History Blocks| Africa

Agency: Africa

Client: Unesco

Country: Brazil

One of UNESCO’s tasks is to protect the cultural heritage of all people around the world. Sadly, that is not always possible. Because of wars and armed conflicts, hundreds of monuments are being destroyed. Whether as collateral damage or as direct targets of cultural cleansing, they are being reduced to rubble – and so is our heritage. 

These historic places are now in danger of being left out of history. Some might never be reconstructed, and we may never be able to set foot in them again. With this in mind, we set out to keep the legacies of these endangered and destroyed heritage sites alive by rebuilding them in Minecraft.

Samsung| The Golden Egg

Challenge

Samsung was about to launch the Galaxy SII and was looking for a partner that could help it reach out to its primary target group: mobile phone enthusiasts. This group was the earliest adapter of new technology. But that was the whole challenge: finding the correct content partner for generating the hype and sales for the Samsung SII.

Insight

The brand realised that game developer Rovia’s popular game Angry Birds would be the perfect fit to reach the TG. For Samsung, it was the perfect partnership, because Angry Birds enthusiasts were exactly the kind of mobile pioneers for whom it had tailored the new Galaxy SII.

Solution

In one of the deepest partnerships ever signed by Rovia, Samsung created a secret Golden Egg level which could only be unlocked by coming to Samsung’s co-branded site to find clues.

This was the first time that the wildly popular game had ever allowed a partner to reveal a secret new level to the game. It was also the broadest partnership ever agreed by the developer Rovio which helped Samsung to market directly to millions of Angry Birds’ biggest fans. 

It was just the sort of treasure hunt that die-hard fans loved to follow - and then to boast about when they had unlocked the level. The co-branded site was central to reaching players with detailed messages about the Galaxy SII.

Samsung excluded the Samsung logo from the secret Golden Egg level itself for fear of alienating players, but it gently reinforced the brand by using Galaxy SII colours and graphics throughout. 

And in a masterstroke that greatly extended the length of time users spent on the new level, this level came equipped with a special ‘low gravity’ environment as the Angry Birds were going into space. That meant it was challenging and frustratingly addictive even for veteran players, all of whom had to learn new tricks and techniques to progress.

Banner ads inside Angry Birds directed people to the Samsung site where they could find the clues to unlock the secret Golden Egg level. Samsung bought video pre-rolls and interstitial ads in which Angry Birds characters themselves told players where to go looking. Samsung promoted posts to the game’s Facebook and Twitter followers as well.

On the co-branded site, additional offerings were made to users such as competitions to win Angry Birds toys and merchandise.

Results

The discovery of the secret level generated so much internet chatter that it wasn’t just fans who shared tips on social networks, but also technology journalists who reported on the phenomenon. 

Nearly half a million users came to the co-branded site to pick up the clues that would unlock the secret Golden Egg level and almost 15,000 clicked through to the Galaxy SII product page to learn more. 

The game level itself was played 1.6 million times by the time the promotional activity ended. 69% of players said the level made them think of the Galaxy SII. Brand awareness jumped 10% after the campaign period and purchase intent jumped 4%.

BRAND:

Samsung Mobile

BRAND OWNER:

Samsung

CATEGORY:

Telecoms/Mobile

REGION:

Australia

Austria

France

Germany

Indonesia

Italy

Singapore

Spain

Switzerland

United Kingdom

DATE:

July - August 2011

AGENCY:

Starcom

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Branded Content,Experiential,Digital,Mobile,Online,PR,Print,Retail/POS,Sponsorship,TV

Social Games

Zynga, creator of FarmVille, recently valued at $4 billion dollars had become a legitimate interactive social channel for the masses.

Why Would Your Brand Consider Partnering With A Social Game?

Targeted Audience
As Irfan Kamal pointed out in a previous post, what’s intriguing about social gaming is that players are not your stereotypical, male teens in their parents’ basement.  For example, 60% of FarmVille players are women (that’s 48 million female players), and many of them are in the 30-40+ age range.  Whatever your audience, there’s a good chance you can find a game that fits.

High Engagement
Through games, consumers can interact with brands in ways that are informative, rewarding, and fun.  Direct brand engagement can last 20 to 30 minutes - throughout the entire play period - multiple times a week. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for a display ad or social network fan page to offer this level of connection with the consumer.

Unforced Advertising
This depends on the game and campaign, but in-game brand interactions do not have to be invasive.  Games provide the opportunity for brands to explain themselves in a way that’s casual or even helpful to players.

