Agent M09
- Brand
- Renault
- Year
- 2008
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Automotive
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Publicis Net
Objective
Renault needed to launch the third-generation Mégane Coupé to young men who buy sporty coupés and play video games — an audience that conventional car-launch photography and video microsites reach badly. Rather than build another product page, Renault partnered with Electronic Arts to give the car a playable debut inside Need for Speed: Undercover weeks before it reached dealerships, then built a promotional mini-site in that same game's visual world to carry the story online.
Solution
On www.agentm09.com, the visitor takes on the identity of secret agent M09, sent on a single mission: track down and deliver the new Mégane Coupé. The mission plays out as a run of animated, game-styled scenes staged in the look of Need for Speed: Undercover — a chase told in short cinematic beats rather than a photo gallery. At several points the agent has to act to move the story forward, and each new scene brings the Mégane Coupé into view from a different angle. Once the car is delivered, the mission ends and the visitor can stay on the site to watch the official Need for Speed: Undercover trailer.
- 1
The player opens the French-language mini-site and is cast as Agent M09, a secret agent whose mission is to find and deliver the new Renault Mégane Coupé.
- 2
The mission unfolds as a sequence of highly animated, film-like scenes styled after Need for Speed: Undercover, playing out a chase story around the car; these scenes are broken up by interactive moments where the player must act, which is what turns the film into a game and carries the player from scene to scene.
- 3
Across the mission the player gets behind the wheel of the new Mégane Coupé and sees it from every angle, making the reveal of the car itself the reward for playing.
- 4
From the same mini-site the player can also watch the official Need for Speed: Undercover trailer, handing off to the retail game.
- 5
The tie-in continues beyond the site: from 21 November 2008, players can drive the Mégane Coupé inside Need for Speed: Undercover itself, where it appears as a tier 3 car priced at $65,500 in-game, with a turbocharged, front-wheel-drive engine producing around 200 HP.
