Projects

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Mercury Man - Ignition Entertainment (Viral Film & Social Media)

www.weirdyetwonderful.com

Ignition Entertainment approached Stickee to create a campaign for their new game Mercury Hg. Available for download on XBLA and PSN, it challenges the gamer to try and keep a “mercury blob” intact by tilting its environment. The levels are filled with all kinds of crazy obstacles, uneven surfaces and moving objects.

So its an addictive puzzle based game that is genuinely fun to play but unlike most games there are no characters or narrative to base a concept on...so what do we do? Well...we create our own character, back story and make a mockumentary of course! The spoof documentary excerpt follows the life of Danish born Arron Josefsen also known as Mercury Man. The four minute online film is accompanied by a 30 second teaser and other short clips.

From the site…
Arron's Dad was a hat maker in his native Denmark and used mercury extensively in his studio. The substance's vapours, used for felting the hats, were attributed to causing disturbing physical and mental side-effects - hence the term 'mad as a Hatter'. Arron experienced mercurialism himself first hand when, as a child, he became obsessed by the substance and ingested the liquid. Against all odds Arron survived, but was left with some incredibly strange side-effects as a result.

The Mercury Man documentary is intended to be perceived as the first episode in the series entitled 'Weird Yet Wonderful'. Stickee has added validity to the films narrative by producing a spoof website as well as creating a mercury man Facebook page and giving Arron his own Facebook account. Users that choose to like the Mercury Man page will have access to extra 'behind the scenes' footage that will be released over the campaign duration. Users that choose to add Arron as a friend can have direct interaction with the 'Mercury' man himself.

The direct connectivity to the advertised product; 'Mercury HG' has been designed in such a way that it is an obvious click through for traffic without interfering with the believability of the narrative, showing as a sponsored banner within the site and as a liked page on the Facebook pages. Dialogue between Mercury Man and the 'Mercury HG' page owners also helps to re-affirm the story.

I Love Dragonquest - Square Enix (Interactive Film)

Square Enix wanted us to produce a viral campaign that would promote the European launch of Dragon Quest VIII. The franchise, one of the most successful and valuable in Japan, was to make its debut to a European audience which had as yet never heard of the series. The VIII was dropped from the name and Stickee were asked to produce a pan-European digital campaign.

Following the general success of video viral campaigns and ‘live’ webcam style interactive, such as “the subservient chicken”, we decided to push this concept and produce a fully interactive viral video. The aim of the viral was simple: To communicate the message that Dragon Quest is so good that you won’t want to stop playing. We illustrate this point by inviting users to try and disrupt Nobu Yamada, an avid DQ fan, from his world record attempt to play the longest ever game of Dragon Quest.

Users can interact with Nobu and his environment triggering a multitude of differing reactions. The game encourages the user to investigate the room which is full with Dragon Quest merchandise adding value to the brand. Once you raise Nobu’s temper to breaking point, he stops his game and begins venting his frustration at the player; ranting, gesturing and other crazy behaviour.

The game has three levels. Nobu has three different reactions depending on how distracted he becomes. So, he can appear unfazed, be slightly irritated or become furious. The game is programmed so that each time a user clicks on a ‘distraction object’ one of three videos is played and Nobu’s reaction is displayed. There is a correct sequence of distractions and the closer the user gets to this over the three levels the angrier Nobu becomes. The winning combination enables the user to stop him playing altogether and results in him literally fuming.

The beauty of using a Japanese character was that aside from adding a humorous aspect to the game it made it very easy to cater for a European audience as we simply used European subtitles.

The viral proved really popular and was mentioned in a number of industry magazines. The Viral achieved over 80,000 plays over a three month period and was sent on to friends over 10,000 times.

Dogging - MTV (Animations for Mobile)

MTV Europe approached Stickee to help develop an original animation concept for mobile. The main objectives were to create a pilot series that was sympathetic to the limitations of the phone screen, based on royalty free content and each episode lasted around 60 seconds.