Viral Component
Whether it’s when they first sign up or at various check points, games often ask players to share information with their social network.  Brands can latch on to these viral interactions to increase awareness and drive action.

Micro-payment Success
Social games are usually free to play, but leveling up or progression can take time.  In order for a player to catch up to their friends, players can essentially purchase progress in a variety of forms, spending $1 or $50 dollars at a time.  As consumers open their wallets more often for these micro-payments, they become more comfortable opening up their wallets for games in general - which can only benefit the partnering brands.

Three Ways Your Brand Can Get Started

Lead Generation Through Rewards

A very popular tactic, this type of marketing asks users to engage the brand, such as filling out a survey or registering for membership, in order to receive in-game currency.  Though this seems simple, its results are questioned as consumers may not actually be interested in the product.   Many times advertisers ask consumers to sign up for a free trial, only to see the trial canceled as soon as the game currency is delivered.  I should also point out, if you’ve followed the industry recently, you may have heard about TechCrunch’s articlein which it renamed FarmVille, “Scamville” as brands began tricking players into signing up for paid services without their knowledge, leading to harsh criticism of both the game and brands involved.  If you decide that this quid pro quo lead generation is the route you want to go, I cannot stress enough the importance of transparency.

One way to avoid this sticky situation, is to follow the Microsoft search giant’s lead.  Bing recently placed a rather creative looking display ad which offered players, without ever leaving the game, a chance to earn FarmVille cash for becoming a fan of Bing on Facebook.  The low barrier to entry and minimal commitment paved they way for incredible results.  In one day, Bing’s Facebook fan page increased by 425,000 fans.  Though one might immediately question how committed these fans are to the brand, Microsoft continued engagement through the fan page with posts such as, “Any FarmVille fans out there? Try using Bing to get the most out of your crops and animals,” and linked to helpful search results.  Microsoft reported the first update drew 585 comments in four hours and 20,000 click-throughs.

Sites like GamePoints help consolidate these lead generation offers.  Users log-in to shop at retail partners, redeem coupons, complete online surveys, and engage with brands in a multitude of other ways for virtual currency in more than 1,500 games.  The site has attracted many well-known brands, including Macy’s, Netflix, Disney, Fandango, and iTunes.

Branded In-Game Items/Missions

If you want to kick things up a notch in terms of creativity, you can insert your brand into an existing game.  Though a common place in console games for decades, sponsored virtual products are now appearing more often in social games, especially with non-profits brands.  Water.org partnered with Zynga and designed a special fish which was purchased by 70,000 FishVille players for their virtual aquariums, raising $13,000 in five days. In addition, site traffic to Water.org increased 10 times during the campaign.

A great for-profit example can be seen in the partnership between the gangster movie Public Enemies and Mafia Wars.  “Public Enemies Week” allowed players to complete special movie-themed missions and unlock “Loot” which included virtual items from the movie.  During the campaign, movie-branded items received 55 million interactions and 7.6 million Facebook Newsfeed posts.  The campaign itself received 25,000 ‘Likes’ and more than 26,000 comments on the Mafia Wars Facebook Fanpage.  There’s a very detailed analysis of this successful campaign from AppsSavvy here.

Build Your Own Game

Now if you have an established fan base and time on your side, building your own game might be something to consider.  When executed correctly, brand engagement is practically limitless as you control all aspects of player interaction.  However, a big drawback can be brand fatigue, as users don’t want to feel like they’re interacting with a commercial.  One of the earliest success stories was Parking Wars, a game built for A&E’s television show of the same name.  A relatively simple concept, players earned virtual money by parking on each others’ streets.  When parking meters ran out of time, players would issue tickets to their friends and this back-and-forth, kept players coming back over and over again. In two months, the game had more than 400,000 players, yielded 250 million page views, and assisted in a successful first season of the show.

The game creation process has been simplified by the emergence of template-based games.  For example,Hive Media’s “Collaborative Content Delivery Platform” allows brands to simply upload videos, images, and text to create a role-playing, location-based, or avatar-based game.  Through this platform, brands are also able to add their own virtual goods and in-game advertising.  Creating your own game offers a vast amount of engagement opportunities and big brands you wouldn’t expect, like the United States Government, are eventesting the waters.

Mini Bis Chocolate: Chocolate Trees

Objective: To communicate a new product to a large audience using social network and reinforce the new brand concept: "Trust no one".


