Dude, Where's My Bar - ARGL

Nestlé Butterfinger reintroduced the popular tagline "Nobody's Gonna Lay a Finger on My Butterfinger" and turned to us to bring it to life in a memorable viral campaign. In late 2009, we developed the world's first comedy Alternative Reality Game, "Light". Over a 3 week period, consumers entered into a mysterious multiplatform mystery. The narrative thread played out through 6 games/puzzles, 2 micro-sites and nearly 14 original videos.

Results

• - Over 166 million Campaign Media Impressions
• - 760,000 Facebook App Downloads in 2 weeks
• - The Official Butterfinger Facebook page has nearly 530,000 fans and ranks #7 amongst consumer product FB pages.
• - Over 4 Million Video Views Across the Web
• - Average time spent playing games was over 5 minutes - among consumers engaging with the brand
• - 72 million impressions secured through stories of Seth Green's celebrity rant and mugging, covered by a total of 77 online media outlets and 21 TV outlets
• - An additional 46 million impressions were secured from media outlets that later made the connection to Butterfinger
• - Seth's PSA announcement had over 1.5 million views across the web and made Ad Age's Viral Video Top 10 list.

• 1) The Rant
  Seeded 10.05.09

  

  Cell phone footage of Seth having a rant on set was posted under the guise of Sandra Diaz (aka CaliGirl), a production assistant. We then seeded this link to the top 20 entertainment sites in the hopes of generating buzz.
  Results: 1MM video views

  Watch Video

• 2) You Tube Muggging Video
  Seeded 10.08.09

  

  Surveillance footage of Seth being mugged in the parking lot was posted on You Tube under the guise of Jeff Cordova (aka megachzhead)

  Watch Video

• 3) Ransom Letter
   

  

  A ransom letter with Seth's gym card and a special package of Butterfinger bars were sent along with a personalized letter to key ARG influentials and the celebrity sites that picked up the rant footage - driving them to Seth's blog site: dudewheresmybar.com.

• 4) PSA Video
   

  

  A PSA video was created wherein Seth announced that a thief stole his most prized possession: a century-old BUTTERFINGER® bar handed down by his grandfather. Seth requested assistance in finding his missing vintage bar, thus announcing the launch of game play. The PSA was posted to the BUTTERFINGER® branded You Tube page and sent with the press release.

  Watch Video

• 5) Dudewheresmybar.com Microsite
  Live Dates: 10.13.09-11.30.09

  

  The PSA directed players to this home of the ARGL, the robust microsite consisted of blog posts, links to the ARGL games and puzzles and prizing information. Players could register through Facebook Connect for a personalized experience.

  Visit Website

• 6) Itsmybutterfingernow.com
  Live Dates: 10.15.09-11.30.09

  

  Microsite launched introducing Seth's nemesis who stole his vintage Butterfinger bar. This became home of the Manifesto puzzle as well as the secret video that held the clue to unlock the Crypt.
  Designed with a cheesy 1990's feel, this site included all the "bells and whistles" (e.g. broken links, .gifs and annoying background music). The site also included blog posts about game launches and Circle K's free bar giveaway.

  Visit Website

• 7) Remix The Rant
  Launched 10.13.09-11.30.09

  

  "Remix the Rant" was a user generated performance game that allowed players to take Seth Green's infamous rant and remix it into their own music video mash-up and create a new song.

  Play Game

• 8) Finger on the Pulse
  Live: 10.19.09-11.30.09

  

  Next, we launched a Facebook Game called "Finger on the Pulse" which scraped friends feed data, creating an interactive video quiz. The app was downloaded 760,000 times in just 2 weeks.

  Play Game

• 9) World's First Gigapixel Game
  Live: 10.26.09- 11.30.09

  

  Finally, the hunt led to Gigapixel Graveyard - the world's first game utilizing gigapixel photographic technology.

  Play Game

• 10) The Puzzle Continues
   

  

  As the days passed, multiple puzzles were reveales such as an Ascii puzzle on itsmybutterfingerbarnow.com and a twitter game where weblebrities such as David Barton Harris, Holly Montag and Jason Nafarette hid pieces of a URL in their tweets using hash tags.

• 11) The Conclusion
   

  

  Midnight on Halloween 2009. The Grand prize ARGL winner received a solid gold BUTTERFINGER® bar, valued at $10K, plus a trip to Los Angeles, to meet Seth Green in person