“The Tomb Raider Challenge” was a digital artifact hunt, breaking new ground technologically and engaging at new levels.Empowered by Lara Croft, we challenged Australian gamers to be the first to discover hidden digital artifacts scattered throughout the world.Half our budget was invested in creating new digital experiences, including the website, Lara-widget and mobile-site.Pioneering the new Google Earth ‘in-browser’ plug-in, we seamlessly integrated new technology into the digital experience.Developed by a qualified archaeologist, clues reflected real game-play aspects (puzzles and riddles). Daily clues were delivered by widget and mobile. Each day, the first person to solve the clue and find the artifact in Google Earth won a PS3 plus the new game.An innovative combination of digital display, YouTube video and magazine activity was applied to initially promote the challenge.Blogs and word of mouth then drove momentum throughout the 21 day challenge.

This experience-driven approach overcame gamers' growing aversion to advertising, achieving significant results.The digital and mobile experience delivered involvement and intimacy. The widget delivered excitement and frequency. The intensity of the clues and partnership with Google delivered credibility.Site page views; 286,616 Unique visitors; 56,218 Desktop Lara downloads; 42,662 Average brand interaction per visit; 6mins 07secs.Over 180 pages of forum comment including gamers discussing new challenges, location ideas and tips for locating the treasure.Post-launch sales objectives exceeded by 9.6%.Eidos have expressed interest in the concept for the next Tomb Raider release globally.