BRANDING UNBOUND

New Location-Based Mobile Games Open Up Fun - And Ad Opportunities

With the iPhone opening up, it seems like a lot of people I know are trying to figure out new apps to develop for the upcoming iPhone app store.

Usually, this ends up being a conversation about games. And usually I end up saying how boring it is to create a standard portable game for an iPhone and completely miss the point that any old hand held can run a game.

Why not, I always ask, take advantage of the mobile phone's unique value proposition - the fact that it can bring you out into the real world. Why not, the conversation usually flows, use location to map games on top of the real world, ala the HP video shown here, called Roku's Reward.

More and more companies are waking up to the possibilities - not just to create cool games, but to introduce new advertising models. I can see a day when the conversation about outdoor ad buys delineating between real billboards and virtual billboards in the same exact location, at least in games set in a a more modern milieu.

(In fact, I can see a day when Pepsi might buy virtual space that sits on top of Coke's real world space so gamers immersed in a virtual/real-world adventure see only the Pepsi sign.)

At any rate, I received some news from a Munich-based company that's taking steps to make this kind of thing a reality.

Orbster GmbH says it has launched the beta phase of the multiplayer location-based game GPS Mission. 

According to the company, any player can create “missions” on www.gpsmission.com without programming knowledge, and then set puzzles for all fellow players that they can tackle and solve “out there”  with their GPS mobile phones.

The aim of GPS Mission is the completion of missions which are created by other players.

These can be created for any place in the world with a tool called Mission Designer. A mission may be a scavenger hunt enriched with information on sights to see and things  worth noting, may lead to a hidden cache or may simply be a guide to the creator’s favorite places. 

Players collect virtual gold placed and hidden by the mission’s creator and completes photo missions, which can be posted at the GPS Mission site. With the gold collected the player can purchase trophies, medals and badges as souvenirs and show his community which missions he has completed where. 

There's even a prize for the winner of the beta phase: an  invitation to the 2008 Oktoberfest in Munich.

I don't think this has anything to do with the iPhone; I believe it can work on any GPS-enabled phone.

And clearly, this particular offering is more along the lines of Jeep's GPS games than a virtual overlay of the real world.

But you can see the seeds of a Roku-style gaming environment in these types of games.

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I look at these possibilities (as well as sophisticated location-based team games in Britain, like "Uncle Roy All Around You"), and the ways brands are already taking advantage of them.

At stake: A whole new generation of gamers on the go.

Find out more about the book, here.

And more about GPS Mission, here.

Quick links:

BRANDING UNBOUND The Blog
BRANDING UNBOUND The Book
ADWEEK Magazines Excerpt
Rick Mathieson.com

QR Codes Inspire 'Killer' New Game

Is the killer app for QR codes a game called "QR-Kill"?

A blog called Random Culture posted an entry the other day about QR codes, and why marketers need to know what they are.

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, I take an in-depth look at QR (it's short for quick response, btw), and how marketers from fast food restaurants to airlines are using them to enable consumers to just point their camera phones at special symbols within ads, click any button, and launch a service.

And here at BRANDING UNBOUND the blog, I've looked at QR codes as the new "point and click" on many occasions over the last few years.

But buried in the Random piece was a mention of a game I hadn't heard of.

It's called "QR-Kill," and it sounds cool.

In the game, players will spread out over a city or area, and each will stick on his/her backs a QR-Code with his/her telephone and name embedded. They will have to kill each other capturing the code and sending an SMS.

They choose a mode like "There can be only one," ala "Highlander," where it's everyone against everyone else, or team modes and even sniper modes.

Sounds fun. Get the details, here.

Quick Links:

GENERATION WOW: The World of Multi-platform Marketing
BRANDING UNBOUND The Book
BRANDING UNBOUND IN ADWEEK Magazines
Rick Mathieson.com

 

Jeep’s Geocaching Contest Is Back

Jeep fans now have a third chance to catch the bug. The “travel bug,’ that is.

Jeep has launched the 2006 4x4 Geocaching Challenge, a follow up to the 2004/2005 editions I wrote about in BRANDING UNBOUND the book.

For those in the know, geocaching is a game where you use your GPS to search for hidden containers, called geocaches, that are hidden in parks, cities or the wilderness. Often, the boxes contain treasures such as CDs, books, maps, games, jewelry, even money. Two basic rules apply: If you find a cache, you must leave a log entry. Another: If you take something out of the cache, you have to put something new in.

