Follow the clues to a marketing payoff

Creating an immersive, multimedia game to promote your brand may seem like an out-of-reach pipe dream, but it could be easier than you realize -- and worth more than you can imagine.

Imagine tearing through Chinatown, pursued by sinister figures, on a live scavenger hunt, while frantically using your cell phone to decode puzzles that ultimately reveal the location of an exclusive live performance by a fictional celebrity glam rock band. This is an actual scenario from the game X POD, launched this spring to extend the Douglas Coupland novel and TV series, JPOD, all set in the world of a fictional video game company.