Another big Microsoft release, another mysterious viral marketing campaign. Echoing the cloaked message of Halo2's hugely successful ilovebees, and certainly hoping to garner as much publicity as that well-received tactic, a new website has cropped up with an XBox name, Xbox colours (TM) and a non-specific date. Origen Xbox 360 silently crash landed on a non-descript website, featuring nothing but a bare tree and a countdown timer. Any amateur Enigma-breakers out there?
Over the weekend, the tree grew fruit (apples) and an Xbox-green rabbit.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Quick-fire games have been used as advertising for things as varied as Budweiser and Presidential hopefuls (see Water Cooler Games for more info), passing a message rapidly around the Internet to office workers in need of an inconspicuous mental break from daily drudgery. It's strange, then, that such campaigns have evaded the marketing of console and PC entertainment, particularly as they've proven effective time and time again, both in terms of gathering new converts and keeping the bottom line low. There are a few notable exceptions, however.
Ilovebees Possibly the most successful viral marketing campaign in computer game history, this seemingly innocent webpage about "Margaret's" love for bees created much media attention after the address was broadcast at the end of a Halo 2 trailer. It was a superb Alternate Reality Game that left enough cryptic treasure hunt-style clues across the ilovebees.com to inform players where the next Halo 2 preview event would be held.
ESPN NFL Football Obviously a US-based marketing campaign (bar those few others interested in American Football), this award winning effort was aimed at pitting the Sega underdog against the massive marketing cash coffers of rival EA's Madden. The plot involved an escalating altercation between a supposed beta tester of the game against Sega Corp, when the company recalled "faulty" beta versions of the game which, when played, resulted in mysterious blackouts and unpredictable behaviour. A forum stooge named Beta7 lashed out at Sega across multiple sites and newsgroups, created a weblog to document his struggle and then mysteriously "vanished", leaving a ransacked apartment and a truly terrified fan base.
Resident Evil: Outbreak's T-Virus More a misjudged attempt than an effective campaign, the idea was to plant SMS code on mobile phones which would jack into the mechanics of any phone that was then called or SMS'd, resulting in a zombie-groan ringtone. I admit that I had my mobile phone "infected", but darned if I know what happened to it; the virus was never passed on to any in my contacts list. All the press this campaign managed to get was negative.
Sega Saturn (UK campaign) Odd, arty posters cropped up in Glasgow, Scotland's Clockwork Orange in the late 1990s, bearing nothing but a strange orb. Can't find proof anywhere that they existed. Was it only a dream?
Please tell me there are more. Preferrably offline.
