Alternate Reality Interface

A friend was asking me about Trent Reznor's Year Zero on Saturday, and whether I knew of any other big ARG successes and how they worked. Other examples were Audi's 'The Art of the Heist', the Nokia Game (which ran for 6 years), and perhaps the most famous after Year Zero, The Beast. The Nokia Game was the first ARG to use an extremely diverse range of communication channels, with The Beast and Year Zero both pushing those even further. So what next I wondered? What other interfaces could be used for an ARG?

You may not remember the following video, it first appeared doing the rounds in July 2007. It's a promo released by HP to show off their Mscape geolocation platform, which was developed by their labs in Bristol, UK. The video shows “Roku’s Reward” - HP's idea of how game development could utilise the platform. Admittedly you need to over look the terrible stereotypes of who gamers are, but their vision was certainly ground breaking for the time.



The most interesting thing isn't necessarily the video itself or the vision that HP had. HP were in many ways right on the ball. The most interesting thing was the online reaction to the video. Virtually everyone agreed that the concept was fantastic, and that the platform had a lot of potential. However, they also all agreed that HP's prediction was crazy that the technology for this type of game play would be available on hand-held mobile devices within two years. Of course we can now all agree that this technology was very much only two years away (demonstrated recently by the Mobilizy landscape system and Dutch Bank ING's ATM finder).

So why haven't we seen more games/apps appearing that utilise the Mscape platform (or similar). Why has no one looked to use this type of platform for an ARG style marketing campaign? There are a huge amount of GPS enabled hand-held devices now on the market, and for those that aren't surely there is a cell-tower based alternative?

There is a limitation with the platform in that it needs to be based on a specific real-world location, or ‘anchored’ in Mscape’s terminology, but there are many large cities around the world that could sustain a user base within their population that would make it commercially viable. In fact if you think about it there are many cities that would have a transient tourist population that could benefit from some sort of GPS-based interactive system like this; museums, galleries, theme parks etc.

In my opinion, this is where we will see the next 'big thing'. The newest Nintendo DS is already equipped with a camera; a GPS unit could easily be added as a component or built-in to the next gen. The Sony PSP is in the same boat (with a camera and GPS unit already available). So who's going to do it? I wager it'll be Japanese and it will sit on one of these platforms, with customised versions for a dozen or so of the largest cities in the world (mostly US with Toyko, London, Paris and Berlin).

Heineken Walk-in Fridge 2

I got an email this morning from Roger van Zijl with a link to the new Heineken ad. The ad is a follow up to the previous Walk-in Fridge ad. Funny stuff - definitely worth a look.

Tic Tac Micha

There's nothing better then a well planned and executed gorilla marketing campaign, and Tic Tac Micha is a great example of a gorilla campaign that also pulls in a strong digital aspect.

On a slightly rainy day in Copenhagen, an unassuming geeky looking chap set up what would become the first part of a hugely successful Danish marketing campaign for Tic Tacs. The campaign utilised a viral online video based on the street performance, a campaign microsite and an aggressive ATL campaign. All in all the idea is simple, but as I've said many times before, you don't need something to be complicated to be good.

Lambient Marketing - Are Ewe Serious?

The guys over at Seventy Seven have done some really unique work for thetrainline.com with their new Lambient Marketing campaign, using sheep to advertise. Seriously. Check out this video for all the details:

Peugeot 308: 'Nude In A Scarf'

A friend of mine living in London texted me last Wednesday morning with the very odd txt that there were naked people all over the place. I then got an even more bazaar txt saying it was ok, they weren't naked, they were wearing skin-colour onesy's. Unfortunately I was busy at the time and had to let it go, but a bit of research this morning has shed some light on what was happening.

On Wednesday, London commuters were joined by 308 naked people during the rush hour commute. Initially it appeared that they were totally nude except for blue scarves to cover up their naughty bits. Closer examination however would show that these people weren't actually naked but were wearing specially made bodysuits.

The 'naked' people were roaming around to promote the launch of the new Peugeot 308 CC. Apparently the scarves were to highlight the 308's new Airwave Neck Heating System. Full details are available at the campaign microsite, there are more photos on the 'Nude In A Scarf' Flickr page, and here's a YouTube video of some of what went on:



Cheers to Nick for this video. Nick also makes out an interesting point; this is an example of how product launches are increasingly using covert, unpublicised, mysterious 'events' to create conversation and chatter.