Digital Stuffing

Another video from the Cadbury’s Glass and a Half Productions that on the face of it, is just another quirky, fun ad. Dig deeper however, you’ll see that this is that start of a two year campaign for the brand as they start the lead up to the Olympics as a sponsor

The site is Spot vs Stripes, which is going to be the hub for all the action.

We think games are great. They get people playing, they bring people together and sometimes they even reveal an undiscovered talent. That’s why, with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games around the corner, we’re launching Spots v Stripes.

We’re asking the nation to choose sides and split into Spots or Stripes in order to play what’s quite possibly the biggest, longest game ever.

It leverages the main social tools, with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube been drafted in. Pick your side, play the games and add your points to the team. Some of the games will be on the site, although they’re not quite ready yet as the only one mentioned is still not active. Others will call for your participation,the first being to make a video of you throwing things, load it up and get people to vote on it. There’s going to be new challenges every three months. They’re also taking the games on the road, with city challenges throughout the summer.

First impressions were underwhelming. I wanted to play now, in front of the computer and it’s not possible yet. I can read all the information, and there’s a lot that seems to be dotted around the site, or I can get out and make a video. I can join the Facebook group, but again, there’s little to do there. The site itself left me slightly confused about why I want to join the team, what’s in it for me, what it will add to my life over the next 2 years apart. I know it’s all about the gameplay, the taking part and the getting out and doing things, but I’m left feeling a little meh about the team aspect.

I like the idea, but I want more – now. They could have waited a while to allow the online games to be there – or more likely, started earlier in development It’s going to be interesting to watch the idea grow from its slow start.

I like what we did here. I’d have loved to have played games whilst out at sea, but couldn’t get on the shoot

I’ve finally caught up with the Prototype Experience, a promo for a new console game that has been exciting so many marketers on the blogs. It looks like a great game, one I’ll end up buying (and as usual playing really, really, badly) so it worked for me as a enticement to purchase.

But I was sold on the gameplay description and the trailers, not the actual experiential elements. They’re a little less successful in my case, but I’ve seen they are definitely catching the eye of many.

The experience is a variation on uploading your photos and appearing as part of the trailer/video. The difference here is that you don”t choose which photos to upload but that it grabs them from Facebook. To take part, you have to link your Facebook profile to the game page, using Facebook Connect, a variation on OAuth where you don’t have to give out your password to anyone.

Prototype Login (screenshot from site)

It then runs a trailer for the game, pulling your photos in from the service and interspersing them throughout the action. they also include all your details, the personal information. As I only have 1 image on Facebook, I thought they wouldn’t have much luck but what it does it goes and trawls your connection and brings in their photos as well. You can’t share the video or embed it anywhere as far as I can see, so I think they’re mainly avoiding the copyright and privacy issues that this ‘borrowing’ of images and use of personal details entails, but I was surprised that the system would do this.

After watching the personalised trailer, you get to answer some questions to win a game copy and an XBox360 and then you’re then asked to spread the word, using your choice of network – Facebook or Twitter. This seems to be a requirement of the competition entry, but as I can’t see any terms and conditions, I’m not sure

Prototype Spreadability (screenshot from site)

This is the second campaign I’ve seen this week that has built in the ability to autopost to your status stream, so it’s looking like it’s this quarter’s hot trend. It’s a savvy call to action, although if too many in your network do it, I can see it not quite having the desired impact. Making it compulsary is problematic; the experience should be good enough to get people to want to share it, not making them do it because you don’t trust your stuff is good enough for sharing.

Elsewhere on the site, you can get a story overivew, see some trailers and get some great artworks to download. Most importantly, you can pre-order, but only from specific retailers (Smartoys which is French, fnac, Game Mania, both Belgium.Dutch). So despite being able to see the site in English and it being big in English blogs, you can’t actually by in the UK. The site has been done in Belgium by Sponge and 1MD, so it looks like it is for that market only, although there’s no indication until you’re deep into that it does not apply to you, but again, no T&Cs so I’m not sure if I can enter or not.

Prototype Scene (screenshot from site)

Burn Baby Burn is a new game for the Playstation 3 that comes out next year. They’ve launched a site that lets you start to learn the game characters, understand the levels and start to get a handle on the levels. It’s all about introducing new players to the experience so that they can get some buzz going and try and convince people to buy it.

Once past the age check, (you’ve got to be over 18 to see this cartoon styled Zombie game), you get a few screens to describe the levels, characters and guns, a few videos of gameplay and a page of reviews which is empty. There’s no trial levels, there’s not interaction, there’s nothing there are all to make me stay around, not even a way to connect with fellow fans. At the moment it’s just a brochure site, with heavy flash and heavy music. Is this a missed opportunity or will we actually get more?

Screenshot from site