The concept behind the 'Dogging' animation series cleverly references popular music artists through the idea of pets who look like their owners. Gratuitous dog gags, genuinely funny scripts and the portrayal of artists as canines has produced a hilarious pilot series.

Stickee managed the entire production process from character selection through to script writing and in-house animation. A stunning visual style was created using bold vector graphics. We had to limit overly complex animation because of the limitations of screen size, but 2D and 3D techniques were combined to produce an impression of depth and smooth movement that works exceptionally well on mobile phones.

CBBC Christmas - CBBC (Microsite & Game)

CBBC’s brief to us was to create a Christmas presence on their site. The concept of the project was to reflect CBBC Christmas broadcast programming and prime releases such as Chronicles of Narnia and The Brothers Grimm. The main objective of the site was to include a mechanic that would bring kids back to the site throughout the Xmas period to drive traffic to CBBC content.

At the heart of the project would be a portal microsite linking to an interactive adventure game, Christmas downloads and CBBC content.

We developed a strong central narrative that could encapsulate the game, portal and online content, creating a fully integrated project. The fable-like tale, ‘The Magic Globe’, followed our hero, Jacob; a small boy who gets sucked into an old snow globe, only to find another world. The story, told through five chapters, formed the basis of the interactive game, a ‘point-and-click’ adventure where Jacob must collect hidden cogs throughout four quirky levels, ultimately rejuvenating Immanuel’s magical snow-blower and bringing snow back to the land once more.

Our solution to keep kids coming back to the site throughout December, in true Christmas spirit, was to offer kids a completely original six-track ‘CBBC Christmas Album' using the music featured within the game. The downloads were offered on the site with an advent-style release schedule. Alongside these music tracks were five audio versions of the story that were narrated by CBBC presenters. The audio stories were unlocked by collecting the cogs from within the game and other cogs that were hidden within the content pages of the microsite. Personal progress was stored on a page within the site, with the album artwork and a snowy animation on the site appearing when all the cogs had been found.

If that wasn’t enough, the character and level artwork was used to create downloadable cards, decorations, garlands, wrapping paper and an entire ‘Magic Globe’ diorama.

The site proved so successful for CBBC that they decided to re-use it the following year.

Ludo - MTV (Animations for TV Bumper & Banners)

The brief from MTV was to create a small, integrated campaign to support the phase one relaunch of MTV's channels.

After a few ideas we realised that whatever we did, we wanted it to be in black and white only; banners seem to be on an exponential path of ever elaborate bells & whistles, glaring colours and are becoming increasingly intrusive. As an antidote to this we wanted to create a much more bold, pared-down and stark creative with an abstract narrative. We commissioned a Brazilian illustrator to create Ludo, the main character. With the addition of some Stickee-made beats and some head nodding action our vision was realised.

We received a lot of praise for the simplified creative approach to this project from both the client and our peers. Ludo worked hand-in-hand with the MTV brand and helped to raise its profile and awareness of the channels.

Final Fantasy XI - Square Enix (Viral Film)

Final Fantasy XI is a console and computer massive multiplayer online game developed and published by Square Enix. A major critical and commercial success, the game remains arguably the most popular title in an ongoing series, and Stickee was asked to promote it online!

The strap line for the campaign was ‘Get into the Game’; we decided to take this literally. We always talk about getting addicted to computer games; of course we do, in a virtual world, we are able to do things we can’t in real life! So, we asked a group of actors and fans to imagine they are really inside the world of Final Fantasy. A situation from Final Fantasy was described to them, for example we asked them to imagine they can cast fire balls from their hands. Individually, they were filmed acting out the scene.

Casting tapes are hilarious. People look uncomfortable, silly and generally embarrass themselves in an effort to secure the role. These cringe-worthy moments are priceless and the ‘raw’ look of the footage combined with the unpolished and unrehearsed actor performances had the potential to produce side-splitting results! We wanted to cast for typical stereotype characters and put them in these surreal game situations i.e. stereotypes doing something completely non-stereotypical and unexpected. For example, an attractive blonde girl is actually a stealthy FFXI ninja, a middle age mum is a black mage or a gruff 30 year-old cockney guy is actually a warrior samurai.

