Netflix and Founders Agency staged a live Resident Evil T-Virus transformation in Santa Monica in July 2022, generating over 15 million TikTok views in launch
ARCHIVENetflix Brings Resident Evil to Life on the Streets of Santa Monica
Netflix launched its Resident Evil series in July 2022 with a one-day live experiential activation on a busy Santa Monica street, produced by US creative agency Founders Agency, in which four actors simulated the progressive T-Virus transformation inside a glass cage before one performer broke free and charged into the surrounding crowd.
The activation ran for six hours on a single day during the series launch week, timed to coincide with the premiere of Resident Evil on July 14, 2022, as confirmed by the campaign record. Four performers made up to appear at successive stages of the infected transformation stood in for one another inside a glass cage fitted with tinted panels, an internal hidden room, and stage smoke, allowing seamless actor changes that sustained the illusion of a single continuous transformation. The sequence culminated in the caged figure breaking free and chasing pedestrians, generating immediate on-street panic and crowd footage that proved highly shareable. A TikTok film capturing the activation surpassed 15 million views at the time of publication, according to the campaign record. In the United States, the stunt functioned simultaneously as an outdoor media moment, an integrated social content play, and a street-level OOH execution designed to collapse the boundary between a scripted horror series and lived urban experience. The new Netflix series itself, based on the long-running Resident Evil video game franchise, follows character Jade Wesker navigating a world ravaged by the T-Virus outbreak. The Santa Monica activation translated that fictional premise into something pedestrians could not easily dismiss as advertising, earning the campaign a Clapboard Score of 82 out of 100.
ARCHIVENetflix chose experiential OOH over conventional TV promos for the Resident Evil launch because earned media reach in the United States had become structurally more valuable than paid placement for genre titles with built-in fan communities. Streaming overtook linear television in the United States during 2022, according to Variety, compressing the window in which any new series could establish cultural visibility before audience attention moved on. In that environment, a single high-impact activation capable of generating organic social content offered a cost-per-impression profile that conventional outdoor media could not match.
The competitive pressure behind that decision was real. Netflix held an estimated 21 percent of global streaming-service usage in the third quarter of 2022, according to data cited by Headphones Addict, while Amazon Prime Video held approximately 19 percent of the same market in the same period. Disney Plus occupied additional share, meaning Netflix was defending a plurality rather than a commanding lead. Resident Evil, as a title with decades of gaming heritage and a prior film franchise, carried franchise recognition that could cut through, but only if the launch moment was distinctive enough to separate it from the volume of competing premiere announcements. Founders Agency's answer was to stage something physically verifiable and viscerally uncomfortable in a high-footfall public location, so that bystander footage would do the distribution work that a media buy could not. The Santa Monica location, one of the busiest pedestrian corridors in Los Angeles, was selected precisely because ambient crowds of non-briefed witnesses would react with genuine surprise, and that genuine reaction would authenticate the footage circulating on TikTok and beyond.
Digby directed the Resident Evil Santa Monica activation, with Baby Lion Media and Ketama Collective serving as the production companies responsible for realising the physical installation, according to credits documented by LBB Online. The creative direction was shared by Felipe Rostagnol and Martín Alfred, who are also co-founders of Founders Agency, with Checha Agost Carreño serving as Chief Creative Officer and Tanya De Poli as Chief Operating Officer, as recorded by LBB Online and corroborated by Marcomm News. Lourdes Echevarria managed the project, Debi Rubbiani served as Head of Production, and Micaela Ninomiya handled digital strategy, with Carla Vilches as Senior Strategist, per LBB Online.
The production challenge was substantial. Sustaining a believable six-hour live transformation required a glass cage engineered with tinted panels and a concealed interior room so that actor substitutions could occur without breaking the visual continuity visible to street-level observers. Stage smoke reinforced the visual obstruction during transitions. Four performers were cast and made up to represent distinct progressive stages of the Zero transformation, allowing the narrative arc from infected human to fully turned creature to unfold convincingly across the activation window. The final sequence, in which the transformed figure breaks the cage and pursues crowd members, required performers capable of physical performance in a charged, uncontrolled public environment with unrehearsed bystanders. The resulting footage, captured from multiple angles by members of the public as well as the production team, carried the lo-fi authenticity that scripted TV promos structurally cannot replicate. Behind-the-scenes content showing the makeup and transformation process was subsequently released across Netflix's own social channels, extending the campaign's content life beyond the single activation day.
The TikTok film associated with the Resident Evil Santa Monica activation surpassed 15 million views at the time of its publication in July 2022, according to the campaign record. A Netflix YouTube video titled "Resident Evil Season 1 | Man Infected with T-Virus | Pedestrians React | Netflix" generated additional documented viewership on that platform, confirming that the activation content circulated across multiple channels beyond TikTok alone, as noted in campaign documentation sourced from Reddit community discussions. No third-party verified total reach figure across all platforms is publicly available for the full campaign window.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness rests on three reinforcing mechanics. First, the physical installation in Santa Monica generated genuine bystander reactions that no scripted advertisement can manufacture, lending the footage a credibility premium that sustained sharing behaviour. Second, the multi-platform deployment, spanning TikTok organic content, YouTube, Netflix's own social channels, and unplanned user-generated footage, multiplied distribution without proportionate additional media spend. Third, the activation's timing during Resident Evil's launch week on July 14, 2022, as confirmed by Wikipedia, meant that social momentum aligned directly with the moment Netflix needed new subscribers to act. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 82 out of 100, reflecting strong creative originality, disciplined integration of experiential and OOH mechanics, and demonstrable organic reach, with marginal room to improve on long-term brand attribution measurement across the full earned media tail.
Netflix staged a live one-day experiential installation in Santa Monica in July 2022 to launch its Resident Evil series. Four actors simulated a progressive T-Virus transformation inside a glass cage on a busy street before breaking free to chase bystanders, generating organic crowd footage that circulated widely on TikTok and YouTube.
Founders Agency created the Resident Evil Santa Monica activation for Netflix in 2022. The US creative agency, co-founded by Felipe Rostagnol and Martín Alfred, oversaw creative direction, with Digby directing the production and Baby Lion Media and Ketama Collective serving as production companies, per LBB Online.
The TikTok film of the activation surpassed 15 million views at the time of publication in July 2022, according to the campaign record. Netflix also released behind-the-scenes transformation footage across its own social channels, extending the campaign's reach beyond the single activation day in Santa Monica.
The cage used tinted glass panels and stage smoke to conceal a hidden interior room, allowing four actors representing successive stages of the Zero transformation to swap positions without breaking the illusion. The six-hour performance maintained visual continuity for street-level observers throughout the full activation window in Santa Monica.
Resident Evil premiered on Netflix on July 14, 2022, according to Wikipedia. The Santa Monica street activation ran during the same launch week, ensuring that social momentum generated by the stunt and its TikTok film aligned directly with the moment Netflix needed new audiences to discover and stream the series.
The Resident Evil Santa Monica campaign received a Clapboard Score of 82 out of 100. The score reflects strong creative originality and disciplined integration of experiential, OOH, and social content mechanics, alongside demonstrable organic reach driven by the live activation and its subsequent TikTok and YouTube distribution.
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