Nexon and 7-Eleven promote in-game Slurpees
Free-to-play online-game company Nexon, and ubiquitous convenience retailer 7-Eleven are giving away virtual-prize codes for Nexon games. The prizes range from free in-game Slurpees (in case your warrior in Mabinogi gets thirsty) to actual physical goods, including 7-Eleven hats.
(Credit:
7-Eleven)
This is an interesting experiment in borderless marketing, straddling physical and virtual worlds, and adding in the oddity of 7-Eleven's enormous presence. I suspect that if this even remotely works, we'll start to see a lot more cross-culture attempts at branding across physical and virtual properties.
Consider, for example, a site like Wine.com making a deal with a vineyard that wants to target Facebook users. They could create a series of Wine giveaways with coupons or discounts. (Disclosure: I am not a drinker; I just think this would work.)
There's a huge range of possibilities for branding and digital gifting that cross the physical-virtual border.
Dave Rosenberg dishes up "Software, Interrupted" with nearly 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to multiple start-up IPOs to open-source enterprise software companies. He is co-founder of MuleSource and currently serves as the general manager of Hardy Way. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can contact Dave via e-mail at softwareinterrupted@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @daveofdoom. 
Do you know of any other platform doing this Nexon type of high level integration with good results?