The viral videos were put out as banners on game sites and stood out a mile in terms of visual differentiation. We also put a compilation together and seeded it through youtube.

Oh yes...and that is famous glamour model Emily Scott on the reel....obviously doing this before reaching the height of her fame but she did seem to enjoy herself.

Fur TV - MTV (Microsite)

Fur TV is a series aired on MTV featuring a trio of rather crass puppets. To accompany the broadcast series a suitable digital platform was to be developed in line with the programme to promote the show’s values and add extra insight to the main character’s profiles and lifestyles.

For our creative solution we wanted to really focus on the personalities of the three lead characters in Fur TV. To incorporate all of the weird, wonderful, sick, sleazy, debauched and deviant escapades depicted in Fur TV and by its stars, we wanted to explore a map of the psychological profiles of Lapeno, Fat Ed and Mervin… by literally getting inside their warped heads.
Once in the realm of the inner conscious of these three mixed up individuals, visitors are presented with various mindless mini-games and small applications; a mish-mash of time-wasting, fast-food-inspired interactive nuggets - each reflecting the shows crass attitude, cutout plots, and hair-brained antics - allowing users to be immersed in a world of sick fantasy whilst getting to know the show and characters.

The final result is a highly interactive and creative site, which has had immediate success in supporting the Fur TV series online. Users have relished playing with all of the upload applications and time wasting games, and for the client the creative solution exceeded their expectations.

Super Volcano - BBC Worldwide (Edutainment Interactive)

BBC Worldwide commissioned Stickee to create an online interactive that would increase awareness of the Supervolcano docu-drama and provide additional content by expanding the main concepts introduced in the programme. The main requirements were that the interactive should not be too 'game-like' and suitable for the primary target audience of older children (12-15) and adults aged between 29 and 45.

Following some intensive research the main task was to simplify an incredibly complex scenario into 3 main issues: communication, transportation and emergency services. The strategy interactive places the user in the position of head of the Emergency Management Agency for the fictional Bluebear County. The player must then manage public awareness, organise traffic flows, identify hazard zones and establish refuge camps for evacuees within 6 minutes before the scenario plays through and the volcano erupts!

The final interactive successfully extends the programme experience by combining great design with engaging gameplay. The combination of an intuitive interface and ambient details such as the news ticker help create an engaging user experience.

Kate Walsh - Universal Music (Microsite)

Universal Music commissioned Stickee to create an online presence for Kate Walsh that would increase traffic and engagement of the artist’s audience. It should invite visitors to tell their friends about the site and the artist, and essentially spread the word about Kate.

Stickee designed a website for Kate to reflect her modern yet simple approach to life and music. The navigation of the site has a contemporary feel, using stylish imagery and fluid movement. Stickee picked out classic design items such as photo frames and mirrors using these as design details for displaying Kate’s videos and gallery. The overall look and feel of the site is organic and personal. Aspects such as the blogging page and the message board mean Kate’s fans can interact with their favourite artist within an environment which feels like Kate’s home.

The finished product was very well received by Kate’s fans. Messages left on the site often commented on the design and that they would intend to go to up and coming gigs of hers – proving the site a success for promoting her live tours and spreading awareness of Kate Walsh. The client and the artist herself also expressed their satisfaction that the appearance and navigation of the site was exactly what they had in mind as a good reflection of Kate’s branding and online persona.

Comedy Cabaret - BBC Radio 4 (Interactive Animation)

BBC Radio 4 wanted Stickee to create a campaign that would raise awareness of their new series of weekly comedy shows and help reinforce their position as the channel for fresh new comedy entertainment.

