Murder 57

Creating an unforgettable
sleuthing experience

the idea

The Brief

Murder 57 brings murder mysteries to life with fully interactive breaks at venues across the UK. Guests become part of the story, piecing together evidence, interacting with actors, and racing to unmask the killer.

Traditionally, Murder 57 provided printed evidence for guests to review and interpret. They wanted to enhance their experience and introduce digital content that could be interacted with at the location, allowing the audience to feel more engaged.

What needed to be solved

The Problem

Murder 57 had been creating digital content for their stories, only to print, laminate, and distribute it to their audiences - a process that was becoming increasingly time-consuming and costly. They also noticed that the content they were creating was becoming more digitally focused in general. This included emails, text messages and social media profiles and comments. Rather than creating this content and printing them off, they wanted to create an application where the audience could view the evidence on their devices or tablets.

Instead of printing these assets, they envisioned an app where audiences could view and interact with evidence directly on their devices or tablets. To bring this idea to life, they needed more than just an app. They required a centralised system to manage stories, generate evidence, and deliver an outstanding digital experience that would take their service to the next level.

The clever bit!

The Solution

The Distance worked with Murder 57 to gain a deeper understanding of how they operated and what they did. Only when we fully understand the whole process, can we suggest where the best solutions fit in. By mapping out their entire process, we could identify the best solutions to enhance their service. Together, we determined they needed two interconnected products: a mobile and tablet app for audience interaction and a content management system (CMS) for Murder 57 and their actors to manage plots, create evidence, and handle audience submissions.

This seamless integration allowed the app to support the event from setup through to the final reveal. The evidence was a key problem that needed to be solved. The creation of the evidence was the first part of the puzzle. We developed a CMS with an intuitive HTML editor, enabling Murder 57 to create evidence in a familiar way. The use of HTML also meant the evidence could be converted into PDFs, making it easily accessible via the app.

Murder 57 wanted to add further gamification to the app to elevate the experience further. Evidence was hidden in locked digital folders, challenging the audience to crack the codes by solving clues during the event. Once unlocked, they could view the evidence in detail, zooming in to examine every critical piece of the puzzle.

Measuring success

The Results

Once the platform was created, it was important for Murder 57 to gain a thorough understanding of how to use it. and required them to do a lot of setup in the new CMS. Setting up the new CMS required significant effort as it represented a complete transformation of their usual content and processes. To ensure a smooth transition, we supported them every step of the way, helping streamline their evidence creation and setup.

Murder 57 pilot-tested the application with their actors, running through the process to fine-tune the experience. After a few successful trial runs, they officially launched the app and began using it across all their events - ushering in a new era of immersive, interactive storytelling.

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