http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/ is awarded the 2009 Non-fiction Digital Emmy, presented at MIPTV in Cannes! It’s fantastic that this flagship multiplatform project has received such acclaim; congratulations to the BBC and Lion Television, and go Team Numiko! Photos to follow soon, our very own Dave and Tom will be blogging shortly as part of their MIP coverage.
OK, so maybe we didn’t win (this time), but we should all be pleased at starting to get national recognition for some of the outstanding work we do for our great clients.
This year top 5; next year, with the right wind and ambitious clients – who knows.
It’s now the weekend after the week before – 5 days of energy, collaboration, creativity and no little mental and physical effort that was Crossover Play this year.
I just wanted to give just a brief write up of my week and of the 7 main pitches that were given – all of them brilliant in their own way; and something that I think all 24 delegates should be collectively proud of. These ideas were everyone’s babies.
In no particular order…
Peggle and Pooples and You
A console based ‘learning through play’ game for pre-schoolers. Using a small camera mounted on top of the TV, children were projected into Peggles world were they were invited to trace out forms and shapes. (Huge respect to Mark Sorrell of Freemantle Media who in the pitch played the most convincing 4 year old I have seen in many a day.)
Writer’s Block
Game installation with RFID enabled cubes that represented different (and ever changing) words. Players had a limited time to build a sentence before their cubes were shaken off. A fun and involving activity with a serious point – helping people to understand what it might be like when Alzheimer’s strikes and you lose understanding of forms and your short term memory.
GagTag
SemaCode encrypted clothing and other wares, containing secret messages that were only revealed when photo’s of the tag were MMS’d to the decrypting shortcode. Players could stitch up their friends or more subversively make making trouble by getting their tags out at political rallies, celebrity events or any other places people will be with camera’s. (Thanks to Andrew and Jeremy, my partners in crime on this job)
GroundHog Day
IPhone-based ‘ARG-style’ game where players are trapped in the same space and ‘day’, coming across the same characters and scenarios again and again, where a change in their actions of decision in any one sessions can dramatically alter their whole ‘day’.
Talkies
Recordable, RFID-enabled pet toys which could be programmed (and reprogrammed) to play audio files to a pet when they come in proximity with their toy, either to provide just fun, provide comfort or give a warning.
I’mDivorcingYou.com
Top-Trumps style card game where the aim was to try to win the most ‘stuff’ by trumping the other players with your ‘gripe’ cards. ‘Stuff’ won can also be used as weapons to vindictively destroy the other players earnings. Online, users could create their own personal deck with their real stuff and gripes, and a social network module allowed the turn-based game to be played globally.
These were just seven of literally dozens of initial ideas created during the first half of the week. Apologies to the final ‘project owners’ if I have scrambled any of the ideas a little – that comes from a scrambled mind – I am sure all of us experienced that to some degree over the week.
Other projects that didn’t get finally developed (including some of my personal favourites) included:
A big thank you to all the other Crossover Players who were at Cranthorne last week, an amazing mix of talented people who allowed me to get some new and very different perspectives on how to approach thinking about and then creating/developing new ideas.
And of course, a big thanks to all the mentors, Frank, Heather, Margaret, Matt, Peter, Matt and also Adam Cassels who helped us regularly late into the night on making our often vague ideas come visually to life.
Thank you to you all.
… the very time stamp gives you a little indication of the collective, intensity, focus and required output that means that I get to write this first entry 48 hours in to the lab – and tonight me being one of the first to turn in!
After arriving last to the party last Sunday (while only coming from ‘down the road’ – though from hearing tales the 7 hour mini-bus trip from the south that was something to be avoided) we were thrown into a whirlwind of scenarios, structures and groups to get us to analyze and generate game play mechanics, genres, benefits in the ‘real world’ and very much challenge ourselves and our notion of games and play – regardless of our gaming ‘credentials’ – and there are some serious ‘players’ here.
As I write this, my most recent recollections are tonights ‘performances’ – borne from groups choosing ‘genre’ and ‘platform’ envelopes. Our group drew the amazingly fruitful (for an event set in an old fashioned country pile) mobile and horror. Being in a group with Andrew Pawlby, who’s company in part creates and stages dramatic real-time narratives around the historic of London – we were never going to be just restricted to digital platforms.
After spending the best part of yesterday and this morning confusing the s**t out of delegates with conflicting, contradictory and downright creepy texts and links to YouTube clips; a mix of the corporate and those from tragically displaced former Crathorne Hall owners, tonight culminated in a ‘guided-tour staff member of Handpicked Hotel group’ (guess who played that particular stooge) being brutally savaged – having their still beating heart (2lb of best rump) ripped from the chest to a chacophony of screams and the best ‘Hammer House of Horror’ lighting this side of Wardour St.
We treat that as a fun release from the intensity of the tasks – which will see us tomorrow, by just after breakfast (and again in new small groups) have developed two ‘playful’ ideas from randomly selected entries in categories such as ‘motivation’, ‘platform’ and ‘audience’ – with a few Welcome Trust (one of the events sponsors) angles thrown in for effect.
As I now look around the room, contemplating helping the staff clean away the tomoto sauce, mud, leaves and various detritus used to prop this evenings events, I reming myself to leave a tip for room service. I also remind myself that the ‘event’ we staged (and the preceding texts) pulled enough willing and believing participants that one of our party may well have (through a series of happenstance and chance character names) put the brakes on his potentially lucrative commission. It’s a long story, and professionally bad. But personally, ‘catching’ and ensnaring people in an alternate or constructed ‘reality’ – and that from someone who really doesn’t play ‘games’ – pretty cool.
Just by writing the word Skittles I have given Skittles.com more fuel for their social media inferno and helped tip Twitter further into the inevitable mainstream.
This week Skittles took a brave step and tied up all their digital existences and conversations with one great big digital rainbow. Check www.skittles.com for evidence.
It’s bizarre that a brand primarily aimed at kids should find its chat room (well twitter) filled with media commentary on how cool or not so cool their digital marketing is.
The jury is out… but one thing’s for sure… no one would have thought skittles would be the first brand to step so boldly and colourfully into the world of social media… but I’m sure we will soon see some of the world’s less colourful brands jumping onto the rainbow!
What do you think?
Hot on the heels of discovering we are shortlisted for the international MIPTV Awards and the national Revolution Awards, we have just found out we have three nomination in the regional Yorkshire Digital Awards, including one for Best Web Design Company.
International, national and regional commendations are a testament to the hard work and no little creativity the agency has put in for its clients over the last twelve months. Well done us, and fingers crossed for the ceremonies themselves.