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Creative Agency: eROI
Alliance Network Group chose eROI to launch the Death Jr. website. The objectives of the campaign were to virally create awareness, to quickly generate a list of highly qualified sales leads, and to spawn organic discussion and buzz about the Death Jr. brand. Konami was particularly interested to see this site and campaign appeal to the notoriously non-loyal community of devoted video gamers and industry watchers, typically in the male, 18 to 35 demographic category.
Through the creation of a Death Jr. "advergame" -- a videogame played through a web browser -- eROI offered initial email recipients and Death Jr. site visitors a compelling destination and engaging, interactive content (a mini videogame to play). Players are encouraged to provide their email address in order to save their scores to a public high-score board and be entered to win a copy of the game, as well as have a moment of fame.
The fun of the game, as well as the opportunity to win the product and have a moment in the scoreboard's competitive spotlight, would drive buzz about the game and entice visitors to tell friends about the advergame. Players used eROI's "Send-to-a-Friend" feature, as well as traditional email, game forums, chat rooms and online magazines to spread the word about the advergame and chance to win.
The advergame generated more than one new lead per minute for its first two weeks and then leveled off -- ultimately generating a new list, in one month, of more than 30,000 qualified gamers. The site drew more than 1.5 million unique visitors in its first month (65 percent of which were via influencer and peer-level word-of-mouth, according to eROI tracking statistics).
A month-and-a-half after hitting shelves, Death Jr. sales are exceeding projections by 135 percent.
-- Ryan Buchanan, president, eROI; Steve Giannini, managing partner, Alliance Network Group
For an advergame, this one was pretty fluid and fun, and I can bet this link was passed from cubicle to cubicle in the workfarms of America, which is where a lot of advergames are being played. A list of 30,000 qualified gamers in one month is amazing, but how many used fictitious email addresses?
-- Dave Wilkie, creative director, Kinetic Results, LLC
Anyone who has ever been obsessed with a video game understands the allure of the fleeting fame that comes with a leaderboard-worthy score. eROI’s strategy to tap into that feeling in promoting the launch of Death Jr. is spot on. This “advergame” not only builds buzz, community and a connection with the franchise, it also fuels demand by getting players pre-obsessed with the title.
I found the game to be an amusing video golf meets pinball variation. The user’s task is to send a C4-laden hamster to blow up a monster, launching its flaming, and now lethal head toward an army of the undead. The graphics were rich. The UI was clean and well thought out. The heavy use of bitmapped over vector graphics was a refreshing change for this sort of Flash-based game. It’s nice we don’t have to worry so much about bandwidth anymore.
As an exercise in sampling this piece was most successful in showing off the “goth cute” tone of the Death Jr. and a little less so in demonstrating compelling game play. The game was amusing and addictive, but once the user sets the three variables that send the hamster on its way the play is completely out of their hands. As I sat passively watching the burning monster’s head weave a bouncing trail of zombie carnage through the world of the undead I couldn’t help thinking that maybe the programmers enjoyed their experience a little more than I did mine. But it was addictive, even if it was somewhat passive. After 45 minutes of trying for the leaderboard I topped out at only 44,289.
-- Patrick V. Barrett, managing partner, Gamut Industries, LLC