XBOX / WATCH DOGS AD HACK

Ubisoft was set to launch their latest game, Watch Dogs – a sandbox game about a guy named Aiden who can hack into anything with his smartphone.

The game was launching on both Playstation and Xbox. But Playstation had bought the rights to all the launch advertising. Our challenge was to promote Watch Dogs on Xbox, without infringing on ad rights – and for less than £30,000.

So, in the spirit of the game, we invited the gaming community to hack Playstation’s ads.

Anyone who scanned a Watch Dogs ad with AR app Aurasma would be served the Xbox version of the game, and given the chance to win a bundle.

To promote the hack, we sent out a press release and accompanying hype video. Gaming publications jumped on the story, and spread our message throughout the country. Sadly though, it wasn’t to last – the campaign proved too controversial, and was pulled just 24 hours after it launched.