The Race
Open the game- Brand
- Montblanc
- Year
- 2023
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Fashion & Beauty
- Mechanic
- Racing & Sports
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Merci-Michel
Objective
Montblanc built the game to support the July 2023 retail launch of Explorer Platinum with something more engaging than a standard product page. The brief was to turn the fragrance's positioning — exclusivity, performance, modernity, and the Explorer line's mountain-ascent story — into an experience people could actually play. A leaderboard and a prize draw gave players a reason to keep racing and a moment to register with the brand.
Solution
You open the game straight in your browser, no download, and take the wheel of a silver 4x4 on a narrow mountain road. Steering is just left and right, so anyone can jump in, but the real skill is staying centred on a glowing strip running down the road: hold it and a boost bar charges up, release the boost and the car surges forward. Drift off the strip or off the road entirely and you crash or go over the edge, costing you time on the respawn. You're racing the clock, chasing your own best lap, and a strong enough time earns you an entry into a draw for exclusive Montblanc gifts.
- 1
The player lands on therace.montblancexplorer.com to a loading screen, then a title card reading "THE RACE" over a camera flythrough of the mountain circuit, with a single START button and a cookie-consent banner.
- 2
A menu accessible from the header offers restart, the Montblanc Explorer Platinum product name, and links to terms, privacy policy, and language selection.
- 3
Each run opens with the car on the starting straight and a 3-2-1 countdown that ends in "GO," launching the timed lap.
- 4
At the start of the run an on-screen prompt teaches the controls: holding the left/right arrow keys to steer on desktop, or tapping the left/right half of the screen on mobile.
- 5
The core loop is a chase-camera time trial: the player steers to stay on a glowing white centerline, which fills a bottom meter as it is held; a filled meter triggers a boost that shoots the car forward and cuts lap time, while a running timer and small counter track progress up top.
- 6
The circuit runs through a stylized mountain landscape whose character keeps shifting, from open cliffside straights to narrow tunnels and rib-like galleries, marked along the way by lit topographic outlines and wireframe Montblanc structures.
- 7
Aggressive driving can send the car into a skid or off the road into the rocks and snow; the player just drives back onto the track while the timer keeps running, turning any crash into lost time rather than a restart. On desktop, a crash can be cleared with a manual respawn key, and the mouse opens settings.
- 8
Crossing the "FINISH" banner stops the timer, and the camera releases the car to fly back over the mountain range.
- 9
A results screen shows the final lap time against the player's personal best, with options to play again or submit the score, while the camera keeps circling the course in the background to invite another attempt.
- 10
A fast enough submitted time enters the player into a draw for Montblanc gifts, framing the lap itself as a way of "discovering" the Explorer Platinum fragrance, whose mountain-ascent scent story and silvery 4x4 echo the fragrance's platinum bottle.