REI, not surprisingly, is one brand name that has um, cached in on the trend. Toyota's Scion brand has done the same on college campuses. But perhaps no brand has capitalized on geocaching more than DaimlerChrysler’s Jeep.

As I recount in the book, in 2004, Jeep hosted a nationwide geocaching game that found participants searching for each of 4,000 Jeep 4x4 “travel bugs” hidden in locations around the nation. Each travel bug consisted of a yellow die-cast Jeep Wrangler with an official tag attached. Contestants could use a code listed on the tag to log onto an exclusive Web page to find directions to more travel bugs – and the chance to win one of three new Jeep 4x4s. Contestants sent in images taken from their camera phones and posted comments as they made their way to each cache – some complaining that other contestants had indeed pilfered many of the bugs.

This time, Jeep is hiding 5,500 a green die-cast Jeep Rescue Concept vehicle bugs, each with an official metal tag attached. And prizes include Garmin GPSMAP 60CX GPS units – and a 2007 Jeep Compass.

Quick links:

BRANDING UNBOUND The Book
ADWEEK Magazines Excerpt
GENERATION WOW
RickMathieson.com

New Service To Launch Real World/Mobile Game Hybrid

A new gaming network may soon be blending the real world with the mobile channel in a series of adventure games.

New York-based Live Games Network plans to roll out its first so-called "alternate reality game," "The Prague Files," in December. According to CNET, the game pits players in the US and beyond against each other in a two week bid to solve clues and battle for prizes - including an Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable game packs, and a trip to Prague.

Games such as this are reminiscent of an AGR I talk about in BRANDING UNBOUND the book, called "Uncle Roy All Around You," where teams compete online and offline to find a fictional character named Uncle Roy. "Prague" will not include a real-world component, but others might - building on the success of last year's real world/mobile world game "I Love Bees," from 42 Entertainment.

Personally, I'm holding out for "The Fiji Files."

Quick links:

BRANDING UNBOUND The Book
ADWEEK Magazines Excerpt
GENERATION WOW
RickMathieson.com

NBC Universal’s 'Blind Date' Launches Mobile Flirting Service

Roger Lodge may have met his match in mobile.

Lodge and that bastion of (fun but) poor taste that is “Blind Date” are bringing their boobs-and-buttheads mentality to the mobile phones everywhere.

San Francisco-based Hands-On Mobile has reached a deal with NBC Universal to develop a new service that enables users to flirt, chat and even date each other via mobile phones.

Called “Flirting by Blind Date,” the service gives viewers of “Date,” which Lodge hosts, the opportunity to set up blind dates of their own, by sending a text message where each user receives a series of quick questions asking about their dating preferences – favorite place for a date, for instance – and then are paired up with other viewers whose preferences match their own. Much SMS chatting and flirting no doubt ensure.

"This is a terrific extension of the Blind Date brand into the mobile space," says Betsy Bergman, Vice President, Marketing, NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution, in a statement.

For his part, Lodge will be back after a commercial break.

Quick links:

BRANDING UNBOUND The Book
ADWEEK Magazines Excerpt
GENERATION WOW
RickMathieson.com

‘LOST’ Is Found In Multiplatform Promotional Game

The Others are calling.

The producers and writer of the hit ABC television series ‘Lost’ have cooked up a multiplatform game, called “The Lost Experience” – a multimedia treasure hunt that makes us of email messages, fake Web sites, TV commercials, billboards and phone calls that mete out clues that will have real bearing on the television show’s storyline.

Those phone calls will obviously play out on mobile devices as well as landlines, and don’t rule out a text-messaging component. According to the New York Times, the game was the brainchild of the show’s writers, not by marketers. Perhaps that presages a new era in Hollywood content creation.

Time – and Nielsen ratings – will tell.

As for the combination of virtual world and real world gaming, I go into detail about such initiatives in both BRANDING UNBOUND the book and the blog. It really is a far more interesting model that makes the sum much more interesting than its parts.

For more on BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:

www.BrandingUnbound.com

For ADWEEK Magazines' recent excerpt from BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:

ADWEEK Excerpt

For all the buzz on BRANDING UNBOUND, visit:

What They're Saying About UNBOUND

Making of an ‘Urban’ Legend

Textually is reporting that London-based game companies Mind Candy and Perplex City teamed up to create their first live action “urban game” this last weekend. Over 200 participants roamed central London in a bid to complete a series of challenges. Players had to feed their answers and photographic evidence of their conquests into their cell phones in order to send them to Base Camp via SMS and MMS messages.

