UK Online Marketing Campaign
Objective
Mediaedge:cia commissioned Skive to produce a viral game to promote the Sony Ericsson T310 mobile offering. The objective of the campaign was to raise awareness of the product amongst a young consumer demographic, as well as to drive them to the skate park themed T310 microsite. Sony Ericsson wanted to reinforce the message that they are leaders in Imaging, Gaming and Connectivity.
The execution needed to tie-in with Tony Hawks’ ProSkater 4, which was available to play on the phone. Key requirements were that the game was passed on ‘virally’, and that while the phone needed to feature in the game, the playability of the game itself should be paramount.
The campaign was aimed at a demographic defined as ‘Fun Loving Youth’, in the 16-24 age range – mainly students or first jobbers with a strong male bias; 'individuals', but also greatly influenced by their peer groups; they love the experience of the new, but often only if it has implicit approval of their friends.
Creative Execution
Given this technically adept, highly critical and extremely internet savvy target market, Skive decided to go retro and devised a deviously addictive 'old skool' platform game, played over ten extremely well though-out levels.
The idea is to collect ‘bits’ of skateboards around an urban landscape, avoiding various hazards such as razor wire, cherry bombs and rival gang members. At the end of each level, you receive a 'text' on your T310 to find out where to go next. The game featured forward-to-a-friend (to win limited edition ‘SK8’ music CDs), an online hi-score table and a great audio soundtrack.
Distribution and Results
The game was accessible on the Kerrang!, NME, Freeloader, MP3 and Virgin.net websites, and featured on many blogs and viral games websites. Overall the execution received 911,900 visits. Brand awareness research was also carried out using Dynamic Logic, the results showing a 53% increase in online advertising awareness amongst the target audience. There was also a 20% growth in users that agreed with the statement ‘Sony Ericsson offers superior gaming’.