Stickee designed a funny interactive viral comedy show simulating an 1800’s vaudeville style of theatre with Radio 4’s top comedians taking centre stage. Viewers can interact with the props on stage to select their favourite caricatured acts, all taken from popular Radio 4 comedy sketches. The caricature designs took inspiration from the popular American adult cartoon ‘South Park’ and the comedy clips were sourced from shows by Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higgins, Ross Noble and Laura Solon.

Stickee broadened the target age group by combining a classic cabaret style show with up to the minute comedy from popular talents that people of all ages will know. The campaign lasted for 3 months and gained on average 70,000 views per month.

Glastonbury Games - EMI (Viral Game)

EMI Catalogue commissioned Stickee to create a viral game to promote awareness and drive pre-release orders for the first DVD celebrating the last 10 years of the Glastonbury Festival.

Stickee designed and developed a targeted game inspired by comedic real experiences and our memories of the festival. In a haze of nostalgia we expanded the idea that the whole event can be a bit of an endurance into the 'Glastonbury Games', drawing inspiration from the 80s classic button-basher 'Track and Field'. Simple controls require players to hammer/slide/plunge their way through 3 levels to accumulate 700+ points in order to enter a competition for exclusive VIP tickets. The game is set in a beautifully illustrated slice of Glastonbury, which acts as the main interface and provides a visual overview of all three event locations.

The finished product had very high production values for the clients spend, is very addictive and resulted in many people return visits. Press coverage stated the kind words 'Tiny animations make big impression' and New Media Age covered the project in their pages. On top of that, and most importantly, it helped sell lots of DVDs! The viral was seeded to EMI Catalogue and Glastonbury databases. Feedback has been very positive and the site has been linked up to numerous community sites and games portals.

Magic Mansion - CBBC (Game)

We receievd a pretty open brief of creating a new game for the Childrens BBC website that was based around a magical theme.

We created the 'Magic Mansion'. A one or two player platform game featuring the characters Eduardo and Demelza, the children of the master magician Joseph Frost. Their father has been kidnaped and his magic sabotaged causing the release of rampaging rabbits, crazed playing cards and half sawn assistants.

The child works through each level collecting keys whilst avoiding the nasty magic to unlock the door to progress to the next stage. In each level there are a number of bonus items that can be collected to increase your score and in true Mario Brothers style the scores are worked out at the end of each level dependant on how many lives were lost, the time it took and the bonuses collected. There is also a magic hat that randomly appears for seconds on each level. If the child can collect it before it disappears then they are taken to a timed bonus level that allows the further collection of bonus items. Scores are kept in a high score table for a competitive element.

As an added incentive to the game mechanic we placed video of a real magician performing a trick at the end of each level. As the child progresses through the levels the secrets behind the magic tricks are exposed allowing them to perform their own magic.

Magic Mansion is a playable platform game that is one of the most popular games on the CBBC games platform.

The Magic Numbers - EMI (Viral Interactive)

EMI Interactive approached us with a concept to create a multi user application based on the artwork of the 'Love Me Like You' single with viral potential.

The cover artwork for the single concept used fridge magnets on a dark background, a visual that brought back memories of a project we had previously produced for .Net magazine; a screensaver using movable fridge magnets. Taking this concept further we drew an alphabet of magnets matching the cover font and pastel covers, added multi-user capabilities so up to 20 people in 4 different rooms could interact together and created a beautifully designed interface. Users can choose to create words, build pictures and structure sentences, or alternatively, work to destroy others creations and become a habitual annoyance. They also have the chance to send a fridge magnet message to a friend which invites them to join in the fun.

My Portal Story - Oracle / BEA (Viral Interactive)

Oracle's main objectives were to continue the momentum behind WebLogic Portal (WLP) demand and to build pipeline for the following 4-6 months. We had to revitalize the essence of the previous campaign, but narrow the focus to the latest WLP version. We concentrated on positioning BEA WebLogic Portal 10.0 as the next generation Portal application, while being super creative throughout.

