One of our favorite WOM sites of all time was a campaign that we developed for the A&E program, Criss Angel: Mindfreak. Criss Angel is a modern-day Houdini who performs crazy illusions and magic tricks (but don''t call him a magician -- he doesn't like that. He is an illusionist).

The site works like this: the user (or victim) would receive an email with a link to a YouTube-style page. A video would begin playing and Criss would come on screen and proceed to guess the victim''s name and phone number. After the video stops playing, the subjects cell phone rings and Criss is on the line, addresses the victim by name and reminds him to watch his show on A&E.

He also confesses that this whole trick was a practical joke that was orchestrated by the victim's friend. Traffic numbers for this site were very high. Nearly 3MM people in the first month played a joke on their friend. The site also delivered on its objectives by driving viewership. The premier of Mindfreak was the highest-rated cable show in its time slot and the highest rated Mindfreak of all time.