Our strategy for promoting the puzzle game ¨Mercury Hg¨ was to overcome its lack of a character-driven narrative by creating a compelling, fictional backstory and a viral mockumentary campaign.
To achieve this, we executed a three-pronged approach:
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Creating a Fictional Character and Narrative: We developed "Mercury Man," a character with a bizarre and humorous origin story, directly linked to the game's central substance, mercury. This spoof documentary, entitled ¨Weird Yet Wonderful¨, was designed to be genuinely entertaining and highly shareable, drawing in a broad audience who might not typically engage with a puzzle game's marketing.
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Building a Multi-Platform, Immersive World: We extended the mockumentary's narrative across multiple platforms to add a layer of authenticity and depth. By creating a spoof website, a Facebook page for "Mercury Man," and a dedicated Facebook account, we allowed users to immerse themselves in the story and even interact directly with the character, blurring the line between fiction and reality.
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Designing an Integrated, Non-Intrusive Call to Action: The direct link to the game, ¨Mercury Hg¨, was carefully designed to be an obvious, yet unobtrusive, call to action. We used sponsored banners within the website and a "liked page" on Facebook to drive traffic without breaking the narrative's believability. This subtle approach ensured that while the content was entertaining and shareable, it always led back to the product.