The concept was to create an unusual, immersive and personalised interactive viral, housed within a unique microsite. Recipients of BEA’s mailing list would receive an email prompting them to find their colleagues happy portal ending. On landing at the special microsite, visitors can choose from a drop-down menu of fields in a beautifully stylish, illustrated fairytale book, and create a story for a friend or colleague in various jobs and sectors of BEA’s target audience.

From these selections, a witty and specifically personalised fairytale style story is created. It begins by telling a story of woe, describing for example how Brian’s current portal technology just wasn’t doing a good enough job. The story then goes on to explain how the perfect portal solution can be found with WebLogic portal 10.0, providing key links for registration, newsletter sign-up and case study information.

The client delivered exceptionally positive feedback on all areas of this project and the statistical results were comfortably met. This project has gained Stickee the unusual experience of successfully working on B2B marketing.

Car Park Pong - London Science Museum (Game)

To celebrate the history of computer games, The Science Museum held the ‘Game On’ Exhibition. In order to raise awareness of this they required a fun and exciting interactive marketing campaign that would drive traffic to their website.

We decided that to hit a large audience and varied demographic, we should design and build a viral game that would mirror the core themes of the exhibition. Our idea for ‘Car Park Pong’ came from our desire to create a game with a real life element, fused with a classic retro style game. The game is based on the computer classic ‘Pong’ of which even the least enthusiastic of gamers is familiar. We chose to use two cars in a car park, ‘ponging away’ and a shopping trolley as the ball. This brought the real world element to the game and meant that people other than regular gamers (but not excluding them) would find it funny and worthy to send to their friends.

One of the key objectives was to get users of the viral to attend the exhibition. We achieved this by enticing the users with a money off coupon if they sent the game onto their friends.

Eggbods - Avery Dennison (Intelectual Property)

Our brief was to create a new character based I.P. for Avery Dennsion's back to school range. The character(s) needed to appeal to both males and females in the early school years (ages 11 to 13) and would be printed onto their entire stationery range from folders to pencil cases. The I.P. needed to be supported with a microsite.

We created the 'eggbods' brand. Egg shaped characters all with a similar base look to them. The base egg body was then characterised with more detail making them similar beings but unique in look and personality... a positive message which we hoped would promote the acceptance of diversity. The first set of character designs we completed were random based on contemporary human character influences. Based on the success of this first character set we were then commissioned to do a second, naming it 'eggbods through time', we time ordered characters using key historic styles. Mixing these characters up with more funny entertaining references taught a subtle history lesson and Avery found through research that children were interested in finding out more about the characters that they were not familiar with.

We supported the IP with a flash website in which a child could either choose their own eggbod or create their own custom designed eggbod. After they were happy with their chosen eggbod they could then print it out on other Avery Dennison 'blank canvas' products including their infamous sticky labels. The result was an increase in the cross selling of products that the target audience would never had otherwise engaged with.

RTS Futures - Royal Television Society (CMS Website)

The Royal Television Society (RTS) - the leading forum for discussion and debate on all aspects of the television community hired Stickee to create a new digital platform and roll out a community based online social network and user-content showcase.

Stickee designed and built the new RTS Futures brand and site to be targeted at under 30s interested in television.

At the core of the site is a community based social network which allows members to interact with each other in a number of ways including discussion groups, one-to-one messaging and blogs. The platform will allow the online community to voice their opinions, learn more about television, meet their peers and interact with people with similar interests. The site also features an online screening rooms which allows aspiring creatives such as filmmakers to upload their content and share it with the community.

Stickee carried out usability tests on the initial wireframes and design concepts with people who have an interest in television and are under 30. Stickee allow the RTS to have complete control over every aspect of the site’s content with a bespoke built CMS. Stickee also created online tools which will allow the RTS to monitor members’ activities and identify issues which should be addressed.

Jakers! - PBS Kids (Games)

To support the launch of the Piggley Winks show for the PBS 'Kids' channel in the USA, Stickee was commissioned to produce a set of six themed edutainment games for the microsite. The games, aimed at a target audience of 4-7 years, needed to reflect the brand values of the show, harnessing imagination, developing social skills and sharing lessons through storytelling.

