Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

The advertising landscape is saturated during Australia’s famous State of Origin football match. To cut through we disguised a spectacularly branded digital landscape as a fun in-browser rugby league game. The interactive game was designed to be entertaining, addictive and keep all eyes on the prize. So much so, the winning player was transfixed for a total of 2 hours and 15 minutes, seeing over 20,000 brand placements. For additional entertainment value, we leveraged players’ die-hard home state allegiances by encouraging them to play as their home state, parallelling the real State of Origin series and piquing interest via an

Background

Alcohol delivery service Jimmy Brings wanted to engage customers during one of the most competitive seasons for alcohol marketing: State of Origin. A number of brands were supporting the campaign, so the creative idea needed to provide equal exposure in brand placements for these backers, as well as increasing alcohol delivery sales for Jimmy Brings. Most importantly, it had to grab attention, when so many other brands were at their noisiest.

Describe the creative idea

Instead of traditional advertising, we twisted the playbook, creating an in-browser mobile game to not only attract, but hold the attention of our audience. The game is in the spirit of the Rugby League tournament, showcasing the most exciting parts. Just by tapping the screen, our addictive game challenged players to keep the football soaring through the air, dodging obstacles to win prizes and earn scoreboard glory. – while seeing hundreds of brand placements while in motion. The real beauty for our partners lay in the new media channels invented for the game. Each section of the game included billboards, branded obstacles, sideline banners and blimps advertising Jimmy Brings’ partners and sponsors.

Describe the strategy

Jimmy Brings wanted to hijack State of Origin, a highlight of the Australian sporting calendar. A tricky ask considering they weren’t sponsoring the event. Knowing sports fans engage on their smartphones, our strategy was to create a gamified experience that utilised the fierce competition between NSW and QLD teams with incentives that would translate into app downloads and purchases on the Jimmy Brings platform. Every game earned a Jimmy Brings voucher — encouraging new users to download the app while delivering a sweetener to existing users too. The game’s true beauty lay in the new media channels invented for the game. At every step, each user was exposed to a multitude of in-game advertising that was cleverly disguised within the feel of the game. Each section of the digital stadium included billboards, obstacles, sideline banners and blimps advertising Jimmy Brings’ partners and sponsors.

Describe the execution

Jimmy Kicks is a basic in-browser mobile game that challenges players to kick a digital football as far as possible, avoiding branded obstacles, just by tapping the screen. Players could choose from three teams: New South Wales and Queensland, the perennial State of Origin competitors, and Team Jimmy as a state-neutral option. The initial kick off was automated, all players had to do was tap to keep the football soaring. Games could last as little as a few seconds, seducing players to have another go and kick their way onto the competitive leaderboard. Replayability was a key driver of the game. At the end of each game, a scoreboard and ongoing state tally stimulated our audience’s competitive spirit.

Describe the outcome

The results were all high scores for Jimmy Brings across the 6-week campaign: 51,284 app downloads — surpassing our benchmark of 48,000 17% spike in sales 26% conversion rate from game to app download 3 minutes average engagement time 546 brand placements averaged per engagement 330k games played 16M+ individual brand placements seen during the campaign MVP performance of 2 hours and 15 minutes, seeing over 20,000 brand placements The total distance kicked in-game over the 6-week campaign was 4x the circumference of the earth Based on these results, the game was recommissioned and reskinned for the rugby league Grand Final series later that year.