Firefox compatible

Client: Flex Your Power
Creative Agency: Real Branding

Working on behalf of Flex Your Power, California's statewide energy efficiency marketing and outreach campaign, Real Branding was challenged to supplement their existing website content with a quick and entertaining interaction that would bring key messages around energy conservation and efficiency to life. The solution was to create a Flash game show interaction that helps educate consumers about energy conservation and the cumilative positive benefits of small individual actions to save money, energy, and the environment. The game takes advantage of numerous advanced Flash features, incorporating a 3D rendered video host character with synced voiceover. Robust tracking tools incorporated into the Flash app will record metrics around application usage and enable detailed learnings about areas of consumer knowledge and behavior to inform future marketing efforts. A full online media campaign, including an expandable banner with an embedded advergame will drive traffic to the game.
-- Dan Gaffey, group account director, Real Branding

Normally, I don’t like to think too much when visiting an interactive site, but the “Flex Your Power Challenge” site taught me quite a few energy conservation tips and tricks that I didn’t know before, and it did so in an engaging way. Instead of presenting the material in a dry survey format, Real Branding added flair with an animated, young version of Alex Trebeck as game show host. I surprised myself by making it through the first round of mostly correct answers to thought-provoking, in-depth questions, which qualified me for the “bald man kills the laundry-baskets” game within the game (as a bald man and a founding member of the Portland chapter of the Bald Nation club, I can make this bald comment with impunity).  

For the most part, this campaign resonates with the target market of the environmentally conscious public (specifically in California). My only criticism is that the concept behind the campaign is predictable. Don’t get me wrong, I am a granola-eating, Birkenstock-wearing tree-hugger who loves the idea of educating the public about energy conservation, but environmentalists and the public alike have become savvier than the concept behind this adver-game. However, I really like the fact that this site is firmly rooted in accomplishing its business objectives, such as tracking individual responses, bonus round plays, and time spent within each part of the application. With this kind of insightful data, it will be fascinating to see if users like in-depth, thinking questions or more playful games like my favorite, the simple “bald man laundry” game.
-- Ryan Buchanan, CEO and founder, eROI

This game works on every level. Assuming audiences found their way here (you'd have to be pretty darn convincing to get someone to play a game where they actually [gulp] learn something), they are in for a fun, engaging, and worthwhile experience. The appeal of the animated host is enough to get the kids excited, but the information that you can learn about saving money can get adults excited-- enough to make a change in their energy consumption habits. At the end of the day, that's what the campaign is going for, and it works. Interestingly enough, after spending the week in California, I've seen ads for this campaign/website on billboards on the highway. It piqued my curiosity then, and the game satisfied it now. I give it 4.5 out of 5 Energystars for getting the job done in spite of various restrictions that may have existed, possibly hampering creativity. Yeah, its a quiz, and we've seen that kind of execution a million times. But sometimes the most obvious execution is also the best, forcing the consumer to think just enough to act.
-- Ian Schafer, president, Deep Focus