Idea: Mini-cocoa seeds were distributed as gifts to users of Happy Harvest (a game like FarmVille) on Orkut (the largest social network in Brazil). 48 hours later, a surprise: the seeds turned into Chocolate Trees where packages of Mini Bis Chocolate sprouted. Mini Bis Chocolate could be planted, harvested and stolen by farmers, strengthening the brand concept - "Trust no one.".


Results:
* More than 25 million chocolate trees have sprouted in the first week of action,
* It was the first time that a brand made a product placement at Happy Harvest.
* 100% of active users were impacted.
* Players who harvested Mini Bis accumulated coins and reached the next level in the game.


Advertising Agency: Ogilvy Brazil
Copywriters: Rico Lins, Eduardo Marques
Art Directors: Marcelo Bruzzesi, Raphael Lucone
Chief Creative Director: Anselmo Ramos
Executive Creative Director: Michel Lent
Creative Director: Angela Bassichetti
Illustrator: Angela Bassichetti
Social Media Planner: Alessandra Ferreira
Account: Mah Lemos, Isabela Atra
Aproved by: Mariana Perota, Fabio Pucci

Product Placement on Farmville

FarmVille will introduce its first ever sponsored crop- Peanuts!


As a sponsored FarmVille crop, Peanuts will feature a popular Israeli candy brand of  ”Elite Taami Nutz” which is a chocolate bar filled with peanuts.


We recently featured Peanuts on FarmVille Freak as an Unreleased item. The Elite candy company’s website displays a countdown showing farmers will have the opportunity to grow Peanuts as early as next week, with a projected debut date of April 14th. Their advertising company, Saatchi & Saatchi , also confirms this release date. In addition to the Peanut seeds, there will also be a farm competition where farmers are asked to use the crop creatively in the design of their farms.


The Peanuts are rumored to cost “20 credits to buy, sell for 78 credits and can be harvested in 16 hours”. We are assuming, they are referring to credits as FarmVille coins. (Source: Mashable)

With an audience of over 82 million users, FarmVille has the potential to reach an enormous audience. In-game advertising may not be new to gaming, but it will be interesting to see what Zynga’s FarmVille can do with partnerships or sponsoring of commercial marketing campaigns!

Shoot the account guy

http://www.spencerkearns.com/game.php

Tetris game::: TVC's case study"Happy 25th birthday!"

Tetris is 25 years old today!

Google have changed their home page logo in honour of the Tetris birthday:

and other sites are running retrospectives - check out the Telegraph's Tetris gallery here.

There is no doubting the impact that Tetris had on driving the gaming market. Created by Russian computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris has sold more than 70 million copies and been systematically re-worked and re-released for almost every video-game platform of the past 20 years.

Over time the influence of Tetris has also reached into popular culture in a number of areas - the Telegraph gallery showcases Tetris fashion and Tetris furniture too:

Tetris fashion

Tetris Kitchen

and Tetris was so popular that it even resulted in Doctor Spin having a UK hit record with a dance version of the Tetris theme music, seen here on Top Of The Pops in October 1992 (!):

Happy birthday Tetris!

It's been 25 years since Alexey Pajitnov, then a 29-year-old artificial intelligence researcher, came up with Tetris while working at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow. "A quarter of a century later," the Guardianreports, "it has a legitimate claim to being the videogame that has truly conquered the world. In all its forms, Tetris has sold more than 70 million copies around the globe; it has spawned architecture, art and music; it has earned multiple Guinness World Records; and is regularly voted one of the top games of all time." It's also enjoyed its share of goofy ads. .

Developers creating apps for social media sites are emerging as a profitable force

"This has interesting ramifications for social media sites going forwards. It is foreseen that the current status quo of having few big networks is unsustainable, and that social networks will start to splinter into communities of interest (travel, music, food, etc.). As this happens, there's a matured opportunity for advertisers to partner developers on specific apps targeting niche audiences. Companies which have already proved their credentials will become big players. Advertisers, start taking note of up-and-coming developers - these guys could be your business partners sooner than you think!"
Developers move beyond second fiddle status and begin to rival social media sites themselves in revenue terms

Developers creating apps for social media sites are emerging as a profitable force in their own right, collecting revenues that look set to eclipse Facebook’s income from advertising.

Happily, a fascinating article from AdAge.com - link to the full text below - finds that the world’s biggest social network is benefiting from their success: the site is expected to earn $500m in 2009 revenue from such apps.
Social gaming company Zynga, for instance, is the top developer on Facebook. The lion’s share of its revenue comes from the sale of chips for its Texas HoldEm Poker (pictured, right, along with other titles published by the company). Weapons in Mafia Wars (pictured, above) are also a money-spinner for the company. Zynga is expected to take over $100 million in 2009.