In BRANDING UNBOUND the book, about the London-based game, “Uncle Roy All Around You,” which pits twelve street participants and their virtual teammates in a race to find a fictitious character hiding somewhere in the city. Clues are sent to players’ mobile devices, while virtual teammates access a map of the city online in order to help guide street players to various destinations that might include Uncle Roy’s hideout.

Sure sounds a lot more fun than a game of mobile Poker.

For more on BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:

www.BrandingUnbound.com

For ADWEEK Magazines' recent excerpt from BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:

ADWEEK Excerpt

Mobile Gaming Gets In Gear

Speaking of today's WSJ, there's also another piece on the burgeoning market for mobile games.

Last week, I mentioned how videogame giant EA acquired mobile gaming phenom Jamdat. Well, there's good reason. According to the Journal, Verizon Wireless believes mobile games could go into hyper-drive over the next few years, accounting for $10 billion worldwide by 2010. That's up from $3 billion worldwide today.

These figures mirror the IDC figures I cite in BRANDING UNBOUND the book, but there seems to be a coalescence around these numbers that add weight.

The big wave of activity seems to be centered on multiplayer games that enable gamers to compete against rivals across the room or clear around the world. Sprint Nextel, for one, set up a venue whereby gamers can play games on the PC and the handset. Since it's launch in March, over 700,000 Sprint subscribers have signed up.

Still, it remains to be seen if hard-core gamers will cotton to games played on postage-sized screens for long periods of times. And let's face it, stripped down versions of games don't seem that compelling, especially when you have to figure out how to use the keypad on the cell phone to play them.

To me, the more interesting facet of mobile gaming comes in what I call "Real World" Gaming, which mixes mobile and Internet-based action with real world locales. In the book, for instance, I talk about "Uncle Roy All Around You," a popular game in the UK that finds street teams and online teams working together to find a fictional person hidden in a real city. And games like Mobzombies and Monopoly Live are increasingly popular as well.

The point: Mobile is about games you can take with you any place.

Why not make the place part of the game?

For more on BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:

www.BrandingUnbound.com

And to see my recent presentation at the Microsoft Leadership Forum, visit:

MS Leadership Forum Replay

For ADWEEK Magazines' recent excerpt from BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:

ADWEEK Excerpt

You Sunk My Battleship (Via SMS)

Hey, whatever sinks your boat.

New Zealand mobile services company Telecom Mobile and experiential ad agency Touch/Case have created an SMS promotion inspired by the classic Milton-Bradley game BATTLESHIP. According to Adrants, the player who wins an SMS game to locate a virtual version of the HMNZS Wellington will get to push a button to blow up the REAL Wellington, which will then become an artificial marine reef and diving attraction. Oh, and there's treasure, too: $150,000 worth of televisions, mobile phones, Microsoft X Box consoles and more.

I talk a lot about virtual/real-world game promotions in BRANDING UNBOUND the book, including "Uncle Roy All Around You," a game that finds online and offline teams searching real city streets for a virtual character using SMS to communicate. Done right, games like these represent an opportunity for brands (especially, perhaps, online brands) to extend their presence into an exciting new environment: The real world.

To find out more about BRANDING UNBOUND the book, visit:

www.BrandingUnbound.com

MobZombies Are After You

How's this for a new twist on the “Living Dead.”

MobZombies is a new location-based mobile game that pits players against virtual zombies. The conceit is that the movement of your onscreen avatar correlates with that of yours in the physical world. If flesh eating zombies corner your avatar, the only way to escape may be for you to physically run in the opposite direction. Which means you're hosed if running away means jutting across a lake or crossing the street on a red light.

MobZombies is a project funded by the Annenberg School of Communication at USC, and may take a while to hit the streets, so to speak. But in BRANDING UNBOUND, I talk a lot about the emerging arena of virtual/real world games, including Uncle Roy All Around You, where teams of street and online players try to find a fictional character within a real city.

Longer term, I think this sort of thing could transform the nature of gameplay, leveraging the spontaneity they mobility affords, while turning the real world into a brick and mortar Holodek where victory in Doom, Quake, and other games depends on physical prowess instead of (just) the ability to jockey a joystick.