Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii
Its has been a while since my kids have watched Sesame Street... But they did. I am still convinced that Rebecca and Rachel learned the alphabet from the cast of characters designed to teach via entertainment. So when I returned from vacation to find a press release about the new Sesame Street site in my ON:InBox, my interest was peaked to see how the geniuses at the Children's Television Workshop approached digital engagement for kids.
Not much has changed. Their TV success has now transitioned and converged for the generation who lived converged lives. Preschoolers online is their target and they do amazing job creating an engaging educational content for kids. The new SesameStreet.org, is a meaningful interactive experience that takes their best practices and content and expands them in ways that most have not thought about before.
The site was designed for both parents and their preschoolers (the primary audience) without the typical use of toggling between content. They are both addressed, instructed and entertained in the same interface. The use parent tips are smart.
The 2 years of ideas, research and $14 million dollars later, SesameStreet.org lives up to its brand of education for pre-schoolers like no other site I have seen.
If you have a preschooler - visit the site together at: http://www.sesamestreet.org
What's more important than fresh breathe? Nothing, if you are about to set the stage for a meaningful kiss!
The Mentos launch of “Kiss Fight” (much like fight club - accept we talk about kiss fight) has really got the right formula to increase product volume and velocity with a creative idea that puts their product between you and the perfect kiss.
Kiss Fight is smart and in touch. Now that I have a teenager who is at the "Kissing" age – I have found that it is no longer the sappy act of the perfect kiss. the kissing kids are looking for the best action kiss. Mentos has done a great job of evolving the sappy to the fresh moves category. A fresh move is about taking the sublte to action and carpe diem!
I love the game! I enjoyed playing out the scenes. The game designed for maximum freshness. The video production and compression was superb. The subtle hints of brand at every turn were memorable enough for me to run out and recapture my youth with a pack of fresh and fruity Mentos. (now all I have to do is up seize the next opportunity for a kiss with the hubby.)
Sharpen your eye for the moment when you an seize a kiss at http://www.mentoskissfight.com I highly recommend you playing through to the hot mom / cougar / M.I.L.F moment.
While cruising my information hub of blogs and industry rags I stumbled on to an insightful find on ArtsHub* (a sweet AU site that gives good right brain)
The most recent media statistics indicate that time spent viewing a screen for recreation increased by one hour last year, at the expense of outdoor activities, to over 16 hours per week. It is not surprising then that the opening of Game On was packed.
There were a very large number of children with their parents and the Minister – Lynne Kosky - brought alone her GenX/Y staffers who were itching to get to the consoles. Invitees at openings seldom let the show get in the way of a drink, but when the speeches had finished the floor cleared as people flooded into the exhibition below. Game On, a received exhibition toured by Barbican Art Gallery (owned by the City of London Corporation), is a visual historiography of the evolution of the video game from the first known example produced by students at MIT (with a computer the size of a car) to hints at the next waves of interactive gaming technology. The exhibition is chronologically laid out, like a Victorian era museum updated with interactive screens. You can play every game on display and that’s about 125 to get through.
Gaming is a massive enterprise: the sector outstripped film sales in Australia by more than $200 million raking in a cool billion dollars in revenues in 2007 and the Pokemon franchise alone has made more that $26 billion. Most people will also not be aware that Australia exports products worth around $100 Million, about half made or developed in Melbourne. The ACMI dedicated games lab, a world first, is a creative hub for the sector and the show has local content weaved in to the displays. Unless you work in advertising you might also be unaware that there is a huge business selling product placement inside these constructed worlds.
This is a pervasive, increasingly sophisticated and very influential creative sector. I’ve tuned into the ABC’s Good Game show often and by luck saw their now classic first person shooter (FPS) episode. FPS games are those highly controversial ultra-violent games that place you as an anonymous, unaccountable killer - your view of the world is often directly down the gun barrel. That program revealed a level of connoisseurship and depth of nuanced language that we might usually reserve for discussion of fine wines. Aficionados rate “immersion” (how deeply a game draws you into its internal reality), plot lines, the visual aesthetic of blood splatter and more.
There is a small section in the exhibition on the creative process- early drawings and classically crisp celluloid cells of Manga-style characters. Some of Ocean Quigley’s (famous for designing Sim City 3000) original oil paintings - lush and deeply modeled imaginary landscapes - are on display (look for Red hats and fire , 2001). Musicians should find the recording of the short works by Koichi Sugiyama and Richard Jacque engaging if only because they are some of the most listened to works ever made on the planet.
