Mad Max Pursuit
- Brand
- Mad Max
- Year
- 2015
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Christophe Menassier
- With
- FCINQ
Objective
Warner Bros. needed to build heat for the French release of Mad Max: Fury Road among 15–24-year-olds already drawn to action and games, and to get them replaying the trailer on their own rather than just through paid media. Just as important, the studio wanted the campaign to spread past its media plan into organic social conversation, powered by a hashtag and a roster of partner brands handing out access codes.
Solution
Players logged into a browser-based desert race, competing live against real opponents over three-day sessions. Behind the wheel, they watched their fuel gauge, rammed rivals to siphon their tanks, laid traps, and fought off attackers while sandstorms rolled in and day turned to night. Fresh supplies dropped onto the map every ten minutes, pulling players back to grab them before a rival did. A linked Twitter account acted as their in-game contact, warning of incoming attacks, announcing arriving weapon and fuel convoys, and dropping exclusive codes to redeem for boosts. Every move a player made — repairing, refueling, striking — also unlocked a six-second cut of the movie trailer, and whoever had driven farthest by the session's end topped the leaderboard and climbed toward escalating prizes, capped by a trip for two to Australia.
Results
The #MadMaxPursuit conversation generated over 42 million Twitter impressions beyond the paid media plan, in-game actions drove more than 50,000 trailer views, and 12 partner brands joined to distribute game codes.
- 1
The player opens www.madmaxpursuit.com during one of two live three-day windows and connects a Twitter account; the handle is saved so the official @MadMaxPursuit account can address the player directly for the rest of the session.
- 2
The player takes on the role of Max, fleeing across the desert from Immortan Joe's cult while racing other live players; the goal is to outrun pursuers and travel farther than everyone else.
- 3
Progress depends on a limited fuel supply, which the player replenishes only by stealing it from opponents in real-time skirmishes rather than buying it; the player also attacks rivals and lays traps to slow their advance.
- 4
New items spawn on the map every 10 minutes, pulling the player back to check in repeatedly over the three-day session, and the desert's look shifts between day and night depending on when the player logs in.
- 5
A randomly timed sandstorm hits once a day, freezing every car in place except for players holding the specific item needed to keep moving through it.
- 6
Each action the player takes triggers a matching six-second clip from the "Fury Road" trailer, contextually synced to what just happened in the race; these clips are also delivered to the player as cards on Twitter.
- 7
@MadMaxPursuit keeps the player updated on skirmishes, incoming weapon convoys, and fuel deliveries, and periodically posts exclusive codes for the player to redeem in-game.
- 8
Additional codes are seeded outside the game, in the film's press and ad materials and in the social feeds of twelve partner brands including Xbox and Alloresto; redeeming one grants special items or fuel, and some partners trigger their own in-game convoy events during sandstorms.
- 9
Rewards scale with distance traveled, topping out for the overall leader with a two-person trip to Australia, a Mad Max merchandise pack, and cinema tickets.
