The Goal
JWT approached e-axis to help develop an online advergame contest to promote and reinforce brand awareness, drive sales and create brand excitement and target a younger consumer for their clients Cadbury Adams, TRIDENT* Brand.
This online project was to be supported by both in store and with TV media, and was to lay the ground work for possible future forays into online advergaming for the TRIDENT* brands.
As the successful vendor e-axis was to develop the game itself, finalize the contest parameters, develop the prizing mechanism and provide consultation and Project management for the project entirety.
Project Parameters
The Purpose of this project was to develop in both English and French, a 4 game contest that promotes the TRIDENT* Gum Brand; the games were to be live for a 7 week period with one game being released every 12 days for the duration of the promotion.
The game was to be developed around 6 characters based on six TRIDENT* flavors.
Very Berry, Topical Twist, Cinnamon, Spearmint, Peppermint and Cool Rush.
The theme of the games was adventure-based with the players racking up miles/Kilometers. The players at the end of each week will be awarded prizes, and an overall winner will be selected.
The six key flavours race through the TRIDENT* virtual world. This TRIDENT* world is made up of two themes Cool and Tropical.
Demographics
The target demographic of the game is the 14 – 25 year old market segment with a bull's-eye of 16-21yrs and should reflect this in the look, feel and game play.
Microsite Requirements
A Microsite www.tridentgum.ca and www.tridentgomme.ca will be developed to act as a launch pad for the game, as well as a registration and login platform
• Players would register entering Name, email address, password and choosing a flavour to represent them.
• If player has a pack, enter the UPC code/ “Adventure code”. (Becomes eligible for random draw grand prize).
• Upon Registration the computer immediately awards a random number of km, e.g. 1,000 – 20,000 km.
Database Development.
A database is required to track players contact information, scores and automatically send email notification of the commencement of new game, reminders and prize information.
Solution
E-axis rose to the challenge and developed the TRIDENT* Amazing Taste Adventure. Working from a basic of brief E-axis.com developed the Microsite Portal, all the game concepts, actual game play, scoring, server setup, in game copywriting, prize fulfillment, database setup, email notifications and project management.
Character Development
Working with a basic brief our Creative Director and Chief Illustrator created the characters to be used in the game, deploying both ethnic diversity and brand recognition to breathe life into each of the six characters.
The Games
Working with an extremely tight deadline, e-axis developed the concepts for the individual games that would incorporate the brand characters and the TRIDENT* world.
The games that were developed were designed with a high repeat play factor in mind and were designed specifically to appeal to the target audience, while all the while keeping true to the TRIDENT* brand identity.
The four games: Jungle Jam, Citrus Surf, Ragin Rapid Rush and Glacier Glider challenge the gamers at every turn, and provide unique but common themed game play.
Registration
E-axis built a registration system that collects basic user data: username and email address, so that user stats could be monitored and winners identified and contacted. The registrant could choose to play as there favorite character.
Viral Marketing
By implementing a bonus system for all registrants that utilized the “send to a friend” feature e-axis.com was able to increase the traffic to the game. Each registrant who referred a friend by this system, who actually signed up received a substantial point bonus, thus increasing their chances to win.
The result 69% of all registrants referred at least one friend and 37% of those people referred actually signed up.
Product Push
In order to push product a UPC (SKU) bonus was applied, each registrant had the option of entering up to 29 different UPC codes representing all 29 of the TRIDENT* brand SKUs. Each UPC code entered awarded the registrant bonus points, which could possibly increase their overall chances to win.
Demographics
The key to the success of this project was to attract the sought after target demographic which for this project was the 14yr to the 25yr old gum chewing market, with a “bull's-eye” of 16 – 21 year olds, the actual demographic for the promotion hit 60% within the target, and 48% within the bull's eye.
Administration
E-axis developed a database and administration system that automatically tracked scores, selected instant, weekly and grand prize winners and provided user stats to the administrators.
In addition, to notify registrants when the new games were available to be played, an email notification system had to be developed that sent emails the day before a new game was to be launched also prize winner notification emails were sent out automatically by the system which prompted the winner to reply with their full contact details.
Results
Upon Final Analysis the results of this project proved extremely favorable with the bulk of contest entrants falling within the target demographic range while being exposed to the TRIDENT* brand for approximately 40 minutes on average, thus increasing brand awareness and recognition, in addition invaluable marketing data was gathered to be used in future brand initiatives.
What the Client Said
“J. Walter Thompson and connect@jwt partnered with e-axis to create 4 online games for the TRIDENT* “Amazing Taste Adventure” promotion. It was not an easy task, considering all the requirements we put forth, including originality, creativity, game play sophistication, back-end tracking and of course a powerful expression of the TRIDENT* brand to engage our target audience. Thank-you, e-axis for all your hard work and vigilance. We were thrilled with the result!”
Denise Wong, Managing Director connect@jwt