Subliminal to the displays is the large scale convergence, grinding like tectonic plates, that is slowly reshaping the sector. It’s not so much convergence of technical platforms but rather of creative processes and expectations. Sony now brings classical Hollywood film methods to the creation of its play-station games in huge creative teams. Pixar and Dreamworks animations set standard that need to be accommodated in 3D Simland . And astute film critics might see how the mass-audience for games has subtly changed film - raising the excitement stakes in the ‘Bond’ and ‘Bourne’ genres.
Glossed over however was the dark side. Violence and FPS formats are pop-culture staples that we are willing to be desensitized to, notwithstanding that more than 30,000 parents have reportedly downloaded ACMI’s guide to responsible gaming. However, the role of gaming neuro-psychology (enhancing stimulation and addictiveness is a major research area) in the development of the gambling industry’s gaming interfaces is deftly sidestepped. So too is the major role that the US military has played in developing seductive ultra-violent FPS war-ware.
Overall, as presented, Game On is a nostalgic gamer’s paradise and the kids will have to be dragged screaming from the play stations at home time. It’s well curated, great fun and there is more than one layer here for the thoughtful visitor.
As most of you know I am an avid gamer... in doing research on one of our clients competitors (Wrigley) I have become a bit of a Candystand addict! They have launched a few new branded games that are worthy of note....Fresh off the heat of that spiffy Vector game they recently put together, Candystand hits me with this Free Kick game that challenges you to bend it like a certain Posh-loving soccer player we know.
It's simple to play but just not as much fun as the Awesome Blossom. Plus before i played Free Kick I had to download a plug-in which is always not supervenient.
The there is Life Savers Awesome Blossom... Remember Dr. Mario? Awesome Blossom is like that, except with flowers instead of pills. (Come to think of it, how did Dr. Mario ever get past the PC police?)
The blossom explosion is for LifeSavers. I could use some, considering my blood-sugar levels are low from concentrating on winning back flower petals for the last three hours. (Yah..the overachiever in me never sleeps...)
When you’ve reached the eighth installment of your skateboard game
series, you’ve got to pull out something new for the diehards out
there.
Enter the “Nail The Trick” feature of the new Tony Hawk game. Eyewonder exploits this new add-on with a full-featured expanding banner, previewing the frame-by-frame tutorial that allows players to dissect a trick and learn it, or invent their own.
Drag the mouse left to right and watch the action in slow motion, giving a taste of what gamers can expect within the game itself.
Click here to see the Eyewonder demo of this rich media unit
I have pondered the other side of a blog I wrote this past summer about our evolution to the next wave of in-game advertising as a marketing mediums. In the post below I tackle the unpaid content issue... but when there are a mass of ads should the content be free? See post below.
As an internet executive who has been around long enough to see the ups and downs of internet business including “dot bomb” and the stock market plunge of agencies and stuck with it to see the rebirth of the internet in Web 2.0, I ask my Web 2.0 marketing and business posse this…Have we not learned anything from Web 1.0?
If we are truly a learning environment filled with Wikis, social networking and smarter spending habits, why are we not leveraging consumer buying power to its fullest?
In Web 1.0, companies failed because they were not fiscally responsible and they continuously gave away products, services and their audiences for free, even though consumers were willing to pay. It just did not work.
In Web 1.0, we found that there could not be free services, no free drives and more importantly no free entertainment. What makes interactive “professionals” of the Web 2.0 revolution think that free video can exist without advertising?
Has someone found a business model that allows companies to barter our products and services and then barter with the Internet service providers and electric company to keep our services running?
I want to begin seeing video sites that leverage distribution models that actually generate dollars for advertisers creating the content and publishers selling the space where the content and consumers are living.
I think we can all glean learnings from the mobile marketing space. The mobile marketing industry is making money! They charge nominal fees to consumers to access branded ring tones, videos and music, therefore making a viable business.
If you are going to offer free content, consumers are willing to sit though 10 seconds of ads to get what they want. Just as they have in the early days of radio, television and the current iterations of music sites, consumers will wait and get great entertainment at the nominal cost of their time. Consumers have shown us time and time again that if the content is good, relevant or worthy of distribution they will pay for it in an “on demand” model. Can you imagine getting an on demand video service without out a subscription to a local cable company? (I think that is referred to as Cable piracy)
While it is not the only way, it is a sure fire way to keep the lights on and employees fed. What I predict is a quick evolution from Web 2.0 to Web 2.0. 1.21, which will help agencies define the Pre-roll space, feed the starving creative mavens producing video content for the web and more importantly separate the girls from the women in this market place.
What are your thoughts???
Like HBO or Showtime we pay for an un altered true game experience without the muck up of advertising. Now that marketers (including myself) are punching up the ads in our online and console games, why are we
paying for that entertainment? No ads... full price. XBOX live with Pre-roll and ads should be free...
What are your thoughts on the topic?
Recent Comments