HBO Uses Google Maps to Promote the Sopranos

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.