How can we combine the boring parts of other disciplines, work fields and such, with games to make them more fun – and a more complete experience? This is a question who came from Jonathan Samel Baskin who held a presentation about this subject at the NLGD Festival of Games in 2009. He had the opinion that people don’t believe in the lies and stereotypes of brands anymore. He thinks that if we turn our brands into games and use all the powerful elements games nowadays use, brands would make more sense and tell costumers their true story. And I think he has a point.
Games are very strong if it comes to binding costumers (or players) to their experience and maybe even better at creating memorable experiences. Almost nobody reads through policies and terms of use – a game with these simple lines of text at its core would surely make these important aspects much more present.
Why can’t brands be more game-like? Why can’t, for instance, people ‘fight’ for their products? Why are brand products often not related to each other in terms of the relation between the product and the costumer? Why don’t brands have achievements and why are costumers not rewarded with titles when they achieve them? Why is there no interaction between the costumers who bought certain products from a brand? I could instantly think of a dozen examples of how to turn a brand into a MMRPG!
I can not imagine the examples I called have not been tried, but I haven’t found any game or brand yet that has become successful in it.
Please comment, this is presumably a very interesting topic.
#1 by Xandra on February 7, 2010 - 13:17
These type of games already excist in the form of “Alternate Reality Games”. It’s the newest hype how marketeers are trying to turn brands in to a game.
#2 by Adriaan on February 7, 2010 - 13:19
@Xandra – Any examples?
#3 by Mik on February 7, 2010 - 13:29
The biggest question would be, do we actually want this?
A brand is a brand. It’s purpose is to make money. To lure the customer into buying their product. That is the only true story. So even if they’d make a game out of their brand, it would still just be a marketing tool.
It could work of course, when you look at social networking games such as Farmville, you can clearly see huge opportunities for brands to integrate their products.
But then again, why would we want this? I believe it’s a good thing the creative process to make a great game is not hindered by selling a product other than the game itself.
#4 by Adriaan on February 7, 2010 - 13:51
At the end, Xbox360 developers are not just developing games to make money out of it, that is just the financial side – people are supposed to have fun with those games too. Of course, Coca Cola sells cola to make money, but they are also offering us good cola. From a marketing perspective it might all be about the money, but from a costumer perspective it’s about the goods or experience you get for your money.
Why I think that we want this is purely about the fact that brands can do a much better job in binding costumers and create much more memorable experiences. To costumers, brands are currently not much more than just names which offer us a variety of products. And I think brands could mean much more to us that just that.
#5 by Rens on February 7, 2010 - 13:54
Working on such a project right now ;P
It’s working it’s way up in the ad & marketing industry. As far as I’ve seen, the concepts and ideas follow a parallel line with what’s popular under the art directors and marketeers. Last year’s trend was incorporation of social media into the brand experience. And will be for the next year or so.
I find that more creatives are turning to (casual) gaming to deliver a more immersive experience. The reason why this trend takes on so slow is the lack of experience and expertise. Most of the hardened creatives don’t give much for gaming, or had some casual experience. For them it’s hard to incorporate game mechanics and such in there concepts and ideas.
But it’s picking up since more and more young creatives with broad gaming experience rise up and think up new and creative ways to use gaming within the brand experience formula.
Give it a year or two… or take matters in your own hands and pave the road for others to follow.
#6 by Adriaan on February 7, 2010 - 14:09
It is an interesting thought that this generation, the generation that knows what game experiences are about, might going to use that same power to strengthen other, yet unrelated experiences! I guess we will have to sit that one out!
Still, I wonder if that is ‘within’ the brand experience or ‘as’ the brand experience. The difference is kind of the point I am trying to make in this article – I am aiming for the ‘as’, as ‘within’ is already a familiar marketing tool.
#7 by Rens on February 7, 2010 - 15:09
You could pin that on limited imagination on the creative side. Or playing it save on the account/project management side. Or the client who doesn’t see anything positive in the wild ideas. this haunts the ad-industry since it started.
Everyone wants a interesting and exciting new campaign, but aren’t willing to take the risk. And you end up with the interesting and exciting idea build within a standard and “safe” campaign.
If you want to break out of that standard, you have to take risks. And convince the other people and clients it’s worth taking the “risk”.
#8 by TamTu on February 7, 2010 - 19:26
I recall a few years ago when Burger King in the USA released small XBOX360 games with their meals surrounding the King mascot. I think it really depends on which brand we’re talking about to get games implemented into their marketing strategy. It could work for some companies to make games surrounding a their brand (just to promote their brand and be blatantly advertising about it), but more often than not, it would make more sense to just be a part of a game (i.e. H&M and Ikea add-ons for The Sims).
Just my two cents. Good luck with the topic!