AudienceGames™ in-cinema experience debuts!

We're very excited to announce that we've entered into an exclusive partnership with National CineMedia and once we complete our initial test installation, we'll begin rolling AudienceGames out to the top 20 markets on about 750 screens.

What's makes it so exciting to us is that we're creating a new kind of social media, one that truly bring the power of the people into the experience. (See Experience Manifesto: Is AudienceGames a Social Media? to read some more thoughts on this.) Additionally, we'll be able to work with a number of partners to see what happens when you need to create content for a large group of people who only have a short time to play. It's actually a pretty difficult game design challenge!

To learn more about AudienceGames, when it will be starting and how you can participate, please contact Barry Grieff at 212-274-1882 or by e-mail. You can also go to Experience Manifesto: National CineMedia to Test AudienceGames to read the full press release.

AudienceGames™ turns crowds into communities through "advergaming," while creating innovative and memorable brand experiences. It's a great example of what we do best here at the Lab:

Use emerging technologies to turn brand messages into brand experiences.

In 2007 The Brand Experience Lab designed and produced the first AudienceGames™ in the USA and UK for msnbc.com (in partnership with SS+K) and Volvo, receiving international acclaim. In fact, our campaign for Volvo was named one of the "Best Marketing Ideas in the World" by Brandweek magazine and generated 33,000,000 media impressions from the one day showing. We are certainly learning a great deal about how people like to engage in large, group games. For us, it's a really great example of the socialization of place.

Remember, you can always go to Experience Manifesto: AudienceGames to read the latest news about how we're using this technology to create great experiences for our clients.

Some quick survey numbers:


           msnbc.com  (USA)                               VOLVO (UK)

*       78%  played the game                         *  84%  played the game
*       93%  want more games in cinemas        *  68%  want more games in cinemas
*       86%  prefer a game to an ad                *  74%  prefer a game to an ad
*       71%  unaided MSNBC brand recall         *  21%  better image of Volvo
*       75% more likely to use MSNBC             *  37%  more likely to purchase a Volvo

We're particularly pleased with the 71% unaided recall rate of msnbc.com as the sponsor of the game. To put that in some kind of context, according to the most recent, Arbitron study of in-cinema advertising, 59% of all movie goers recall seeing commercials at theaters.

Some reactions to AudienceGames™:

Movie goers at 12 UK cinemas became human joysticks... they were shown an ad for the Volvo XC70 before the movie Ratatouille, and were asked to put their hands in the air and wave them left or right - as a group... That participatory commercial represents a growing trend in movie theater advertising, with on- screen ads and lobby displays becoming more interactive, more entertainment-oriented and frequently offbeat." -- USA TODAY

"In our culture, [we were afraid that] people would just sit on their hands." Fortunately for Volvo, people didn't, and the press generated by "Human Joysticks" was a marketing coup at least on par with the positive impressions created among theatergoers. -- Paul Adrian, Nitro (Volvo agency)

"Human Joysticks" achieved immediate results for Volvo because it turned what was just a brand into a social entity. "Brands are boring when they're not part of popular culture. We wanted Volvo to be talked about. And we got plenty of that." Luke Tipping, Mindshare UK

"I have never seen people applaud for a commercial before." -- SENIOR MANAGEMENT, LEADING US THEATER CHAIN

Is this "advertising" really? I'm not sure we can call it that when the ad becomes the show itself, as this brilliant pre-movie promotion, created by David over at Brand Experience Lab, obviously did. And you've got to give big props to the MSNBC for having the guts to get out there and try something new with this communal interactive game, called NewsBreaker. Paul McEnany, Beyond Madison Avenue

I love this idea on two levels: 1. The novelty of the concept makes it advertising worth participating in. 2. It ups the ante for a stale media environment (the pre-preview theatre experience) and gives people something to do and a way to have fun collectively. Doug Walker, Webwalker

If I had the choice between two theaters, and knew one of them had this instead of the usual ads, IÕm totally going to choose the one with human breakout before the movie. Go fig that MSNBC would be the ones to revolutionize pre-movie advertising. How long before every movie theater starts running sponsored audience participation games beforehand? Aaron, comment on Lostremote.com

If you would like to learn more about AudienceGames™ or how we can help you create more engaging experiences for your audiences, please email Barry Grieff or call 212-274-1882

Here's a video from the msnbc.com experience:

Here are two videos from the Volvo experience:



  • Click here to see the NewsBreaker Live b-roll.
  • Click here to see a news story from Dailies about the MSNBC.com NewsBreaker Live experience.
  • Click here to see all of our blog postings about our AudienceGames™ work, including additional video and pictures.

An innovation think tank turning brand messages into experiences via emerging technologies.

"David is trying to connect technological thinking with making. He can think about interesting new technologies that work at 30,000 feet and, with the laboratory, he shows how it works at ground level." Brian Collins, Director, Brand Integration Group, Ogilvy

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Called "a playroom for marketers and agencies" by Advertising Age, Brand Experience Lab is both an experience agency and think tank. Our knowledge of the future of 'interaction' marketing, and the embedding of emerging technology into retail and marketing experiences helps us create engaging brand experiences for 21st century audiences.

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