ITV Creative develops Ant and Dec choose-your-own-adventure ads ahead of new I'm a Celebrity

Imagine the scene: comedy duo Ant and Dec are adrift at sea on their way to the I’m a Celebrity jungle in Australia. What can they do to get back to shore? In a new series of ads (which premiered on 12 October) during the The X Factor: Celebrity ad break, viewers will be able to vote on what course of action the hosts should take in a choose-your-own-adventure-style campaign developed by ITV Creative.

ITV Creative developed seven cinematic promos for the campaign, featuring various different outcomes for the duo – of which only four will air. Each week viewers will be able to vote on how Ant and Dec should navigate their way through a number of nautical perils, with the winning option aired at the end of each week.

ITV Creative executive creative director Tony Pipes said in a statement: “It’s a combination of a linear TV and digital TV campaign, using data and smart media planning to create an interactive and engaging journey with the viewers’ favourite duo. They are also bloody funny!”

ITV Creative worked with FX house Freefolk to develop the CGI environments, with the large amount of time spent at sea making the project particularly challenging. Freefolk creative director Jason Watts said, “We did a lot of research enabling us to define the look of each of our scenarios prior to shoot, which in turn enabled us to shoot Ant and Dec with the correct lighting and assess against pre-made environments roughly comped in on set.”

The campaign is the most comprehensive advertising for the show to date and is a cunning way to get more people downloading and using the I’m a Celebrity app – through which viewers can decide on Ant and Dec’s next steps.

The initial campaign will run for two weeks after which three rounds of choose-your-own-adventure antics will take place in the lead up to the I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here series finale.