Kookmeyer Institute » Games

Magnum Pleasure Hunt

Gerry Kookmeyer — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 11:20:49 +0000

The page invasions of this online game for Magnum remind me a lot of Lynx’s old Party Across The Internet advertising. The execution is very slick. But I can’t believe they didn’t attach some sort of prize for the highest score. Might have got a few more views if they had…

Most Contagious 2010

Gerry Kookmeyer — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:55:42 +0000

It’s that time of year again for the Contagious round-up of the best in digital. Some of my personal favourites from recent CDs (editions 22 and 23) include: ‘Breaking the Cycle’ – a campaign from U by Kotex that shakes up the crimson tide category with its sheer honesty; ‘Let’s Colour’ – a Dulux campaign with great feel good factor; and, ‘Microsoft Kin’ – branded entertainment that had the balls to ask if a person’s social media friends were really friends at all.

View more presentations from Contagious.

MINI ARG Stockholm

Gerry Kookmeyer — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 02:47:04 +0000

The MINI brand promise is all about having fun (and celebrating individuality). On that basis alone this treasure hunt application for iPhones scores top marks. I wonder if there were any rules like ‘must not leave the country’. If not, I’d hire a helicopter to catch the car then hide away in the most remote location possible.

APB Human Avatar

Gerry Kookmeyer — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:24:46 +0000

One of the easiest ways to engage fans is to get them voting for something, ideally more than once. With this in mind, Dare has created the human avatar to promote a new PC game called All Points Bulletin. APB allows players to customise their appearance to the nth degree. So the folk at Dare thought, why not let fans transform a real person into a game character? I’m not sure how many votes this three-week campaign realised, but I see the six YouTube clips averaged approximately 33,000 views each. This is slightly better than the 378 followers on Twitter. (Maybe gamers are too busy playing to be tweeting – or just too young.)

Community service message to all bored office workers

Gerry Kookmeyer — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 09:03:55 +0000

Your fascist employer may have banned you from trademe and YouTube but have you discovered the joy of World Golf Tour? Currently in beta mode, this game is very addictive. The graphics are top notch and you can chat with players around the world – as you play them! But you’ll have to buy credits if you want fancy stuff like pro clubs or a customised avatar. These types of virtual goods have become a real cash cow for game developers in the past few years. So much so that the total US market for virtual goods is set to pass $2.1 billion in 2011,* up from $1.1 billion in 2009. All this despite a major recession!

*I read this in the Financial Times so it must be true.

221B

Gerry Kookmeyer — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:49:36 +0000

Casting Robert Downey Jr as Baker St’s most famous detective is like placing Tom Hanks in the role of Robert Langdon – it’s rubbish. But I digress. AKQA has orchestrated a cool new online game to create buzz around the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie. All of the action takes place via Facebook because it takes a TEAM to solve a mystery. Alas, the profiler deduced I would be best in the role of Dr Watson, meaning I must play second fiddle to a Harvard geometer. The production values are slick and the copywriting first class, so sign-up and see what unfolds!

VW GTI project

Gerry Kookmeyer — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:45:51 +0000

Bad news: I always wanted a slot car set when I was a kid. Good news: now I can play VW’s online version. Created by Tribal DDB London, the 1:43 scale models of the new Golf GTI are fitted with tiny cameras that give you a ‘driver’s eye’ view round the 30×25ft Scalextric track. From my experience of writing for car makers, VW has shown remarkable restraint in keeping product details to a minimum.

Killzone 2 webgame

Gerry Kookmeyer — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:55:43 +0000

Surely this year’s ‘must have’ for army recruitment sites! No, make that any site! Introducing Agency Republic’s dedicated webgame to celebrate the launch of Killzone 2. Register, download the application, then lock and load – you’re ready to cut down bad SOBs whenever they appear on your browser. The only downer is the Mozilla FireFox recommendation. (What’s with all these brands that aren’t Mac/Safari friendly? Grrr.)

El invencible Chlorophyllo

Gerry Kookmeyer — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:42:28 +0000

Joy! Turns out Tribal DDB Paris did an English version of its online game for Airwaves. Some bloggers have suggested the technique of dubbing over vintage 70s movies is passé but I think the site looks pretty cool. I just wonder if the proposition – Mexican wrestler gets his strength from chewing gum – might have been better suited to an energy drink or power bar. Maybe.