SPONSORS GO APE FOR ADVERGAMES

Sure, it will remind veteran gamers of “Donkey Kong” whose deadly rolling barrels forced poor Mario to leap over them or die. But, this time, it's Peter Jackson's King Kong who is rolling Pringles cans and the goal is to … well, sell potato chips and movie tickets.

Last week, at the Ad:Tech show in Manhattan , a record 8,700 attendees participated in seminars on technology-based marketing and new and creative ways to reach consumers. One of those methods -- which happens to be “riding the crest of a wave” -- is advergames, says Dave Evan s, a member of the Ad:Tech board of advisors.

“I remember back at Ad:Tech 2003, when I started talking about how successful an advergame had been for Coast Soap, the entire back of the room was filled with blue Proctor & Gamble (P&G) shirts taking notes,” recalls Evan s, the VP of social media and co-founder of Digital Voodoo in Houston. “Clearly, a lot of smart, progressive thinkers are noticing how well these techniques work and want to try them for themselves.”

In just the last few months alone, there has been an outpouring of advergames -- from " Island Hop " and " Where's My Hotel? " from Orbitz to " Mojo Master " from Axe Body Spray and " Candy Stand " from LifeSavers.

But the one with the highest profile of late is “King Kong Jump”, P&G's first global go-‘round with advergames -- and the $60-billion Cincinnati-based consumer goods manufacturer couldn't be more pleased with the results. Why shouldn't it be? In the almost three weeks since the game was posted, over 503,000 unique players have challenged Kong approximately a million times so far -- or an average of four attempts per player. [An up-to-the-minute count can be obtained on ViralChart.com where the game is at the top of this week's Top 20 Advergames worldwide list.

Oli Christie, the creative director at UK-based Inbox Digital, which developed “King Kong Jump,” attributes much of its success to the “viral” nature of the campaign which is his company's specialty.

Christie explains: “Essentially it's like pyramid marketing. Let's say I send the game's URL out to 20 employees and they each send it to 20 friends. Suddenly, 400 people have the game. And, hopefully, because many of them like the game, they'll each voluntarily send the game's URL on to their friends. That's classic viral marketing where it literally spreads like a virus. Another way to spread the word is through the many viral Web sites. We send them links to our games and, if the people who run the sites like our games, they'll post the links. People regularly visit those Web sites because they know they contain links to fun things; they go there just to kill the time and have a laugh. That's another big part of viral marketing.”

The game even includes a link that, when clicked, instantly sends a “Here's a fantastic new game called King Kong Jump” e-mail to whatever friend a gamer specifies, together with the gamer's highest score and global ranking. Another button permits players to start a league. Clearly, competition is a big factor in motivating gamers to play “just one more time.”

VIRAL'S “TRUST FACTOR”

Viral works, says Digital Voodoo's Evan s, because of its “trust factor. When you find out about a game because your friend e-mailed you and said ‘Wow, you should see this game,' it's getting the endorsement of a person you know. Any time we do surveys comparing the effectiveness of TV advertising, radio, print, online, and word of mouth, word of mouth always ranks at or near the very top.”

“King Kong Jump” is typical of the casual mini-game. It can be played online without a download, can be learned in seconds, and grabs the gamer with its “addictive” quality -- it starts simple but becomes increasingly more difficult, causing the gamer to want to play again in order to score higher. As the instructions say: “You are the hero and you've got three lives to rescue your girl. Stay alive and get as far as you can.” The trick is to move, duck, or jump as Kong rolls Pringles cans in your path.

The path to developing the game was just as challenging, according to Inbox Digital's Christie: “We had sent previous examples of our work to P&G's European headquarters in Geneva, and I guess they liked what we did because, when they were about to start a new campaign, we were one of three agencies that received a brief requesting ideas.”

