Public Enemies on Mafia Wars

To help promote the Dec. 8 DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of Public Enemies, Universal Studios Home Entertainment teamed with Zynga for a cross-promotion with its online Mafia Wars game.

Mafia Wars is a role-playing game accessed through social media sites such as Facebook that lets users run their own crime family, participate in various crimes and steal loot. In early December Mafia Wars staged “Public Enemies Week,” helping to promote the gangster flick with special jobs and loot objects based on the film’s plot.

The campaign, led by appssavvy, a direct sales team for the social media space, in partnership with the Los Angeles office of Ignited, a marketing innovations agency working on behalf of Universal, was touted as the first such promotion of its kind. Mafia Wars is played by more than 25 million Facebook users.

“Public Enemies on Mafia Wars is the blockbuster social media campaign of 2009,” said Chris Cunningham, co-founder and CEO of appssavvy. “The foundation of every campaign we’re involved with is focused on relevance and delivering something the end user will find valuable. This effort with Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Zynga demonstrated these fundamentals of social media marketing to perfection.”

Zynga reported Public Enemies Loot garnered nearly 55 million interactions during the week-long campaign, and tie-ins to Public Enemies activities within the game were posted to players’ Facebook news feeds more than 7.6 million times, delivering nearly a billion viral impressions. The campaign generated nearly 25,000 ‘Likes’ and more than 26,000 comments on the Mafia Wars Facebook fan page.

“Even John Dillinger would be impressed with the scope and success of this effort,” said Mike Wokosin, VP of digital marketing for USHE. “Mafia Wars was an incredibly dynamic environment to seamlessly integrate our property and to effectively engage a significant and relevant audience.”

Thanks to John Latchem