EA Dante’s Inferno
We made a Super Bowl spot to launch a video game…but that was just the icing on the cake.
Sooooo...
EA was investing a lot of money into a game based on a 14th century epic poem. They were worried that no one would be familiar with the source material – that each circle of Hell was based on one of nine sins. In the nine months leading up to the debut, we taught the Internet about each sin.
We launched the game and delved into the first circle of Hell, by staging a fake fundamentalist protest at one of the biggest entertainment conference in the world, E3. We developed a website and viral video in support of the Salvationists Against Virtual and Eternal Damnation (S.A.V.E.D.). These purported religious zealots were incensed and claimed that, by using religious elements and dogma in a bloodthirsty video game, EA was a blasphemer of the worst kind. It all caused quite a stir.
We got the opportunity to call EA the ELECTRONIC ANTI-CHRIST.
For the month of Anger, we sent out an evil box that, when opened, played “Never Gonna Give You Up” until it was smashed with the included hammer.
By engaging with the box we tricked the influencers into committing the sin of anger.
It worked.
For the month of Heresy, we created a trailer for a heretical video game called Mass: We Pray and damned those who tried to preorder it.
Go ahead…we dare you to preorder this.
We pissed some people off and it was fun.
For the month of Greed, we sent influencers checks and damned them whether they spent them or wasted them.
Damned if you do...
Damned if you don’t.
This also worked.
For the month of Fraud, we leaked fake in-game achievements, merchandising plans for Dante’s Inferno cologne and a hellish big wheel.
We even created a cologne tagline, SMELL LIKE HELL.
Then we leaked the commercial for the big wheel.
For the month of Violence, we invited bloggers to a special site.
Influencers were prompted to choose an ornament.
There they got to watch a “live” snuff film starring Santa removing ornaments from his human Christmas tree. Then they received the custom ornament in the mail.
Just in time for Christmas.
All in all, we got more than 47 million impressions with a budget of less than $200K. And it convinced EA to give us a new budget to do a Super Bowl spot. Here it is again, if you read this far.