2K Fitbit/Boost
NBA 2K
Issue 42 | March 2017
Agency
CP+B
Creative Team
VP/Chief Creative Officer Kevin Jones Creative Directors Andrew Jasperson Jeff Dryer VP, Executive Creative Technology Director Corey Szopinski Experience Designer Dan Sok
Production Team
VP, Director Of Content Production Kate Hildebrant VP, Director Of Interactive Production Ryan Moreno Integrated Producer Jennifer Malki Executive Producer Interactive Matthew Kahn
Other Credits
Global Group Director, Strategy Mollie Partesotti Associate Director, Analytics Matt Segal Digital Analyst Courtney Pickens Content Supervisor Jake Welch Content Manager Katie Martin Sr. Project Manager Denise Lynch VP, Managing Director Ryan Skubic EVP, Managing Director Ivan Perez-Armendariz VP, Director of Business Affairs Rebecca Williams
Date
November 2016
Background
NBA 2K was the world's best-selling basketball video game. It had fostered a large community of players including some famous names.
Research had shown that NBA 2K gamers spent roughly the same amount of time being active as they did playing the game.
CP+B and NBA 2K wanted to tap into this insight by coming up with an innovation that benefited the users of both of these very different worlds.
Idea
In a video game first, the idea was to use wearable tech to make physical activity outside the game improve your performance in it.
NBA 2K17 gamers had long been able to create in-game versions of themselves by adjusting attributes like shooting and passing skills, even using 2K's face-scanning technology to map their real face onto their in-game player. Now, in perhaps the most reality-blurring feature yet, gamers were able to improve their virtual player's abilities through daily exercise – simply by linking a FitBit to their NBA 2K17 Gamer profile.
Called Boost, it recorded what the gamer did in the real world to influence how they performed in the virtual world.
Every time a gamer recorded 10,000 steps in a day on their FitBit, their virtual NBA 2K17 character got an increase in its abilities with a temporary 'Boost' to their player rating. Boosts lasted for up to four days and gamers could accrue multiple Boosts at once, turning their player into an all-star-level talent simply by being active in their everyday life. The Boost integration gives gamers a way to stay engaged with 2K17 even when they didn't have a controller in their hands.
Results
Not known
Our Thoughts
Computer games are a real problem. They keep kids indoors, turning into slobs in front of their screens. Gamers are as aware of this as their parents are. But just wagging a finger and calling gamers names (like ‘slob’) does nothing. This is a perfect judo throw of an idea, turning gaming into the solution of the problem it created. The reward for leaping around on a real court is a leap up the virtual leaderboard.
What’s next as the lines between the physical and the digital worlds blur still further?
Already Disney is finding ways of integrating physical objects (toys) into experiences.
Bring it on!