According to AdAge, there are at least a half dozen other companies in the $10 million to $50 million range, as well as a clutch of smaller players.

Terminator Salvation :::Twitter as movie marketing platform

BRAND: Terminator Salvation 

BRAND OWNER: Sony Pictures 

CATEGORY: Entertainment 

REGION :Global 

DATE :Apr 2009 - May 2009

To promote Sony Pictures latest release, Terminator Salvation, the brand is taking over Twitter with an international game that can be played 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The premise is that Twitter users can help in the fight against Skynet and the Terminators.
Twitter members must follow Terminator Salvation on Twitter @resistance2018 and also log in on 2018blog.com. They then have to watch for tweets from @resistance2018 and respond to ‘Resistance Assignments’ quickly via @replies with hash tags to @resistance 2018 or through the blog.

Assignments include word mixes – a jumble of letters that need to be unscrambled; trivia – simple questions about the movie; and partial transmission – where some letters are missing from a word and you must fill it out.

Answers must be submitted to @resistance2018 using hash tags representing each of the types of task, so #RA:WM for word mix, #RA:PT for partial transmission and #RA:TR for trivia. Responses to assignments must be sent within 2 hours. Any response received after this are not counted.
Each correct answer gives the player points to advance on the leader-board and achieve higher ranks in the Resistance Army.

Pearle:::Steamy room

BRAND OWNER:Pearle 

CATEGORY:Pharmaceuticals/ Healthcare 

REGION:Belgium 

DATE:May 2009 - Dec 2008 

Contact lenses are often seen as the more aesthetically pleasing alternative to glasses, but they are not always seen as being more practical. 

Optician brand Pearle was keen to emphasise the benefits of wearing contact lenses to those who are attached to their spectacles and encourage trial of their daily and monthly lenses.

Pearle created a web-based game at thesteamyroom.be which illustrated the merits of wearing contact lenses. But rather than looking at the comfort of wearing contacts, Pearle took a more humorous angle. Players get to select whether they want to check out semi-clad men or semi-clad women and then enter the respective changing room with a first-person viewpoint through a pair of rimmed glasses. As soon as you enter the room and start to see tantalising glimpses of flesh, the glasses begin to fog up and they require frantic polishing with the mouse curser to clear the view. The message reads: “there are moments when it’s better to wear contacts”. The site has a viral element encouraging users to share the game and also offers free trials of the contact lenses.

Obama :::Rock the vote in-game

BRAND OWNER:Obama
CATEGORY:Government/Public Sector
REGION:USA
DATE:Oct 2008 - Nov 2008

For Barack Obama to win the 2008 election, he needed to secure a majority of young voters in key battleground states. The Rock the Vote campaign sought to engage and incite young Americans under 30 to register and vote.
In-game advertising has become an effective way for brands to reach coveted young audiences. Among the hard to reach 18-34 male audience, console and PC gaming is strongly preferred as their favorite leisure activity.
While playing videogames, engagement is extremely high and multitasking is almost non-existent compared to watching TV or surfing the internet.
Brand Obama partnered with Microsoft in-game advertising specialist Massive to reach the Xbox Live community.
Rock the Vote was able to successfully call this social community to action through relevant political issues that they care about. Gamers could get voter registration forms sent to their email, vote in an online presidential poll, download themes and gamer pics to show their allegiance for favored candidates.
Obama ran his “Rock the Vote” campaign in 11 Xbox 360 titles across 10 battleground states using geo targeting, time date targeting and content targeting. Gamers who were online in those states saw key messages in realistic settings while playing the video game titles running the campaign. ‘Early Voting has begun’ and ‘Vote Early’ were on billboards, stadiums and outdoor locations.
Additionally, the Xbox LIVE community was polled on their candidate of choice. Nearly 100,000 participants cast their votes, with Obama trending 12 percentage points ahead, providing a unique insight into young voters minds and served as one of the largest unofficial polls in the nation.
The campaign was a first for a political party and succeeded in targeting a hard to reach audience that spends more time gaming than on other media. Some 80,000 voter registration forms were downloaded through Xbox LIVE and Xbox.com and 100,000 Xbox LIVE member were polled voting preference and often acted as the bellwether of national polls.

