Xbox was launching Dead Rising 3, the third chapter in its over-the-top zombie survival game franchise and a critical tie-in for the launch of Xbox One. On Halloween, an important holiday for fans of horror games, we sent an email that launched recipients into a back-and-forth game of trick-or-treating.
Awards include Seattle ADDYs: Gold and Silver, National ADDYs: Silver, Echo award: Bronze, Pulse awards for CRM and Best in Show
For Halloween, we turned email into an actual game of trick-or-treat.
The results were scary good (and we won a lot of awards and broke all kinds of records).
We sent our audience an email featuring a doorbell - and then begged them not to ring it - and then yelled at them for doing so - they were also rewarded with a treat. We immediately sent them another door.
And if these brave trick-or-treaters continued to tempt fate, they might get more treats. Or...
They may find that ringing the bell has earned the attention of the zombie horde. For them, it was game over and their inboxes were spammed with the living dead.
Game over! Your inbox is invaded by (information about the) zombies
More than 57,000 played. Some received treats from Dead Rising 3. Those players kept going at a 96.2% clickthrough rate. THE REST WERE TURNED INTO ZOMBIES.
But all of them were excited about the game—Dead Rising 3 quickly became the #1 pre-ordered Xbox One game on Amazon.com.
Each digital "treat" revealed an aspect of the game
Here's how it worked. While seeming complex, the users journey was actually quite simple.
More samples of my work on Dead Rising can be found in "The Wardrobe" (see top navigation)