October-December is the time of year when P&G does the largest chunk of its Pringles sales and “it's the quarter when we're always looking to do some exciting initiative,” says Yael Jaglom, the product's assistant brand manager in Geneva . “In order to generate some hype for the holidays, we wanted to link up with Universal Studios to tie Pringles to the Kong movie (scheduled to release on Dec. 14), which is a great fit for our target consumers. Also, Pringles is all about fun and movies are about fun, and movies are also a snacking occasion, so it all fit together perfectly.”

Universal was unable to provide a spokesperson by press-time.

Jaglom had originally wanted the campaign to focus on a movie clip that would meld the worlds of Pringles and Kong but, she said, Inbox Digital's proposal convinced her that an advergame was the better way to go.

“Oli [Christie] came in dressed as a gorilla and, I must say, his presentation was really amazing and very amusing,” adds Jaglom. “He convinced us that an advergame would excite customers without the brand being shoved in their faces. There's a very thin line between something that is fun and branded … but not too branded.”

P&G's instructions to Inbox Digital were twofold: Raise awareness of Pringles and drive traffic to the “King Kong Jump” micro-site -- and then onto the Pringles Web site where, in some countries (where it is legal), there is a contest with a grand prize trip to New Zealand where director Peter Jackson filmed the soon-to-be-released movie.

BUY MORE CHIPS, BUY MORE CHIPS

“Our creative teams brainstormed all sorts of games,” says Christie. “The biggest challenge was to create something fun, one which utilizes the product but doesn't have the gamer thinking, ‘Uh oh, here's Pringles trying to flog us to buy more of their chips.'

In the original design, the game was set in a warehouse but, during the approval stage, Universal asked to have it shifted to the jungle setting of Skull Island which seemed more in keeping with the movie.

“While most of the discussion was between P&G and the game developers,” says Jaglom, “Universal's feedback was taken into account throughout the whole process. Peter Jackson was on the list of approvers. I'd heard that, because “Kong” is his “baby,” he wanted to insure that everything that is done using Kong is done right.”

The process -- from mockup, to approval of the look-and-feel, to the decision about fonts and imagery and the “splash screen,” to actual programming -- took three Inbox Digital people eight weeks to complete. Christie says his company usually charges anywhere from 20,000-30,000 British pounds (approximately $35,000-$52,000) to develop a viral game.

Inbox Digital also created and hosted the “KingKongJump.com” Web site which enables the company to track every time someone plays the game. “We know every hit, how long they played, where they clicked, where they go,” says Christie. “I know that the game has been played in 151 different countries these last two weeks. I'd say the results have been amazing.”

Even though this is her first experience with an advergame campaign, P&G's Jaglom agrees. “We don't have that many benchmarks that we can use, but we are judging its effectiveness based on unique hits and, more importantly, how many people actually end up on the Pringle's Web site. For us, it's about getting our message out there, and I must say that, so far, the numbers have been very encouraging.”

While the campaign is only in its third week, Jaglom is very positive about creating additional advergame campaigns in the future.

“Not only are we reaching consumers,” she says, “but we seem to be generating excitement for our customers -- the retailers -- as well. While I can't be more specific, I can say that we already have one advergame campaign planned, and I'm sure future initiatives will also be accompanied by games.”

Her best advice to others considering advergame campaigns is to “do it, but be careful and do it in a subtle way that is fun, exciting, addicting, and easy for the consumer, but not too much in their face.”

As an advertising executive, Digital Voodoo's Evan s is just as excited about the potential of advergames. “While it's hard to predict whether a game like ‘King Kong Jump' will sell potato chips or movie tickets, what I do know is that it will create awareness for both products.

“The ad blocker on my PC will make certain that I never see the pop-up ads that Orbitz used to create. And the TIVO on my home TV can remove the commercials from any shows that I watch. But when I choose to play this advergame because my buddy recommended it, one thing's for sure: Neither the name ‘Pringles' nor the name ‘King Kong' will be blocked from my view. And, in the near future, when I think of snack food or what movie to see, I just may think of Pringles and King Kong. That's the power of an advergame -- you invite it in. You play it, it's fun, and then you may pass it along to a friend who may feel the same way. I'd say that's pretty powerful stuff.”