Using Search to Crack the "Code"

We wanted to use the medium to really get people engaged in the characters. And so, we teamed with Google and created, "The Da Vinci Code Google Quest."

Over the course of the game period, players accessed a series of puzzles-- one puzzle a day. Each puzzle belonged to one of six rotating challenges: Symbology, Restoration, Curator, Chess, Observation and Geography. As they repeated, they got harder and harder until the end of the quest. 

One main goal was for users to make a thematic link between characters in the movie and the puzzles themselves. So, while the puzzles required that, in a given week, you might have had to use a particular Google search tool to solve them, they also supported this idea that the characters in the movie have their own particular motivations, and their own particular characteristics. For example, because Robert Langdon, played by Tom Hanks, is a professor of symbology, the first puzzle -- the Symbology Challenge - is thematically and artistically associated with his character.

Another clear objective for us was that users would get excited about the possibility of winning this contest, and that given this possibility, they would talk about it. On every day since launch, we have gone in and sampled the blogs and message boards written about this program. People were talking about their strategies for solving the Quest; yet they were also referring to the characters, as opposed to the actors. I think that is really a measure of success, when people are interacting with this, and they are immersed in the idea of the movie characters.
-- Dwight Caines, EVP, worldwide digital marketing strategy, Columbia Tri-Star

The first puzzle I was presented with was a symbolic version of a Suduku puzzle. Clues were presented it in a way that introduced characters of the book/movie. Through the clues, the game player is indoctrinated into the Da Vinci code. The "refresher course" on the characters in the book will help in a movie that obviously has to condense material to run in a reasonable amount of time.

The interesting aspect of the puzzles is the integration with the movie site, www.sodarktheconofman.com. When you solve the first puzzle, the game asked me to name a symbol that appeared. The naming of that symbol required you to either know the symbol, remember it from the book or go to the movie site to find it. This is pivotal. Often movie sites are created, and languish in obscurity, garnering little traffic after the agencies and production companies spent many hours in their construction. This game ties the two together in a way that is engaging and fruitful.

Another unique aspect is that the user was able to "catch" up with the puzzles if they started the challenge later in the game. This created a steady, persistent building of the user base as the game progressed. Like a bunch of runners starting off at different times at a race, but all finishing at the same time, it built on the hints of buzz along the way, creating a crescendo until the movie's opening. The movie site even remembers where you are in the game, and therefore presents the next symbol for you. Nice integration, and compelling.

One of the better uses of a direct tie in with a movie, the online game provides specific topical integration with the movie and the movie website, all while providing the consumer with insights in a compelling way.
-- Sean Cummings, director of marketing, Ask.com

I'm probably one of the few people on the planet who did not read "The Da Vinci Code," and I must admit I didn't have much interest in seeing the movie either. Until "The Da Vinci Code Google Challenge," that is. You see, I'm a sucker for a good mystery.  

For the three-week duration of the contest, I came home every day, eager to sit down and test my ability to solve puzzles, like the Sudoku-styled Symbology Challenge. And my web-sleuthing skills were definitely put to the test on Challenges that required me to answer questions about key movie concepts, like the Priory of Sion, by searching through maps, film clips, historical documents and artworks. All in all, I must have spent hours with the game (to the dismay of friends and family members, who were shushed, blown off or downright bitched at for distracting me during some of the more frustrating challenges).

What I think worked best about this campaign is the way it introduced me not only to the plot, characters, symbolism and imagery of a very complex concept movie but also to features of Google that I hadn't had reason to explore yet, such as the Google Book Search (which I used to search for passages in different books that lead me to Challenge clues). Nice integration there.

Now that the game is over, I feel like I'd be cheating myself if I didn't get the payoff-- finding out how everything fits together by seeing the movie. Which I guess was part of Columbia Tri-Star's hidden plot all along.
-- Jodi Harris, Editor, iMedia Connection