Sneak King / PocketBike Racer / Big Bumpin' (Xbox Advergame Trilogy)
Read the story- Brand
- Burger King
- Year
- 2006
- Objective
- Sales
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Blitz Games
- With
- Microsoft
Objective
Burger King launched a holiday-season brand activation to drive meal sales and foot traffic during the critical November-December 2006 period. The campaign centered on turning the King mascot into playable entertainment, bundling full Xbox games with value meal purchases to create a memorable connection between the brand and console gaming—a novel tactic when advergaming was largely confined to web browsers.
Solution
Burger King released three Xbox/Xbox 360 titles developed by Blitz Games over seven months: Sneak King (a stealth-action game where players delivered burgers to pedestrians as The King), PocketBike Racer (a Mario Kart-style racer featuring Burger King commercial characters), and Big Bumpin' (a bumper-car combat game with the Subservient Chicken voiced by Brooke Burke). Each game sold for $3.99 bundled with participating value meals from November 19 to December 24, 2006. Both titles shipped on dual-boot Xbox/Xbox 360 discs, carried an ESRB E rating, and supported four-player local multiplayer plus eight-player online modes in select games.
Results
The campaign moved 2.5 million copies in its first five weeks, ultimately reaching 3.2 million copies sold. Despite negative critical reception, consumer response significantly exceeded expectations, with the games becoming a cult hit.
