- Shahnaz Mahmud

NEW YORK To jump-start sales for a new video game created for The Bourne Supremacy, Horizon Media decided to take product integration to a new level when it introduced the game on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last Friday night.

The media agency doubled up on integration, inserting Guillermo, the security guard who often stars in comedic skits on the show, into the video game.

According to Horizon, this marks a first for the industry in placing a television character into a video game to launch its marketing program around a new product.

The media agency's brand team worked closely with Sierra Entertainment, creator of the game (owned by Vivendi Universal, Horizon's client), on the integration strategy to capture fans of the film as well as the gaming community. Horizon's buying team negotiated the integration. Sierra's High Moon Studios produced the piece.

"It's a fairly consistent strategy that we use when we work with Vivendi in that whenever we put together plans for them, we basically try to leverage the atmosphere and the environment in which the media would take to and speak to the target audience in a way that they are accustomed," said Joel Mayne, planning supervisor for Vivendi.

The integration culminated into two minutes of game play that was at the center of the segment.

"This is about addressing media tonality. People will gravitate to media for certain reasons. If you have a better understanding of why they are watching those environments, or why they are absorbing those environments and making sure that messaging is delivered in the same type of tonality, there should be a greater resonation to messaging," added Mayne.