Egmont is promoting the upcoming Michael Grant book BZRK with a £1m digital marketing campaign focusing on an online and mobile alternate-reality game (ARG).

The publisher has created a new story, linked to the book, which comes out in February. It aims to build interest with the young target audience before the launch by being unveiled via a transmedia campaign.

The game, first launched in September, centres on a story that is unveiled across multiple websites, social media channels and an Android/iOS game. According to Egmont, the ARG has received over 80,000 visitors since launch and the video content has received over 53,000 views.

A central website gobzrk.com has been created to act as a hub and aggregation of the campaign, so that those who don’t want to play the full game can find the content and find out about the book.

Mike Richards, head of marketing and publicity for Egmont, said the strategy will apply to future book launches.

“The various layers of our digital marketing add a lot to the overall experience that viewers will have,” he said. “We hope to implement this type of innovative strategy again in future with other authors in our portfolio.”

A video detailing the campaign is below:

Video:

BZRK campaign walkthrough video