This is really cool. McDonald's sponsored a big Alternate Reality Game which utilized physical clues, IM's, Twitters, MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. It does not seem that they are using fax or phone like some past ARG's we have seen. What is real interesting is their approach of keeping their sponsorship of the game low key.. normally you would expect product placement or even some limited advertising. It will be interesting to see if they release any numbers on the game after it is done. So far they have 150,000 players which seems pretty solid based on it sounding like they released it to the wild by mailing only 50 bloggers the info...
We have seen other big companies do cross-media alternate reality games with pretty good success. They are really engaging and really bring the players into the game for a good duration. If a player stays with it until the end and the end is worth it, I believe it places the sponsoring company a notch higher on that players affection ladder.
Think of how you might think about things like _____ stores after day sale or the ________ restaurant that hosts a annual non-profit you attend. If the experience is good one year during that event, not only will you look forward to/hope they do it next year, but you also will be more positive about going there during the year because of that special experience (even though it was a "one time" special deal).
Anyway, it's late here in Austin - so I hope that above paragraph makes sense.
Checkout and read more about McDonald's alternate reality game here:
http://www.thelostring.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/business/media/01adco.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
-David
posting from Austin, TX
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