Starting today, FrontierVille players will be challenged to find Rango, ask their friends for 10 water buckets and view the trailer for the film. If they complete that mission, players get a Rango statue to add to their homestead on FrontierVille.
Zynga has used its games to publicize movie openings before. Most recently, the company's Mafia Wars plugged Sony Pictures's The Green Hornet by offering collectibles within the game. Zynga also promoted DreamWorks Animation's Megamind on FarmVille with Mega-Farm, a themed landmark within the game.
Manny Anekal, Zynga's global director of brand advertising, says that while there are no figures linking activity on those games to increased box office receipts, some 19 million people are active FrontierVille users and 9 million interacted with the Megamind promo.
This is the latest promo to offer a prize for watching a trailer on Facebook. Last week, NBC