Marketing Communications

(Ron) #1
498 CHAPTER 15 E-COMMUNICATION

Following this success, where an impressive 7 million players took part, launched a follow-up in April
2012, ‘Magnum Pleasure Hunt 2 across the globe’ to support the launch of its new variety Magnum Infinity. Again,
you have to control the female character but this time the journey travels through New York, Paris and Rio – collecting
‘bonbons’ and cocoa nibs along the way using Bing maps Streetside view interface. She passes famous brands
such as luxury Italian jeweller Bvlgari, on-trend surf manufacturer Quicksilver, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and the
exclusive Hotel Fasano in Rio de Janeiro. From street lamps to road signs, each backdrop featured within the game
was built to perfection from a staggering 6500 photographs and 3-D recreation, ensuring the game boasts an
astoundingly life-like look and feel.^40
In Amsterdam, this campaign was taken a little further and extended it into a real-time mobile augmented
reality game for one day. There were 150 chocolate bonbons hidden across the ‘9 straatjes’ (a trendy district) of
Amsterdam. The aim was to collect them at first through the augmented reality app, and win a trip to New York.^41
In April 2011, the Mobile operator Sonera was
the first to open 4G, the world’s fastest mobile
connection, in Finland. Since 4G is all about speed,
Sonera created a game – a reaction speed test. The
communication was done via a communications
campaign in print magazines adding a QR-code.
By scanning this code with a mobile phone, one
could challenge oneself and a friend and win a
Sonera 4G connection.^42
Belgian animal rights organisation GAIA devel-
oped an online Facebook game as part of its annual
‘Boycott-cot!’ campaign in 2012. ‘Chicken Squeeze’
is a new ‘ Tetris-like’ online game that challenges
players to earn eggs (points) by putting as many
hens as possible in ridiculously small spaces. At
the end of the game, (battery) cages appear. Once
the game is played, with a simple click players
can participate in an online petition action against
battery cage eggs. An e-mail with the demand to
stop using battery cage eggs is sent to the Belgian
supermarkets which are still using eggs of millions
of (battery) chickens in all sorts of products such
as mayonnaise, pasta and biscuits.^43

Th ere are three main types of advergames:^44
z Sponsored games. Apart from the audience fi t, there is no direct link to the advertiser. Th e
brand simply pays to have its name on an existing game.
z A game specially created to promote a brand or product. Barclaycard’s Waterslide TV advert
tie-in iPhone game became the most popular free branded advertising game in the history
of the iTunes app store within 13 days of its release back in 2009.
z A game created around a business or product function. Th is is done in order to increase user
engagement and purchase frequency by demonstrating brand attributes.
Qantas has a frequent fl yer app that encourages both engagement and purchase. Th is is
known as gamifi cation (the use of game design techniques, game thinking and game mechanics
to enhance non-game contexts).^45 Another popular example is ‘Foursquare’ which is a web and
mobile application that allows registered users to post their location at a venue (‘check-in’),
and connect with friends and share experiences. Every check-in (shops, hotels, restaurants,

Source : GAIA.

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