watch unfold live, turns an abstract research message into must-see attention.

Attempt to grow potatoes in Mars-like conditions and let the world watch it happen around the clock.

Ogilvy worked with CIP, UTEC and NASA scientists to build a CubeSat replicating Martian conditions, then streamed the attempt around the clock via potatoes.space.

The agency reports 100 million people worldwide watched the live feed. The figure is self-reported and the only quantitative result stated.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

A global public interested in space, science and big ideas, reachable through a story that felt like history in the making.
Food-security research rarely commands mass attention, while space and Mars capture the public imagination.
A research institute had to make a humble crop feel globally significant without a consumer-product hook.
CIP positioned the potato as a resilient crop for the harshest environments, from devastated farmland on Earth to a future Mars.
People will follow a live, uncertain outcome, and framing potato research as a Mars experiment gives them a reason to watch and share.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Dedicated live-feed portal at potatoes.space
  • Purpose-built CubeSat with monitoring sensors replicating Mars conditions
  • Cameras fitted inside the CubeSat streaming the growth attempt

Partners

  • Ogilvy (Memac Ogilvy Dubai)
  • CIP
  • UTEC
  • NASA scientists

Participation mechanic

  • Global audiences tuned into the round-the-clock live feed to watch whether the potatoes would grow

Creator role

  • Not disclosed

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
Live-feed viewers100Mreach

Why Ogilvy's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Staging real science as a live, uncertain event gives a research cause a reason to be watched.

  2. 2

    Borrowing the cultural pull of Mars made a humble crop feel globally significant.

  3. 3

    A dedicated round-the-clock portal gave the story a home and a live outcome to follow.

  4. 4

    Partnering with credible scientists (CIP, UTEC, NASA) gave the stunt substance behind the spectacle.

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