Games Break Out
Philips
Issue 1 | July 2008
Agency
Lawton eMarketing and The Viral Factory
Creative Team
The Viral Factory - Art Director;The Viral Factory - Copywriter;Mark Cox (Lawton eMarketing) - Account Supervisor;The Viral Factory - Producer;The Viral Factory with Ben Wheatley - Director;The Viral Factory - Production Company;The Viral Factory - Editor
Production Team
Alex Mallison, X-Barn - Post-Production; The Strongroom Exposure Internet - Audio Post-Production
Other Credits
Claire Axton
Date
March 2006
Background
Philips wanted to increase the awareness of the new amBX technology within the PC hardcore gaming audience.
Idea
To reach the intended audience of predominantly male 16 to 35-year-old hardcore gamers and high level internet users who are keen to gain kudos from the coolest online content, Lawton eMarketing teamed up with the Viral Factory. They devised a viral piece that did not focus on the technology in situation, but instead clearly demonstrated the benefits of adopting amBX and how it could enhance the gaming experience by blurring the boundaries between the real world and home entertainment. And they took this to extremes in order to hammer home the point.
The piece needed to tap into the current You Tube and Machinima (using a game engine to create a movie, such as Red VS Blue) culture, with a twist at the end. They created the piece to look like it was shot on handy cam in one long shot. The CGI was achieved by employing an ex-games developer who created the menacing character you see being abused then taking his revenge on the gamers.
The viral was seeded to a list developed and maintained by Lawton eMarketing covering off the key underground viral sites that feed the hardcore. The film was placed on its own page www.4m8x.com where visitors could view the movie streamed in Flash and also download a WMV or QuickTime. The URL was posted and seeded via email to webmasters and moderators from a web based email account. Sites covered included: Entensity, Flabber, Punchbaby, Viral Bank, Lycos, Viral Meister, Chinwag, Kontraband, The Sun, Max Power, Ebaums World, Nuts, Zoo, Pop Bitch, FHM, I am Bored, Sontalaatikko, Office Humor and a host of others.
They also seeded directly on to You Tube to enable users to pull the link for their own blog.
Results
The viral quickly became one of the top You Tube ‘Most linked’ virals with more than 350,000 views and more than 98,000 links (users lifting the supplied link and posting it on sites and blogs). There were more than 370,000 views on the viral’s webpage www.4m8x.com in the first three weeks, 83,000 downloads of the WMV and 9,000 of the QuickTime. Throughout the campaign there were 40,000 click throughs to the amBX website (directly from the embedded Flash movie), a click through rate of 11%. The viral was also picked up on the ever-popular FHM games email as well as globally via non-paid for seeding.
Target Audience
Predominantly male 16 to 35-year-olds, hardcore gamers and high level internet users that are keen to gain kudos from the coolest online content.