Working to PBS specifications and taking advice from veteran Interactive Media Educational Consultant, Adrienne Schure, Stickee developed six games designed to inspire interaction between children and adults alike. Play was encouraged over competition and this was supported by extra incentives such as the congratulations page and printable award certificates.

The final games combine rich, colourful graphics and 3D environments with well balanced gameplay. The games have so far had over 500,000 unique visitors and have since been resold to the BBC.

Beat the Boss - CBBC (Game)

Beat the Boss was a brand new series of programmes produced by the BBC for CBBC. It pitched a team of entrepreneurial children against a team of business people in a battle to design and promote a new kids product. CBBC asked us to create an online version of the game for 6 – 12 year olds.

We created a game where the player competes against and aims to ‘beat the boss’ who is computer generated and ‘semi random’. The player must select the different product components to construct a bicycle in level one and a trainer in level two, to best suit the style of the target individual (a randomly chosen child – any one of 6 children, 3 girls and 3 boys, each of whom was sporty/adventurous, astute/practical or hip/funky)

The original brief was to create a one level game. Six months after the game going live, CBBC remarked that Beat the Boss had been one of their most successful games on the site for this age group, consequently we were asked to create an extra level to support the return of a new series.

Deep Blue - BBC Worldwide (Interactive & Screensaver)

BBC Worldwide used the footage from the BBC's successful show 'Blue Planet' to compose a film version. With a new musical score by George Fenton which tied in with the video it was seen in similar respects to Disney's 'Fantasia', using natural history of the oceans instead of cartoons. We were simply asked to produce an interactive and a screensaver which would appeal to an international target audience and sit within a promotional micro site which the BBC interactive team were producing themselves.

The main interactive was based around the actual build of the film. We used the premise of cutting original footage and then editing it to a musical score to come up with the idea of giving the user the same control with a set number of resources. The idea developed into the production of a web based movie editing studio. The user can choose from a large selection of video clips in the archive and lay them down on a timeline. They can then add visual effects such as a fade-in as well as choosing a musical score. The user could then save their progress allowing them to retrieve their productions for later use. The idea for the screensaver was to create a sustainable promotion. Set in an ocean scene, we created different fish as separate entities. Each fish had its own look and its own behaviour. The idea was setup so that fish could be released in strategic stages prior to the films release.

The result is a beautiful looking, functional set of products which integrate with the films theme. They are entertaining, educational and did a great job of promoting the film.

Blog

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Find us on Facebook
February 28th, 2012
  • News

We have a Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/stickee-Digital-Creative-Agency/1943352739...

We will be posting our updates, news and behind the scenes images up on our page. Please visit the page and click the 'like' button....that is, assuming you do like!

Find us on Facebook
February 28th, 2012

We have a Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/stickee-Digital-Creative-Agency/1943352739...

We will be posting our updates, news and behind the scenes images up on our page. Please visit the page and click the 'like' button....that is, assuming you do like!

Find us on Facebook
February 28th, 2012
  • News

We have a Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/stickee-Digital-Creative-Agency/1943352739...

We will be posting our updates, news and behind the scenes images up on our page. Please visit the page and click the 'like' button....that is, assuming you do like!

Ho Ho Ho – Have a very Stickee Christmas
November 17th, 2011
  • Stuff

This year, instead of sending out the usual corporate Christmas card or creating some sort of Christmas technology gimmick, we wanted to send something a bit more meaningful, something that conveyed true Christmas spirit, something that would engage the whole family and create a strong emotional response. With these idea’s in mind we set about what we do best, being creative!

We came up with a very simple concept that centers around the idea of Santa writing letters to your kids, getting them to help him and you out in the run up to the big day. Santa has six letters in total, five of these letters involve a task to be carried out by your kids (who will need your help) and the final letter which is a thank you from Santa to the kids for everything they have done. The tasks involve things like; sending Santa a Christmas list, creating a ‘Santa Stop Here’ sign, hanging stockings and doing good deeds for one another.

