All about everyonea blog about engagement

Achieving multi-brand engagement: A new type of ARG

I’ve been thinking about ARGs (Alternate Reality Game) recently and how they might be used in ways other than promoting films or TV programmes, which is what they have so far been commercially used for.

There is actually an opportunity for multiple brands to be placed within the structure of ARGs, being actively used as part of the game play; kind of an active brand placement.

The aim would be to engage people with brands in a way that enables participants to trial different products or services. Brands are woven into the ARG in an open way, but actual product engagement is required for the successful completion of game tasks. Brands get to place their products into the framework of the game narrative in a realistic way. Participants have to actively use/trial products in order to complete tasks.

This type of ARG would be part ARG, part scavenger hunt where participants have to engage with brands to complete tasks and continue in the game. This type of approach could be good for brands looking to trial a new product or looking to prove the qualities of a particular product. The great thing about this, is that multiple brands can occupy the same space as each other and they get active use, in a real world environment.

Players have to follow clues and complete tasks. Some clues will lead the game players online, to discover information or further clues. Each game task will involve real world actions.

Participants would be able to download an application that will enable them to use their mobile as a GPS device. Connecting with Google Maps open API (Application Protocol Interface) will enable users to track progress and orient themselves in physical locations. They would also be able to use the mobile app to communicate with other team members, post to social media services (Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc) and keep track of other players progress, plus other useful gameplay support functions.

AR tagging could also be used to help participants navigate around a particular location (where the next clue or task is hidden). Switching their mobiles into camera mode would enable players to scan for location-based messages.

Brands get direct product engagement and increased brand awareness, through a long-tail of social network activity. All participants will be required to be plugged into various social networks, as well as keeping a video log of their activities.

FMCG (specifically food and drink) brands can be used physically within the game. Using RFID (Radio Frequency ID) or QR codes embedded within product packaging. Participants simply have to locate the product, through picking up clues. Each task leads to a product, which will unlock the next task, leading to another product, etc. This route is aimed at FMCG brands, such as Pepsico, Unilever, etc.

Using RFID in product packaging, would enable us to communicate with mobile devices, making them ring or sending them messages when in range. We could use this technology (currently used, for example, at check out counters to scan products) to send information to game players, once they have located a product pack containing the next clue or task (i.e. we would send them the next clue this way).

We could utilise free standing display units (FSDU) to embed digital information, using QR codes, which are basically a kind of barcode, that can can be read by the camera in mobile devices, to download information from the web. This allows us the ability to create special display units to promote the game in stores. People could actually sign up to the games at the display unit.

Other types of brands could be used more strategically, as tools with which players have to complete tasks. For instance, a car brand could be used to get a player from one location to another, with a GPS device within the car as well as the cars own bluetooth application being used also. In this way, we are actively using products within the game play, as part of the game. Feedback on product use could be tracked. Participants would not, however, be selling products in any way, rather, just using them as best they can in order to get ahead in the game. Feedback is tracked through usage, not through soliciting player opinion. That would be superficial to the game narrative.

More thought obviously needed as to the actual mechanics of such a game, but hopefully I’ve demonstrated, albeit in a quick and dirty way, that there is a possible way for multiple brands to be used within an ARG format.

If you have any thoughts on this, as always, I’d love to hear them.