Sprite:::Slam dunk contest

BRAND OWNER:The Coca Cola Company
CATEGORY :Drinks (non-alcoholic)
REGION :USA
DATE :Oct 2007


Sprite has enjoyed a long standing partnership with The National Basketball Association (NBA), which appeals to the primary target audience of African American teens.
In the past, the partnership has revolved around TV sponsorship and integration, but Sprite wanted to reinvigorate the sponsorship and drive sales.
African-American teens continue to be passionate about the NBA, and aspire to be part of the glitzy, showboating lifestyle they see lived out by NBA stars. Sprite decided to reorient its NBA partnership from TV to new digital platforms - video games, online video, and mobile. As the long standing partner of the Slam NBA Dunk Contest TV broadcast, Sprite worked with the NBA to put consumers in control of the event.
First of all they were given power to vote for the winner of the contest, either online or via text. The call-to-vote was pushed on TV and online. People were invited to discuss the event on the NBA page of Facebook. On the night of the event, consumers were reminded of the text-to-vote opportunity via Sprite crawls, TNT announcers, on-screen graphics, billboards and custom TV creative.
Toward the end of the broadcast there was a 5-minute voting window. The results were then announced live on-air at the end of the broadcast.
To continue the action all year long, Sprite infiltrated NBA licensed video games (NBA 2K8, NBA Live 08 and NBA Street), creating an exclusive new game feature, the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest, where the virtual players competed in the famous Sprite NBA event.
During the contest, consumers sent in 856,200 text votes and 101,000 online votes – smashing the original goal of 25,000 votes. The 2008 Slam Dunk was the most watched in the event’s 23-year history with 5.2 million viewers (+7% vs the previous year).:

Killzone 2: World Wide War

Sony Computer Entertainment recently released Killzone 2 on Playstation 3, and has been using quite an original way to promote this First Person Shooter videogame. Considering that Killzone scenario are more or less about repelling total invasion by enemies (Helghast forces), Sony brought this scheme online, with a dedicated webgame.

You can register on the killzonewebgame page, install a Killzone toolbar on your browser and be ready to fight ! While you are browsing the internet, you may get under attack at any time, if you decide to engage the fight, Helghast forces appear in your window. Basically, you then need to get rid of them.
Enemies seem to have more chances to appear while you are surfing on large audience sites such as Youtube or Facebook.

You can choose to play solo, or you can create or join a squad. The experience is then even more intense. If a member of your team is under attack and you accept to join the fight, you will be transported straight to his battle.That is cleverly done, as the multiplayer component is a key part of Killzone2.

Another impressive point is the way the application is interacting with your web page. During the fight, blood spatters or bullets impacts are well integrated on the page design, and if you shoot at red objects (let say Youtube logo for instance), some will blow up.

This campaign is relevant, innovative, and certainly talks to gamers. I especially appreciate the way it breaks the lines, and manages to create its own territory of expression. Plus the use of advanced technologies is a mean for its purpose, not an aim.

Note that Killzone 2 has been developed by Guerilla Games and already got top review scores by specialized publications, and Agency Republic made the webgame

Capri Sun:::the digital strategies of,

Capri Sun: refreshing a refreshment brand
"It's what you can do with an idea that's different," Lazarus said. Yet another original idea centered around much the same challenge of breathing new life into a tired product. Capri Sun is a beverage with very different packaging - not a bottle, not a jar, but a 200 ml. foil/plastic pouch. The tropical-themed refreshment was popular in the '80s, Lazarus explained, but "had not done much since then."
It's original consumers had long since moved onto coffee, and there was a target audience of six-to-11-year-old children who were being underserved - a "buzzworthy and respectable group," Lazarus called them.
To start kids talking - and, more specifically, spreading the word about Capri Sun - Ogilvy created a series of 30-second spots with identical set-ups but different ends. "They were sort of irreverent commercials that showed what happened when children didn't respect the pouch. They had an element of suspense. And they invited parody.


http://www.kraftbrands.com/caprisun/ "Six-to-11-year-old boys love playing games," Lazarus reported. And, because Web 2.0 is as familiar to this demographic as tap water, they fulfilled their viral promise with a series of imitative spots:
The agency, in kind, returned the fire with video games and a "Rayman Raving Rabbids" Wii game planned for launch in time for the Christmas 2008 season.
Lazarus' bottom line to the campaign was the same she used to describe the Obama effort: "If you think it, you can do it."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SesasYdKVI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YRigdFPeLg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Gy0_ncqlM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGfS7zJ0ek0