Tuesday was a big day for me. About a year ago I doodled a concept on a notepad and took it into Digital Outlook. For those that don’t know, the agency I work for is also passionate about developing new characters and concepts from the ground up.

My scribbled idea started with the notion of “where do computer viruses eat and drink in such a harsh digital world?”. A quick look around the room later… bubblejet printer ink! I loved the idea that these devices act as savana-style watering holes for online lifeforms. What if you could tell when a critter was visiting your house and could do battle with it? What if you beat it and it fell under the printer’s rollers and out popped a printed sheet complete with squashed critter.

As they say… Zoikz was born (after the usual URL check!)

Then comes the Digital Outlook magic. With the idea whipped into shape with Angus Fletcher, RDF, Miniclip and Egmont all wanted in. For our part, launching it was simple. Zoikz was mainly targetted at 8-12yr old boys so a game on Miniclip would be a fantastic launch strategy to start building awareness. Egmont are the worlds largest publisher and also publish Toxic magazine targetted at 6-12yr old boys. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they ran a full page add on the same day as Miniclip launched a Zoikz game? Wouldn’t it be even more awesome if they ran a full page for the first 6 weeks then published a proper Zoikz cartoon? Well, that’s exactly why Tuesday was a big day… as that’s what happened!

I’m currently away from my PC and only have a restricted iPhone browser (insert rant about Apple / Flash here) so I haven’t actually seen it. Very annoying but very cool at the same time.

PLAY IT on Miniclip here.
Print out your cheat sheet then visit the minisite to see a Zoik in Augmented Reality 3D on Zoikz.com.
VISIT the microsite here.

Check out the article in NMA for a bit of name-checking.

Please DO let me know what you think. It’s really at its initial phase and although we have ideas, I would love to hear where you would like it to go.

Just placed a couple of games for Jetix on Freeloader (Jimmy Two-Shows and Kid v’s Kat) and got me thinking of the various ways clients can get kids content out there. Trying to get ‘more bang for your buck’ has always been the mantra at small, nimble digital agencies, and with budgets being squeezed, it’s never more true… or needed. There are still the big ‘full service’ giants that go into auto-pilot and fill their media buying spreadsheet with banners and basic media creative placements.

There’s definitely a sliding scale when it comes to being clever and it seems to go something like this.

Brief: Our kids website has everything on it but we need more hits. Help!

Here are a few solution (in order of cleverness)

1) Run a competition to win a Playstation on the site (of course, only the audience already there will see it)
[PRICE 3/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 2/10]

2) Run a basic banner campaign wherever a quick Nielsen report says your audience are. That’s Yahoo, MSN Today, Google, Disney and the BBC Homepage (and we all know how many 8 year olds use MSN Today)
[PRICE 4/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 3/10]

3) Run a basic banner campaign where your audience actually are. That’s Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Miniclip and CiTV (better, but on these content rich sites, can be hard for banners to stand out)
[PRICE 4/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 4/10]

4) Run ‘in banner games’, probably in MPU formats where your audience actually are. See above. (Much better result on the media placement than a standard banner. As long as the “play game” message is clear)
[PRICE 5/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 6/10]

5) Run an integrated promotion on highly trafficked a site that actually engages your audience. Support it with tools and content that makes their lives better. Maybe an upgrade to an existing avatar maker or a chance to be famous. (Giving your audience tools to enhance the experience they already value is the key point)
[PRICE 6/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 6/10]

6) Rip the good games from your client’s site and get them placed on highly trafficked (and mostly free) game sites. Freeloader, Addicting Games, Shockwave etc. (every kid likes games. These sites may be crowded, but they are popular. Hard to target a certain age or country though)
[PRICE 3/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 7/10]

7) Create a bespoke game a put it on Miniclip (known for high quality content and trusted. Not cheap to place a game but the numbers usually stack up. Sometimes double figure click-throughs and engagement times of over 10 minutes)
[PRICE 9/10] [EFFECTIVENESS 9/10]

Some take a fair while to build momentum. Some (banners) will die as soon as they stop running. Some, like Miniclip come on instantly with big numbers, so you’d better be ready to deal with them.

