While I've written plenty of blog posts over the past year about the various mashups that people have put together using Google Maps, this week was the first time I saw it being used as part of a promotional tie-in for a major brand. AdAge had an article yesterday that talks about HBO's plans to create a Google Maps mashup that will help viewers recall past plot points on the hit drama The Sopranos.

Faced with drawing interest in the relaunch of a show that's been off the air since May of 2004, HBO was looking for a way to help remind readers of the various twists and turns that have happened in the fairly complicated storyline of Tony Soprano and family. The solution was a mash-up map of New Jersey that had markers for the location of key plot points. (Pictures on the AdAge site) Users simply click on a map marker and get a popup window that features information on the episode and the incident, including appropriate video clips.

From the article:

“The Google thing, we are really excited about,” said Courtney Monroe, senior VP-advertising, HBO. “It is a geo-visual tour of the TV series, a very interactive way to get people caught up. We love doing things that haven’t been done before, and the notion of super-imposing fictional events of the show on to real-life locations gave us a huge kick.” Ian Schafer, CEO of New York-based Deep Focus, the maps will go live Feb. 27.

Google plans to pair the marketing feature with ads on notable blogs like Gawker and The Smoking Gun.