I previously wrote about the ABC series Flash Forward’s interactive marketing efforts in a blog post entitled – A New ARG Or Standard Integrated Entertainment Marketing Campaign. I was wondering if Flash Forward would be a standard ARG or raise the bar for interactive storytelling. After watching the series premiere (which looks promising btw), I went back to see how Flash Forward’s online efforts have evolved. Needless to say, they have a good handle on how they want their fans to interact with the show online and have created a compelling experience using the latest emerging media and technology tactics. This is by far one of the best integrated marketing efforts I’ve seen in quite some time.
If you want the overarching strategy and insight into the campaign from ABC, you can view it at AdAge here. And I would also suggest checking out Liz Miller’s breakdown of the Flash Forward tactical executions over at NewTeeVee. The campaign utilizes some of the newer emerging media and technology components for Interactive Marketing including:
An Augmented Reality experience (which admittedly feels rushed and not connected with the campaign – where’s the social media integration with the AR?)
Though most of these components on their own aren’t mind blowing, it’s the sum of all the parts that makes the campaign a very integrated experience. However, one component that stands out is the Mosaic Collective as it holds the most promise to make the weekly viewing of Flash Forward a more personal experience.
(VERY SMALL SPOILER ALERT BELOW)
In the series, the FBI has setup a site where people can post their Flash Forwards with the hope that the FBI can then start to link clues together through people that are common to each Flash Forward. The Mosaic Collective site functions in the same way allowing people to sign up and upload information. On the surface, this is standard UGC content being uploaded to the site but the various methods of connecting content (through data visualization) is engaging and worth checking out. This is also where there could be a potential tie-in to the show with UGC content slowly being integrated into the show through essential storylines or secondary characters. This is obviously difficult to pull off but it would help break the boundaries between how these entertainment support sites interact with their viewers by taking the reality and integrating it with the fantasy.
The overall campaign borrows quite a bit from Lost, but that is a good thing as Flash Forward is targeting the same fanbase. I’m hoping this campaign evolves some more especially with the Mosaic Collective. It’s definitely worth checking out though to see how interactive can be leveraged to create a compelling integrated interactive campaign and enhanced story driven experience.
We love Interactive Video Advergames around these parts…and Playboy. Straight from the Netherlands and another fine example of how Interactive Video is making games more interactive and engaging.
You can play the game here. Link courtesy of Mr. Ford and FWA…
We’ve been very big advocates of Social TV for awhile, so it was quite surprising to see a recent high profile Social TV launch fail. Fast Company has the details here. Cliff notes version:
“Fox ran reruns of Fringe with Twitter integration so people watching the show could comment on the show in real-time. The Twitter overlay took up 1/3 of the bottom portion of the screen and as would be expected, drew outrage from viewers.”
While Fringe has been a show that’s not afraid to use the latest innovative interactive marketing programs such as ARG’s, it did seem odd that a show built on the success of these types of innovative and alternate interactive marketing initiatives would receive the backlash it did. However, it’s not the idea that’s the problem here but rather the execution.
As the screenshot above shows, Fox was going for a VH-1 Pop-Up Video Style Integration. Big mistake. Anybody who’s ever watched this show (which is basically X-Files 2.0) knows that you have to pay attention to keep up with the plot so any type of animated interruption in the form of oversized graphical tweets, is of course, going to hinder versus enhance the interactive viewing experience.
Fox should be commended for recognizing a trend with Social TV and trying it out with one of their most popular new shows. However, Fox does need to revisit how they’re using Social TV with a program (and genre) like Fringe. I don’t think just reducing the size of the Twitter integration and focusing on Fringe trivia will help overall. Nor will using viewer’s Twitter conversations that are just feeds pumped into and overlaid on the broadcast itself.
Fox should be using Twitter integration (ala Social TV) to provide sub-stories on the characters in Fringe and continue using alternative marketing methods that appeal to the core demographic. Fringe is a unique show (like Lost and the upcoming Flash Forward) that has a built-in audience that is expecting to find and participate in alternative story lines, engaging puzzles and other enhanced content to create a richer, more satisfying interactive story driven experience.
