Firstly, we figured the audience priority was backwards. Instead of spreading the $170k budget across half a million people, we focused it on the smaller student audience to encourage them to reach the broad consumer audience for us. All we had to do was give them a compelling reason to do our work for us – a kick-ass prize.We asked students to spread the Windows 7 brand in any way possible to as many people as possible. The student who reached the most consumers would win a fully decked-out house, rent-free for 7 months to share with friends.

The students went nuts. Not only were 7,500 students engaged (150% of target), they did everything: Twitter, Facebook, blogs, ambient stunts, radio interviews, TV appearances, guerrilla activity at major events, celebrity endorsements, Guinness World Record attempts, billboards, newspaper ads, in-game advertising, viral videos, and even an endorsement by the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd.All student activity combined during the 7-week promotional period achieved over 10.4 million brand impressions – more than 20 times the target (2080%). That's half the entire population of Australia.And one clever girl won the 'Share House' for the rest of the year.