Star Wars - The Clone Wars
Warner Brothers created a multiplayer Flash game to help promote the theatrical release of the new Star Wars cartoon movie "Star Wars - The Clone Wars". The game features a video clip from the trailer that displays during the loading phase of the game and also had various click-through elements that drove players to the film's official microsite.
Viralnet carried out the seeding for the online game and took a two-route approach to the seeding strategy. Firstly, by using placements in premium paid game portals, we were able to drive guaranteed traffic to the game. Then, because of the quality of the game and its viral potential, Viralnet recommended a full game release PR campaign to the webmasters within the free online gaming community.
The campaign was a huge success. The 'paid portal' element of the campaign delivered the guaranteed 75,000 UK visitors within the main campaign timeframe and guaranteed campaign success.
However, the PR release element of the campaign also presented the game out to the entire community of free gaming portals and the game was immensely successful. Through the combination of paid and free seeding, the game went on to attract 2,500,000 players globally and 175,000 players from the UK.
The multiplayer element of the game also ensured that the game received ongoing exposure from repeat visitors and continued site exposure. This allowed Warner Brothers to later change the creative in the game to promote the DVD release of the same film to the healthy 'tail' (longevity) of the initial seeding campaign.