2011 Jay Chiat Awards Winners

Idea for New Product or Content—Bronze
Twofifteen McCann
Microsoft Xbox | "Bright Falls: The Prequel to Alan Wake"

This is a story about erasing the lines between product and marketing. It's about creating a communications product that addresses real business problems and consumer insights.

In Spring 2010 Xbox launched Alan Wake, a new first-of-its-kind video game, best described as a "psychological action thriller." Think Twin Peaks meets Lost. The game represented a new depth of storytelling for the video game industry, with a rich plot that plays more like a television series than a video game.

Given the challenges Xbox faced launching this new genre of game, a conventional video game launch wouldn't work. It would fail to communicate the game's unique gameplay and get lost in the din of competitive messaging.

Fortunately, with a refined targeting approach and encouraging consumer insights, a new model for launching a video game was created. Rather than churning out an advertising campaign, we created content.

Specifically, we created a prequel to Alan Wake, a six-part video series called Bright Falls.

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