Best Marketing Stunt Ever: Real-Life Mario Kart

For many in our generation, Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64 was and is still a staple in our childhood development (some of us are forever children). If Mario Kart has a special place in your heart, then you’ll love this marketing stunt that Nintendo and Pennzoil used to promote both Mario Kart 8 and a new motor oil at SXSW in Austin, Texas- real life, power boosted, split screen Mario Kart. You have to see this:

We aren’t talking about just some regular old go-karting with pics of Mario and Toad plastered on the vehicles. Nintendo and Pennzoil worked together to create the most real life version possible of the game. According to Yahoo, each kart has an RFID tag reader that activates when it hits a tag on the course- you speed up if you hit a boost, but if you hit a turtle shell, you slow down. Each kart also has a GoPro on it, projecting a split screen third person view of your race on a big screen next to the track just like in the game.

The event was extremely popular. The wait over the weekend to race with your friends was over four hours long, but well worth it according to feedback from drivers. If we still can’t seem to get enough of Mario Kart as college-aged kids, we’d go crazy over this if it popped up everywhere. Possible business idea, anyone?