However it’s done, main point is to be certain of your end goal (or “what success looks like”) and to know EXACTLY who your audience is. Don’t assume it’s kids when it may well be parents that decide for them you need to reach. Use stats. Know what the new formats are. Know what the innovative new ‘cool things’ are. Know what the various creative delivery platforms are launching next. Know what partner sites want to achieve and try and help them achieve it, they may give you more promotion. And lastly, know where your audience actually is. I despair at Nielsen ratings and Net Promoter scores. They are wildly inaccurate for the kids market as they seem to include a fair amount of their parent’s activity too, so need to be backed up with a pinch of common sense.

Over the next few months, we (Digital Outlook) has a few varied and cunning marketing strategies in the kids space, so it’s a good chance to see how they perform against each other. Always keen to find new ways… as long as they hit target head-on. Will keep you posted.

Just noticed that our Mr. Men Pinball game has just re-appeared in the “Hot Games” top 6 on the Miniclip homepage. Considering this game has been around for about 2 years now, that’s fantastic! Not sure of the figures as they’re probably also a little guarded, but I’d expect it to be somewhere up near 40 million game plays by now. Amazing when you consider the population of the UK is about 65 million

That’s the power of a good advergame. Equate that to a traditional media spend on say, Yahoo or the Google Ad Network and the ‘cost per click’ or ‘cost per engavement’ is very impressive on Miniclip or similar gaming sites. People actually spent more time playing the Mr. Men game then the length of an TV episode of the Mr. Men Show! Click through to the Mr. Men Show site was similarly impressive. Double figures where the usual industry average for a click through on a banner is maybe 1.4%.

Obviously, advergames are one of my pet passions and I’ve made a few games before so this is kinda big news yet a big ‘I always told you so!’ moment. I’ll post something more useful in the near future but fo now, enjoy the pinball!

Note the little square bottom right. That’s cool.

You wait ages then two come along at once! Yep, just 5 days after Corn Pops Challenge was launched, our new baby, ‘Zubo Zurfing‘ has gone live (or Zubo Surfing as Miniclip has it… doh!). It’s very cool to have our games occupying two of the three slots in the Miniclip main promo area!

The game itself is a great achievement. Original gameplay, exciting, high-quality and fun to play. Probably one of the best games we’ve made at Digital Outlook. Big thanks to EA and GoFish for giving us the chance to make it! The aim is to get the 5 Zubo characters across a sound wave. You do this by exploding ‘sound bombs’ above and below the sound wave to cause ripples that fling you in the air. Of course, there are baddies, keys and bonuses in there to keep you on your toes.

What would I improve? Simple, more levels! What a great compliment to a game. It’s a great game engine that can ramp up and allow for mini-puzzles and level designs to test your skill. I think 20 levels should do it.

Anyways, I suggest you play it… play it now… and visit the Zubo web site, it’s quite fun.

Every game that makes it onto Miniclip is a momentous occasion for us and our latest is no exception. It’s called the Kelloggs Corn Pops Challenge and you have to complete the 4 mini-games to unlock your extra bonus. The style we were working off was pretty mad. Kind of a cross between the cheesy, early Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Yo Gabba Gabba. All credit to the good people at Kelloggs for letting us (Digital Outlook) put this one together. One of our other games is at 34 million plays and counting, so fingers crossed for this one!

It’s been a real labour of love. Each of the mini-games were based on a physics engine and it plays really well. The sounds really add to the experience and there are a few riffs in there from the ever resourceful Reason. Check out Jop’s blog for some more details but if I were you, I’d just play it.

One thing to note, an easter egg if you like, the mad looking guy at the end (the one with the wig) is actually the developer, Jop! I think Warhol underestimated the 15 minutes of fame thing…

Corn Pops Challenge Play these super-awesome challenges, unlock the golden cereal pieces and win!

Play this free game now!!

I deal with these guys a lot at Digital Outlook but never actually embedded their Arcade widget… easily rectified. It’s not rocket science, just go here, choose a game and get the code… except the embeddable flash apps are bigger than the ‘standard’ 450 pixel width of WordPress (this blog). You can alter the flash tags to be 450 width but it does come out a bit small. Works though…

You can do it to single games too…

Here’s an embeddable promo for a game we did for Mr. Men. Last time we checked it had done 32 million game plays in about a year. Not bad! Why not add a few to the total…

Mr Men Pinball Activate multiple targets for bonus points in Mr Bump Pinball!

Play this free game now!!