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
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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).
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We sent our audience an email featuring a doorbell - and then begged them not to ring it. Some were rewarded with a treat, and we sent them another door.
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Others, though, found that ringing the bell had earned the attention of the zombie horde. For them, it was game over and their inboxes were spammed with the living dead.
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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.
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Each digital "treat" revealed an aspect of the game
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Here's how it worked. While seeming complex, the users journey was actually quite simple.