The Brief

Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft's latest version web browser, had been on the market for over a year. Facing tough competition and against Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and many other browsers, Microsoft needed to create buzz and engagement, boost brand perception, and encourage trial for adoption.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We created the world's largest online game using the entire internet - all 25.6 billion web pages. Players had to use Internet Explorer 9 to navigate through the internet, click by click, page by page, to be first to reach the end of our simple, yet elaborate maze. We only created 7 websites, each containing 20 links: 19 to other people's websites, 1 to the next step in our chain. Players couldn’t tell which sites were ours and which were part of the immense internet. And doing so created a playing field of 25.6 billion pages – the entire internet.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Two months, thousands of people, and potentially billions of webpages later, one person made it to the Edge of the Internet and claimed the $20,000 prize. His name was Tom. There were 7,430 unique players. This activity generated over 274,000 minutes of engagement - that's over a quarter of a million minutes of trialling the product. And organic conversations spread in the blogosphere and social platforms, creating positive buzz for Internet Explorer 9.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

While playing the game, participants used Internet Explorer 9, unknowingly giving themselves a demonstration of its features and benefits across every kind of website there is, to better understand the advantages of using Microsoft's browser. And the game itself was one based on mathematics and the internet. Two things our core audience of tech-geeks believe in wholeheartedly.