TAP THE TAP: an advergame to promote a Brazilian brewhouse

This site is a platform to discuss gaming concept ideas, but it’s also a place where I can show a little bit of my game designing work. In this post, I want to present a game that I developed for Let’s Beer – a Brazilian brewhouse located in São Paulo.

TAP THE TAP is an advergame; in other words: a game to promote a brand, a product or a service. A ludic project with advertising purposes. TAP THE TAP is a hyper-casual game with simple mechanics where you must tap the beer taps to match the same order from the clients at the bar. As the game advances, you must be faster to deliver the beers or you can lose a life. Let’s Beer brewhouse used the game to give its customers discounts based on points, engaging them to a branding experience and promoting a new bitter ale produced by the company. Click here to play the game.

TAP THE TAP is a very fast experience created with HTML 5 programming. The game does not require any plugins and players can open it directly on the browser (desktop or mobile). The game is an attempt to promote de brewhouse and to establish a new dialogue with customers that can share the game with friends in a viral way.



One more produced. One more to use as an example in classes and for the portfolio.

#GoGamers

What isn’t an advergame

We have already discussed the idea of advergames here at GAMING CONCEPTZ (you can check it here and here). On the other hand, it is also important to contextualize what cannot be considered an advergame.

We’ve already explained that an advergame is an advertising piece of campaign that : requires planning and an interface that puts together a brand/product/service and the gameplay

In this context, an advergame is not a ready-made game that one can simply insert a logo or a company’s feature. In the following hypothetical example below, we see the interface of the classic Pac-Man game with elements from McDonald's brand. To insert these elements on the gaming interface does not make this game an advergame; there is no strategic view or branding planning, we only notice elements scattered in a videogame screen.



According to Cavallini (2006), the notion of advergame – a neologism formed from the juxtaposing of the words “advertising” and “game” – could be described as a marketing strategy that uses games, mainly electronic, to advertise brands and products. That includes a large range that goes from complex games that are developed specifically for advertising purposes to common casual games – much more complex than to only insert a logo in a classic gaming interface.

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Reference:

CAVALLINI, Ricardo. (2006). O marketing depois de amanhã. São Paulo: Digerati Books.

#GoGamers

Defining “advergame”, “product placement in games” and “in-game advertising”

According to Cavallini (2006), the notion of advergame – a neologism formed from the juxtaposing of the words “advertise” and “game” – could be described as a strategy for marketing that uses games, mainly electronic, to advertise brands and products. That includes a large range that goes from complex games that are developed specifically for advertising purposes to common casual games. The Internet and video game consoles are great environments to use this strategy. Mobile media (smartphones and tablets) are already being tested by companies, which chose this marketing strategy too. For instance, the Brazilian branch of the soft drink brand Fanta launched in 2015 a hot site with ten advergames. Developed by Sioux Studio, the games emphasized Fantas’s branding features like happiness, friendship, radical sports and music. All the features of the brand appeared in campaigns displayed on television, magazines, movie theaters and on the Internet are present in the game; therefore, we can conclude that the game is an advertising piece like any other.



Cavallini (2006) also discusses the idea of product placement in games as a strategy that inserts a company’s product inside the gaming interface and context. The characters in the game Devil May Cry wear pants with the Diesel brand in evidence. In Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow, the character uses a Sony Ericsson p900 smartphone to solve missions, so the player virtually experiences the use of the device. In Worms 3D, by SEGA Studio, the characters drink a can of Red Bull energy drink in order to jump higher. In the last released UFC game, we can see the fighters wearing shorts and gloves from famous sporting brands. It is very important to highlight that this kind of strategy, as everything in marketing, needs its context aligned with the target audience. In all previous examples, the product fits in the gaming universe and dialogues with the players.



Another fundamental keyword in this context is in-game advertising. As Herrewijn and Poels (2011) define, in-game advertising refers to the use of games as a medium for the delivery of advertisements, and the authors point out that there is one player branding experience during the gameplay. In this type of strategy, we can notice the use of banners, posters, radio spots, digital ads and billboards mixed to the game’s landscape. In Virtua Tennis 3, as an example, it is possible to see Bridgestone tires and Citizen watches billboards all around the scenario. Both brands are present, sponsoring the real tennis matches, so it is very pertinent to be in the virtual game, creating a deeper sense of immersion to the player.



In this topic, we are discussing examples developed for consoles, personal computers and mobile media. However, the advergaming strategy is not something created in the Internet age. In the beginning of the 1980s, we already could find some very interesting cases in the Atari platform (as we discussed in this old post here).

Note: this post is part of a complete paper about "games as marketing tools". Soon, I hope to share the complete content in another post.

