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.
Is Youtube about to take on Netflix and gain another revenue stream? Streaming movie rentals may be coming to the site…
No Tweeting At Work. The NFL bans Chad Ochocinco NFL Athletes from tweeting during games (as well as immediately before and after). Is the NFL missing a huge opportunity to more intimately connect fans with the game (and players)?
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.
Facebook debuts “Fan Box” tool. Want to see it in action? Just look down at the bottom of the right hand column of our blog.
After smashing a passenger’s guitar, the only thing that would get United to pay attention was a song he posted on Youtube… it had to go viral first though.
So, based on the recent bout of news, it looks like Facebook and MySpace are getting more and more serious about their respective single sign-on offerings (Facebook Connect and MySpace ID).
This is fantastic news, and if you’re looking for community engagement this is an absolutely huge opportunity for you to attract new people to (and garner more interaction within) your properties. Let me take a quick step back though, in case you aren’t familiar with these two competing services. Here’s the gist of what they do: they are single sign-on services that enable people to sign on to third party websites (or applications) using their Facebook or MySpace account, and subsequently share information in both directions between the third party offering and the community they’ve established back on Facebook/MySpace. That means the individual only needs to remember one account. One username. One password. If I’m on a site that’s has already integrated either ID or Connect, and I want to enter the conversation (e.g. comment on an article), I can. Quickly and easily. No headaches as I tab my way through yet another sign-up process. No more deliberating about whether or not I want to give this particular site my “real information”. No hunting for the password I chose for this particular site. I just sign in and type away. It’s just that easy. And it’s not only easier for me to engage with the content on your site, but it’s easier for me to share it with my network back on Facebook (i.e. it’s easier for me to spread your content virally).
My only gripe is that publishers and content owners aren’t moving fast enough to integrate these services. The entire net should be open, and that includes your digital presence. You need to integrate either (or both) Facebook Connect and MySpace ID into your (relevant) offering(s) ASAP (I know that this is a broad generalization, and that there are numerous exceptions to this “rule”, but please just try and see the larger point I’m making here).
Now, you might be thinking: but if people can sign-on via Facebook, I can’t capture all that revenue generating sign-up information! I not only lose complete control (God forbid!), but I cut off one of my revenue models at the knees. Well, you’re right. You will lose some control and you may lose some immediate revenues. But… well… tell it to the Music Industry. They actively avoided (and/or attacked) the digital download marketplace because they didn’t want to cannibalize CD sales. Napster (and the like) cost them billions and now Apple’s iTunes runs the show.
Like CD’s, your email list is slowly dying. So you can either evolve with the environment or stubbornly hold your ground. Of course, Darwin had some theories about evolution…
Now, I’m not saying you should wash your hands of email. I have no issues with email, and today, it still has value. But I am saying that the currency of social networks (Friends/Fans/Followers/Etc) are the new email lists, and the sooner you start working on building and maintaining those types of “lists”, the better shape you will be in when email does finally die.
You need to get ahead of this. You need to get proactive, and you need to have a cohesive strategy today. Momentum is slowly building and I think that the net will one day be an open environment, where users have a minimal number of usernames and passwords. You’ll move freely from site to site, interacting as you see fit, as if on an interactive pub-crawl. Single sign-on will be the glue that binds the Internet. The reason I feel this way? People will demand it. When in doubt, just put on your “consumer hat”. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of creating new profiles. I can get one username, one password and access to all my friends? Well, that’s just a no-brainer, I want that. And when the consumer wants something, the dollars will follow.
One final point, if you’re waiting to see if either MySpace or Facebook is going to “win”. Please don’t. Superior functionality in either Connect or ID will not drive adoption here. People will use the service that is relevant to their favorite network. They will stay where their friends are, and both Facebook and MySpace have populations that are too vast too ignore.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts: @jack2point0
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.