On a side note, I thought the Observer / MLB All-Star Game integration was great and showed how a subtle cross promotion can help spread awareness and build an audience for television series such as Fringe.
CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) Interactive Videos are continuing to become the go-to execution when brands and agencies are trying to create more consumer engagement for their online video executions and/or campaigns. There was a great recent effort out of the U.K. called Knife Crime where it was used as an educational vehicle to show the result of making a wrong (and life altering) decision. You can also check out many other great examples of CYOA video on a blog post we did a few months ago called The Best Examples Of Choose Your Own Adventure Interactive Video.
We’ve been discussing doing a very in-depth blog post on our experience to date with multiple CYOA executions and I think that post will be very soon. However, I did want to jump start things by including a pretty cool article and graphic from Flowingdata. As you can see from the flowchart below, it’s critical in any CYOA video that you’re flowcharting out all the possible directions and results at the start of your video. Granted most CYOA executions so far are much more simplified and often only branch out into 3-4 overall directions, but as this area of Interactive Video matures, I do think you’ll start to see much more in-depth Interactive Adventures that stay true to their current “Choose Your Own Adventure” name…
Integrates Facebook Connect To Put Casual Gamers And Their Friends In The Same Game.
August 12, 2009, Los Angeles – Today we’re launching another emerging media application, “Cannonballz”, an interactive webcam based flash game. Obviously it’s not news that an interactive marketing agency has built a flash game. The news is that “Cannonballz” is the first casual game built using Augmented Reality and our proprietary Motion Capture User Interface Engine (A.K.A. ZugMo Technology). ZugMo Technology enables anyone with a webcam (and a Flash plug-in) to physically engage with various elements that are integrated within their video stream. No mouse and no keyboard, it’s all done with gesture recognition. With this immersive technology you no longer just play games, you get to be in them. It’s a whole new experience.
If you just want to see a demo of the game, please check out the video below.
With “Cannonballz”, we’ve used ZugMo Technology to build a casual game to showcase the potential of this technology. We previously used the technology to build an online shopping application called the Webcam Social Shopper. While we hope that people find this game to be fun, it’s not “the star” here. The technology is, and the possibilities of how it can be utilized are really as endless as a company’s creativity. Think about it: educational games for children; an entire section of games on Yahoo; casual games that engage consumers with a brand; product demonstrations; an interactive element in a corporate training session; etc.
“We chose casual gaming as a way to showcase the ZugMo Technology because over 200 million people play casual games every single month” said Matt Szymczyk, CEO, Zugara. “It’s an experience we’re all familiar with, and we hope will allow people to see the greater potential for this technology. Gaming is also the perfect execution to show the power of social media integration. For ‘Cannonballz’ we integrated Facebook Connect to allow users to not only bring their friends into the actual gameplay, but to quickly and easily share their scores and the game with their friends via their news stream.”
So, what do you think? We’d love to get your thoughts in the comments below.
Zugara, a member of the Augmented Reality Industry guiding “AR Consortium”, is an interactive marketing agency with a passion for emerging media and technologies. Unlike most agencies, we don’t claim to do everything: Interactive Video, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, and Website & Application Development are our core competencies. Since our doors opened in 2001, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s best brands such as Reebok, Sony Computer Entertainment Of America, Toyota, Activision, Jelly Belly, Casio, The Air Force, and Lexus to create strategic interactive campaigns that focus on accomplishing their business objectives. Based in Los Angeles, we’re currently in the process of expanding, and opening our second office in New York.
For more information on this technology, including purchase of the Software Development Kit so you can create your own applications, please contact: cannonballz(at)zugara(dot)com.
For all press inquiries, please contact: press(at)zugara(dot)com.
Copyright 2009 ZugMo Technology
Copyright 2009 Zugara Inc.
Patent Pending
Song in video courtesy of David Rovics.
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
