Paramount Leaves Clues for Rainbow Six Gamers
A breadcrumb trail leaves clues in Ubisoft's "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2" to promote the Paramount comedy "Tropical Thunder."
In-game advertising is said by many in the industry to add realism to certain games. A Paramount campaign about to wrap up in Ubisoft’s “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2” engages gamers on a deeper level by adding additional game-play elements in the form of a scavenger hunt.
Nine ad placements running in the game between July 15 and August 18 plant clues for players to follow to get to added game content and prizes at the end of the hunt. The campaign is for the upcoming Paramount Pictures comedy flick “Tropic Thunder,” which opens in theaters on August 13. Massive is the ad network that pulled together the deal, which is running on the Xbox platform.
“It’s added activity for a title that came out a few months back,” said Jay Sampson, VP of global Sales at Massive, a unit of Microsoft. “Paramount’s ‘Tropical Thunder’ matches the game thematically,” he continued, noting it brings “additional prizes to the table as well.”
The media buy for “Tropical Thunder” is not a roadblock for the month-long run. Ads from other advertisers appear throughout the game around the nine Paramount insertions. Gamers identify the scavenger hunt in the single and multiplayer modes by passing the first ad, which entices players to look for clues.
Ubisoft and Massive cooked up the idea of a scavenger hunt, but longtime Massive advertiser Paramount was quick to jump onboard with the plan. Massive used Ubisoft’s Web site to promote the scavenger hunt; however, little needed to be done since the game already has a significant following.
“Their audience is big enough, we figured if we could address them in an articulate way, they would find a way to enjoy and win great prizes,” Sampson said.
Prizes include an invitation to join Ubisoft’s VIP club and a chance to download a free digital VIP map from the game. Additionally, there was a drawing held on July 31 in which 25 winners were selected to win a “Tropic Thunder” gift pack including two tickets to the movie, a T-shirt and a hat. A second drawing will be held after the scavenger hunt commences. On August 22 one grand prize winner will receive an Xbox 360 Elite system and a one-year Xbox Live subscription, plus a collection of Ubisoft’s upcoming video game releases such as “Brothers in Arms.”
