Jay-Z and book publishing giant Random House used various mobile channels to create an interactive location-based game promoting the rap mogul?s new book, ?Decoded.?

In his first book, Decoded, pop culture icon Jay-Z describes the hidden meanings behind some of his most provocative songs and provides a personal narrative of the culture that shaped his life and art. Bing, the decision engine from Microsoft, Publicis Groupe's Phonevalley and Droga5 collaborated to launch a multi-platform search experience and interactive game to help people decode Jay-Z?s life and lyrics.

?Jay-Z intended to make a big splash in the media industry around the launch of his new book,? said Alexandre Mars, CEO of Phonevalley and head of mobile at Publicis Groupe, Paris. ?The strategy behind partnering with these specific companies was to work and collaborate with trusted brands that have the expertise and proven excellence in their specific area of service.

?He partnered with Droga5 to create and concept an engaging campaign through which his fans could utilize their mobile phones as a means to interact with him and learn more about not only his book but also his life,? he said. ?Phonevalley's role was to provide service with all SMS components of the campaign: define the user experience, conceive the Web services and provide the technology to run this elaborate campaign.

?Bing played a role in integrating Bing Maps into the campaign and also by creating a search portal for the Jay-Z ?Decoded? Web site.?

The Decoded game was conceived, created and produced by Droga5, while Phonevalley powered the game?s SMS capabilities.

Bing powered the mobile search elements.

Mobile Decoded campagin
Every single page of Jay-Z?s book was released to the public before the book was in stores, with pages physically placed in locations related to their specific content.

The journey took players from the projects in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Jay-Z grew up and the London streets where he found inspiration to the building of his empire in Manhattan and beyond.

Fans physically in those locations and those playing online with Bing were offered insights into Jay-Z?s personal growth and creative process.

In addition to high profile-media placements around the world, Decoded?s three hundred pages appeared in places and on objects that had never before been used as advertising.

From pools and pool tables to bronze plaques and high-fashion clothing racks, a variety of unexpected surfaces became the canvas for Jay-Z?s art.

Over the course of a month, fans came together as a community to compile Decoded online before it hit bookshelves.

The campaign included more than 300 pages to decode, located via 600 unique traditional, non-traditional and digital advertising placements in 15 locations worldwide and in Bing Maps, 200 prize winners, one grand prize winner and the unveiling of Decoded, all executed in 4 weeks.

Location-based mobile scavenger hunt
Conceived and produced by creative agency Droga5, the game launched on Oct. 18 and five to ten new pages from Decoded were unveiled each day, until the contest ended on Nov. 20.

Players of the game answered clues to find the Decoded pages in the online game experience at Bing.com/jay-z or in-person by locating the clues primarily in New York and London.

The game in physical locations was built on Phonevalley?s SMS capabilities.

Once players discovered Decoded pages in their real environment, they could text a unique game code from the page they found to a short code.

Once players located a page, they got credit for it online.

Any player who located a page was entered into a drawing for a prize: the specific page they located, signed by Jay-Z.

And all participants were entered for a grand prize: two tickets to Jay-Z and Coldplay in concert in Las Vegas on New Year?s Eve.

?Phonevalley?s role was to ensure the execution of the text-based component of the campaign,? Mr. Mars said. ?Phonevalley powered the SMS portion of the campaign and provided Droga5 a connection between the online and mobile elements of the campaign.

?Phonevalley also provided analytics that displayed reports around user participation and took a deeper look at location-based participation,? he said.

Mr. Mars said that Jay-Z is pushing the barriers with marketing like he did with rap music before. He said that mobile successfully created buzz for the book launch.

Decoded went on sale Nov. 16 from Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group.

"The Bing campaign with Jay-Z allowed people to use Bing Mobile to find clues to pages of Jay-Z's book, Decoded, in physical locations such as restaurants and billboards," said Lisa Gurry, director of Bing at Microsoft, Redmond, WA.

"Once a page was found, players could text a special code to have a chance at winning a variety of prizes," she said.

Final Take
Bing music