Death Jr

In the case of Death Jr., a game designed for Sony's new PlayStation Portable (PSP), unique challenges included marketing the game – and its spooky storyline – to a relatively small base of potential customers. Alliance Network Group (ANG) chose to launch the Death Jr. website. The objectives of the campaign were to to quickly generate a list of highly qualified sales leads and to spawn organic discussion and buzz about the Death Jr. brand. Konami was particularly interested in seeing this appeal to the notoriously non-loyal community of devoted video gamers and industry watchers, typically male, 18 to 35.

The call to action for the drove people to the Death Jr. "advergame" with an incentive: the opportunity to win the actual video game. Players were encouraged to provide their email address in order to save their scores to a public high-score board and be entered to win a copy of the game. The fun of the advergame, coupled with the opportunity to win the product and have a moment in the scoreboard's competitive spotlight, drove buzz about the game and enticed visitors to tell friends about the advergame. Players used eROI's "Send-to-a-friend" feature, as well as traditional email. The advergame ultimately generated a new list, in one month, of more than 30,000 qualified gamers. A month-and-a-half after hitting shelves, Death Jr. sales exceeded projections by 135 percent.