Sony Pictures is stoking consumers? excitement for the upcoming release of Inferno by inviting them to complete labyrinthine puzzles featuring clues hidden in Google?s applications.

The film? based on Dan Brown?s 2012 novel and starring Tom Hanks as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon? will debut on October 28, and the new interactive marketing campaign is being rolled out in anticipation of its wide release. The campaign, which is ongoing for one month, incentivizes users with a variety of prizes, including various weekly prizes that culminate in a grand prize of an Italian getaway with stops in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Venice, locations that feature in the film.

?If Sony has marketing budget for interactive web experiences, then this is a fine way to spend it,? said James McNally, director of digital strategy at TDT New York. ?If you're in the blockbuster business, ultimately you want to release entertaining movies with some star power, then drive some social buzz.

?Giving away more prizes and more valuable ones is one way to drive continued gameplay, but obviously Sony isn't trying to give away the house here. Ultimately, these games need to immerse fans in the magic of the movie's locations? which, to a degree, they do? but for those fans who aren't satisfied with exploring in the film's locales in Google Maps, short of bribing fans, there's little Sony can do.?

An infernal experience
Each week, interested users can go to the campaign?s mobile-optimized site to complete three new puzzles concerning themes in Dante?s seminal work, Inferno. In order to solve the puzzles, players must look to clues hidden within Google applications such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Search, Google Play, Google Docs and YouTube.

Clues are also concealed within social networks, such as the solution to the Lust puzzle, in which users are prompted to search Twitter.

In addition to being the Sony Pictures Entertainment?s partner for this promotion, much of the technology that powered the promotion was also built by Google.

The game itself features extensive branding, with stills from the movie dispersed throughout the many landing pages and numerous links to promotional materials for the film. The site also contains links to the film?s official trailer on YouTube and its official Web site.

The film is based on the fourth novel in Brown?s series featuring Robert Langdon and is being released after a botched attempt to film the third novel, The Lost Symbol. All three films have starred Mr. Hanks as Professor Langdon.

Interactive marketing
Interactive campaigns are an innovative way to maintain consumers? attention in a crowded social media and content space, one which contains so many parties jockeying for influence that brand experiences tend towards both the ephemeral and insubstantial.

By crafting an ongoing campaign that features tiered incentivization, Sony Pictures Entertainment is attempting the sort of exponential rollout that is becoming increasingly imperative in a contemporary cinematic market being cut off at its knees by television and online piracy.

In August, Sony Pictures recruited the help of E! News to spread awareness for its animated comedy Sausage Party by giving at-home viewers an inside look at the red carpet event through the eyes of star Salma Hayek, who took over the E! News Instagram (see story).

American Eagle Outfitters has also employed interactive media, featuring a mobile-optimized quiz as the cornerstone for a partnership with Bright Pink for breast and ovarian cancer awareness (see story).

?It's hard to empirically predict the level of engagement this online game will drive,? Mr. McNally said.

?In 2001, the distributors of "A.I." partnered with Microsoft to create an online game ahead of the movie, but in that case, the consensus was that the movie itself was a disappointment for fans who had gotten involved in the game,? he said. ?Plus, media consumers in 2016 have even less time for an immersive marketing campaign? and far more media distractions? than in 2001.

?What Sony considers a ?success? for this microsite game is an open question: at a time when Sony is still grasping for any tokens of tech legitimacy, this marquis partnership with Google on a splashy microsite may be enough? and any increased movie interest is a bonus. In terms of the player experience in the game itself, yes, it's a bit involved for today's attention span. 

?Surely some diehard fans will work through the puzzles, but it's not likely to be any sort of runaway success for it's own accord.?