Google and Sony (with Big Spaceship actually creating the site) have teamed up for an online experience to promote Bourne Ultimatum called The Ultimate Search for Bourne.
What I love best about these type of promos is you can instantly gauge its success. By using Youtube videos as a clue delivery service one only needs to check the view stats on said videos and you'll know how many people are playing. Day 4's clue (we're up to Day 5 now) is sitting on 800 views. The first videos are at 7,000. (see below)
Maybe people do what I did and just Google the questions and cheat?
It looks great but its tiny type and super long UI is annoying as is Flash's limitations with copying and pasting text but that's not the agencies fault. Also I would have liked to have done more than just find answers and past it into a message window. Mini games or anything would have been a nice change.
What's interesting is Google didn't charge Sony for the privilege of hosting the game as it saw the benefit as mutual. Without Google's support this would have made the whole thing a lot harder to pull together.
Updated: (Sorry I had my agency's wrong)
The level of complexity for this game is quite easy compared to Red's ARG game out there called Ethanhaaswasright.com And yes I can't get past the 2nd puzzle!!! (it's shitting me)
Update 2: I was completely wrong (like most other people) Ethan Haas Was Right is actually for Alpha Omega a new RPG. More info here.
Thanks B!X you tried to set me right but I didn't listen.
The Simpsons movie is 8 days away (I would say how great it is but I've been told not tell anyone I've seen it) and we're heading into the biggest marketing push Fox has ever done. So big they have put together a website to showcase the promotions. See Yellow.
What's not on there is the new Simpsonize Me tool for Burger King. Just launched by CP+B.
Now it's a little rough around the edges (read: buggy) but when it does work it's actually pretty cool. Uploading a face definitely takes the grunt work out of creating a character.
Here's me Simpsonized. I had to adjust the hair but it's a pretty good likeness. It's even captured my terrible fashion sense. I also Simpsonized myself age 80. As you can see I no longer wear glasses and my ears are bigger but I've now got a great sense for fashion. I look forward to my Versace days to come in my 80's.
What's confusing is that the official Simpsons site has their own Create your own Simpsons avatar tool. Here's the Simpsons character I created a few weeks back. To launch two similar online initiatives seems a waste and also takes the allure off the BK one.
What's missing from both is a gallery function. I want to see other people's characters. I want to see them all in a huge crowd shot. I guess I'll have to browse the Flickr groups and fan forums for my fix.
And and if you dial you age in at 200 this is what you get. Don't do it as you have to upload your photo again after.
As for what else is happening outside of what's mentioned on See Yellow, there is also:
Both Samsung and Vans should have created official sites for these promotions. Their corporate sites (Vans | Samsung) don't even mention these at all. You can't rely on bloggers as your only form of information distribution!
Even more detailed info can be found on Wikipedia.
The English summer is (admittedly getting longer) quite short - yet, within this is packed all manner of sillyness and fun. Anyone for Pimms dot com like the weather, updates seasonally, and this is the latest - a quintessentially British view on the unique British summer, a window on the places you should be and the fun you should be having instead of sitting in front of a flat screen updating your "i am doing..." on facebook.
It's early days for Ten as they put their tippy toes into creating a destination off the back of their channel so it will be interesting to see how it fares. It's very advertising light right now which makes it feel nice and clean.
Also a friend mentioned that the new site resembles USA Networks.
