Xbox is innovative digital entertainment, so turning our marketing into a game for fans was a natural fit. The decision to shirk all standard practices by refusing to tell our audience what to do was internally hard-fought, but proved to be the right call. We planned on our recipients enthusiastically solving the puzzle, and then spreading what they had uncovered far and wide with an authenticity and enthusiasm that we could never buy. More than anything, this audience wants respect from Xbox and we were rewarded both for validating their Halo interest with smart targeting and for taking the hands-off approach.

Within minutes of our deployment, the Halo community began to buzz and collaborations sprung up immediately to collect all 32 pieces. Soon the puzzle was solved and these elite Halo fans rushed to their own community channels with an earned scoop that no one else had seen. These communities spread their discovery further, with the story of both the key art and our release mechanism splashing across gaming media pages within the hour. By the next morning, we had exceeded our highest expectations by landing on mainstream media sites, all for the modest costs of one versioned email (~$9k).