Travel Channel was looking to capture a younger demographic. Their current viewers were aging out and worse, their web presence was considered a complete failure.
Each user got to choose their home base. When they Kidnap their friends, they are locked up in the city of their home base.
The more game play a user achieved the more humorous the methods of kidnapping became. A classic gameification technique to foster more engagement.
The cheat sheets for each location were housed and fueled by Travel Channel's web content, driving page views and helping to associate the brand with international destinations.
To track where you've been while playing each user was given a passport to show which cities you'd been kidnapped to, giving Travel Channel even more opportunity to drive page views and share content with a new community.