June 29, 2005
BringtheFast.com
Check out Verizon's branded entertainment campaign to build awareness of Verizon as a broadband company and its online DSL and FiOS products.
Posted by richard ting at June 29, 2005, 03:30 AM
June 10, 2005
Audi Touts Success of "Heist"
Audi of America is crowing over the results of its alternate reality gaming (ARG) "Art of the Heist" viral campaign. The company says the game has generated four times more online buzz for the A3 compact car, has engaged more than 200,000 people in a single day, and has attracted 79 percent more qualified visitors to the Audi Web site, as compared with previous efforts.
"'The Art of the Heist' represents a true innovation in the way Audi connects with its target consumer," said Stephen Berkov, Audi of America's director of marketing, in a statement. The effort, which began on April 1 in New York, revved up with the fictional theft of an Audi A3. Since then, game players have followed -- and participated in -- the adventures of Nisha Roberts and Ian Yarbrough, two specialists in recovering snatched art, as they track down digital clues hidden in Audis across the country. The tale of game designer Virgil Tatum, who is developing a game based on Roberts, also plays into the narrative.
The ARG was created by Audi's long-time ad agency, McKinney + Silver, in partnership with Campfire, which is an collaboration between Mike Monello and Gregg Hale of Haxan Films, GMD Studios and Chelsea Pictures.
Besides running online advertisements encouraging people to help find the stolen A3, the company has created a microsite at stolenA3.com where gamers can follow the action. Audi has also created a fictional site for Roberts and Yarbrough's company at lastresortretrieval.com, and a site for Tatum at virgilkingofcode.com.
The campaign also uses blogs and wild postings to keep the public updated about the alternate reality action. Additionally, game players have themselves created wikis (define) and fan sites, such as heist.smirkbox.com, to help others follow the narrative.