#GoGamers

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References:

CAVALLINI, Ricardo. (2006). O marketing depois de amanhã. São Paulo: Digerati Books.

HERREWIJN, Laura. & POELS, Karolien (2011). Putting Brands into Play: How Player Experiences Influence the Effectiveness of In-Game Advertising. Proceedings of the DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association), 6, 1-19. Available here.

Using Instagram as a gaming platform

Is it possible to create games using Instagram features? The answer is: yes.

The Turkish cookie brand Biskrem created the "Biskrem Instagram Adventure", a game that uses features from Instagram, such as maps, photos, videos, hashtags, tagging, search, direct messages etc..

The narrative is very fun and mixes aliens with time travel. Check the video case below to better understand the promotional idea.



This example dialogues with the advergaming concept we’ve already discussed here and here. It's another good case of how we can put entertainment and ludic content in marketing/communication campaigns.

And an important thing: this is the post number #250! Epic win!

#GoGamers

Book: Mapping the Digital - Cultures and Territories of Play

I want to share good news in this post: in 2014, I presented the paper “Health, consumption and entertainment: the Nike brand embodied as a playful experience”, that I wrote along with my friend Marcelo Vasconcellos for the Video Game Cultures & The Future of Entertainment conference (VG6).

This week, I received awesome news: all the papers from the conference were compiled in a fantastic book named Mapping the Digital - Cultures and Territories of Play. Edited by Lindsey Joyce and Brian Quinn, and published by Inter-Disciplinary Press (Oxford) the book is a wide discussion about the state of play and the state of games in contemporary culture.



This is what I call a level upgrade!

CLICK HERE to buy!

Below, you can read the book's synopsis:

"Mappings the Digital: Cultures and Territories of Play is an interdisciplinary discussion about the state of play and the state of games in contemporary culture. This volume takes a critical look and how our cultures and territories are being renegotiated through our engagement with digital media, games, and tools. This volume argues broadly that our tangible world, and our understanding of it, are being renegotiated and remapped by the digital worlds with which we engaged. Specifically, the chapters in this volume analyse linguistic changes; unique in-game cultures and behaviours; and new methods for communicating across real and perceived boundaries, for understanding cultural experiences, and for learning through play. Drawing from the global expertise of scholars within the fields of Cultural Studies, Game Studies, Foreign Language, Science and more, this volume bridges academic boarders to assemble a cohesive and authoritative resource on digital culture and play".

#GoGamers

Adding some entertainment in advertising campaigns

I like to show Brazilian examples of advergaming. First of all, because I’m Brazilian. Second, because Brazil has a rich field of excellent examples to illustrate this contemporary kind of advertising, which uses games in its core.



Today, I bring one very interesting example to discuss here: one app created for Vivo (one of the big mobile companies in our country) that mixes gaming language, educational concepts and rewarding. The app’s name is UNLOCK LESSONS, and the idea is to put some serious content in children’s mobile devices for everyday life. Every time the child will unlock their phone, they must answer a quiz question about some scholar content.

Check the video below to understand:



This kind of advertising piece proves a possibility to transform serious content in a funny content with relevant results. About this subject, Miller (2004, p.69) says “The special qualities of games and stories are equally valuable when it comes to projects that are designed to be more functional—works that marry entertainment to some other task. Such projects are used for education (edutainment), information (infotainment), and advertising (advergaming). They also serve a role in training, promotion, and marketing. Game and story elements can make such interactive works far more palatable to the target users, and more successful at accomplishing their intended mission”. I’m gathering some good examples of Brazilian advergames for a more complete post. Wait for news.

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References:

MILLER, Carolyn Handler. Digital storytelling: a creator’s guide to interactive entertainment. Oxford: Focal Press, 2004.

Tooth Protectors: an Atari advergame

This game is one of my favorite examples for my game design classes. In 1983, in a partnership with Atari, Johnson & Johnson launched a curious game named Tooth Protectors. The experimental project inserted some features from the modern advergames in its interface and it’s possible to see the brand in the opening screen with some product placement (toothbrush, dental floss and mouthwash).



The game mechanics is very simple and the player must protect teeth from the attack of the cavities. You earn points by folding the harmful elements that fall from the top of the screen. In the video below you can have an idea of the game:



Despite being very simple, Tooth Protectors is the precursor of many examples we see today and a good example of how to do a “ludic archeology”. It’s important to observe that the main branding elements - even in a rudimentary way - are all represented in the proposed interface.



We have other good examples of advergames from Atari platform. I intend to discuss deeply in another post doing a presentation with other examples of different gaming generations.

Go gamers!