Campaign: The Fight for Gotham City
Client: Limbo
Agency: Moxie Interactive
To tap into the expected success of the 2008 summer blockbuster “The Dark Knight” for both media sales and the promotion of a new handset, Verizon Wireless and Nokia turned to mobile social networking platform Limbo (now renamed Brighkite). With its agency Moxie Interactive, the company produced a campaign that combined a sweepstakes game with mobile social network elements.
Players could participate as either Batman or the Joker, battling others for possession of portions of Gotham City. Built on the platform of Limbo’s Grab game, the contest let entrants “grab” a prize until another player grabbed it away; those who clocked the most possession time with a limited weekly number of grabs were chosen as the winner. Players could take part online, via the mobile Web or through SMS.
With each grab attempt, players received a text message advising them of their game ranking and including an advertising message about the Batman movie, the mobile content available through Verizon (video clips, ringtones and ringback tones, wallpapers) and the Nokia 6205 handset, newly available to Verizon subscribers.
To enhance the community experience, players could chat with one another, build profiles and upload photos. Limbo delivered invitations to its social network of 2.5 million, while Verizon drew players with ads on the Web, including the mobile Web, with in-theater messaging and campaigns in its phone stores, and in print.
Ultimately the promotion generated more than 4 millions interactions among 40,000 consumers. While play was cross-platform, more than 95% of those interactions came in via mobile handset rather than over a computer. The average participant interacted more than 100 times over the six-week life of the campaign, and 60% made it through the whole promotion, still active in the sixth week. Sixty-eight percent of players recalled that Verizon had sponsored the contest, while the Nokia brand saw a 23% lift from the campaign.
Network