The campaign has gone live today and you can access it it here

All you need to do is follow the instructions on the first page and your away!

How Lessons From The Games Industry Can Help Digital Thinking
February 20th, 2011
  • Articles

by Steve Gray – Creative Director – Stickee

I’ve heard a lot of my peers talking about their product design influences from other established sectors, normally being the ones they came from prior to their digital careers, which include amongst others, different marketing disciplines, publishing, music and film. For the record I went straight into working within the digital realm from uni so have no such background.

It might be through my own lack of understanding or foresight but I find some of these product influences a rather shallow way of looking at the possibilities of using a digital medium. I’m not suggesting that generic learning from these industries is a bad thing, on the contrary I believe a digital company can learn lots of things from any successful business in any sector but if we are talking about relevance to our thinking, our productions and the connections with our client’s audiences I believe some of the best examples come from the computer games industry.

The commercial computer games industry has now been around for just over 30 years, similar to how long I’ve been on the planet. My first experience with gaming was on a vintage ‘bat and ball’ Binatone TV System. This was not just mine, but many people’s first human-computer interaction. Although slightly crude, the early games of these days established the commercial viability of the sector. The companies that invested in the development of computers purely for gaming and entertainment purposes soon became household names. With newer consoles came more power which led to better graphics, depth and gameplay. However you feel about gaming, it was the first commercial sector to successfully fuse creative, computer arts and computer science in the making of a product.

A games development house is in many ways similar to that of a digital agency. It is a service (people) orientated business that shows its results in an intangible digital product. They also have similar considerations to us in the design of such a product including understanding audience, creativity, usability, information architecture, innovation of technology, good design etc.. and have the potential in their medium to combine different types of media .

So what can we learn from games? I believe the most important lesson to be learnt is that of purpose. Since the introduction of the very first games, the game designer has constantly had to ask themselves ‘Why would the user bother doing this?’ You can see how this works by taking a simple example of an old game like Super Mario Brothers, first released in 1985 for the NES. What’s the point of collecting a coin? …If you collect 100 you’ll get an extra life. So what the point of an extra life? …well it increases the chance of you getting further in the game and getting a high score. Why would they want to get to the end of the game? …because that is how you save the princess! And why would they care about the score? …because they’ll have a table of highest scores at the end, encouraging them to be competitive with themselves and others. Game mechanics often have an answer to everything.

Tying this reward ethos into the games purpose is something almost every successful game does. It is simple to achieve but puts meaning back into the very activity of playing the game. Without this linked method of thinking all gamers would be playing in parks and climbing trees like their mothers wanted them to. Applying this methodology into campaign creative can drastically change the user experience from a ‘just following the direction of the traffic’ into ‘I feel like I’ve achieved something..thanks brand X’.

We can learn different lessons from the different game genres. Certain genres of game cleverly combine characters and narrative with purpose, many of which allow you to personalise your identity and make choices in the flow of the narrative. Personalisation, narrative and character are three important ways to encourage an emotional connection with a campaign and can be seen in successful examples of emotive campaigns such as the Metropolitan Police campaign to combat knife crime ‘choose a different ending‘ by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. The powerful psychology used in this campaign by experimenting with either a righteous or evil path had already been used 7 years ago within games such as Fable for Xbox. There is little need to use specific examples in demonstrating the benefits of certain game genres. Modern role playing games (RPG’s) for example are more or less expected to engage a user for over 50 hours.

I also like to learn lessons from the industry’s mistakes. There was a time in gaming where they, like us, were concerned with file sizes. It forced the industry to be technically creative with their offerings and to make edits on things that didn’t work. With the rapid progression of console power came the abuse of its capabilities. Some studios started to become more obsessed about getting as much onto the media as possible to the detriment of the gameplay, whether it was polygon count or lots of pointless full motion video. With the popularity of social gaming and mobile devices game developers are getting back into the spirit of a true user experience…the lesson to be learnt from this is not to use technology for technology’s sake and just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

So if gaming is such a great digital influence why don’t we just port games online. Well that’s being done and with some success too, particularly in the viral market. In fact a couple of former Stickee guys set up a company called Nitrome doing exactly that, have produced some lovely retro pixel web games and have deservedly been successful.

Although online allows you to do most of the things that can be done in games the fact still remains that a game is a game and a campaign is a different animal. A game is a selfish medium that, despite what gaming company’s trying to make some ad revenue say, doesn’t really like to share its space with brands or messaging. Users playing games online have had their expectations set by console games and therefore demand an uninterrupted, message free experience after they start to play. Also used incorrectly the very benefits I was identifying in game mechanic can add a level of complexity that isn’t necessarily suitable for most brands. Campaign success more than often comes from simplicity and clarity.

Gaming has helped to shape the way both I and our business thinks for the better. It has made a direct contribution into the definition of our ethos and our core values; Emotive, Engaging and Meaningful. Values which all successful games seem to have considered. If you have never tried to play computer games, why not give it a go and whilst doing so think about how some of your experience can be translated into a simple online creative.

I still have an affection for games but choose not to start playing the kind of games that demand the investment of a small part of my life. Instead I thought I’d move onto films for a quick entertainment fix but watched one of the 24 series and then bought the 7 series box set…maybe I should go back to gaming as I don’t think an article entitled ‘How Lessons From Jack Bauer Can Help Digital Thinking’ has the same relevance to it.

Media Circus
November 1st, 2010
  • News

Last Friday 29th November saw the weird and wonderful (plus guests) congregate at our studios for the Media Circus night, complete with music from Mubu, circus performers from Plumerella and an amazing surreal theatrical experience by Bootworks Theatre.

The event, attended by over 300 people, was the finale of the Invisible City Awards run by Creative Republic to celebrate the talent within Birmingham’s creative industries.

We all had a great night and we wanted to thank everyone who was involved particularly Karl Binder (middle of pic) for working so hard and making it such a great night for all the nominees and studio residents.

Photo by Adrian Burrows

Stickee Contributes to Digital Book
October 29th, 2010
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Digital Birmingham have printed a book (looks more like a well produced magazine to us) entitled ‘Stories from a digital city’ to coincide with last week’s ‘Hello Digital’ activity across the city of Birmingham. Our Creative Director, Steve Gray contributed an article to the section ‘How it gets bigger’ alongside other personalities such as Grand Design’s Kevin McCloud and Maverick Television’s Jonnie Turpie. The book is made up from 33 articles posted into 5 chapters; how it began, how it works, how it gets bigger, how it gets better & the next level. We’ve been told there was an initial run of 10,000 so no doubt you’ll see a few of these books (magazines) lying around digital areas of Birmingham.

Hello Digital
October 11th, 2010
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Birmingham’s Hello Digital Week runs from 18-22 October 2010 and comprises a number of events celebrating the city’s achievements against the best in the world. Hello Digital will open up the debate on the impact and importance of technologies across the broadest cross section of industries; provide a platform to build links and share digital best practice and position Birmingham firmly at the heart of digital innovation.

As part of the Hello Digital week, tickets will be available for a 2-day conference named ‘hello business’ which offers insight, advice and support from a network of leading experts, helping businesses better understand how to make the most of digital technologies.

Our Creative Director, Steve Gray will be speaking in the panel discussion ‘Marketing Digitally’ at the ICC from 12:15 – 13:15 alongside other industry leaders.

On a lighter note, we had to resist the urge to photoshop the message from Meshed Media’s Chris Unitt but seeing as he is an ex solicitor he’d probably have us for defamation.

For more information on Hello Digital visit www.hellodigital.net

For more information on Hello Business and to buy tickets for the event visit www.hellobusiness.net