Sparkling water company Perrier has put together an elaborate marketing campaign that puts you inside a wild online fantasy world, allowing you to fill the shoes of tipsy partygoers and elite socialites.
As a part of an effort to grow its digital strategy and build up a younger audience, the company rolled out on Tuesday an online gaming experience — available for desktop, iPhone and Android — that encourages players to hunt for a hidden bottle of Perrier inside the virtual world. Once you find it, you can enter to win a trip to one of the biggest party cities in the world, from Ibiza to Rio.
Although gamification is nothing new, Perrier's Secret Place (Perriersecretplace.com) is unique. The website starts with a quick video that takes you through a Parisian laundromat, which reveals a club in the back. By clicking any of the 60 guests at the party — from bartenders to ladies in the back playing chess — you see everything from their perspective.
Similar to the experimental Off-Broadway show Sleep No More, you follow characters from room to room to discover new clues and, ultimately, get closer to finding the Perrier bottle.
The experience is a bit overwhelming from the user standpoint, and you're not entirely sure what you're looking for (there are random Perrier bottles placed about the room, but yet you're on a quest to find a "secret" one). Even still, there is something captivating and intriguing about the game.
First, its intricacies are worth noting. With many scripted scenarios and choreographed scenes, you almost forget you're looking for something. The people are fascinating to watch, and it's fun to become a roller girl gliding about a party, while sitting in the confines of your desk.
In total, more than an hour of film footage (with the help of agency Ogilvy & Mather in Paris) went into the development of the website, and as you jump from person to person, it seems like you're always uncovering new events.
But finding that bottle is no easy task. In fact, the company says only the most experienced gamers will be able to do so. Although it's a bit time consuming, it's so easy to spend a good 30 minutes just playing around on the site, chasing around characters holding (non-secret) Perrier bottles as they meet and greet friends. And then you scratch your head wondering why you've just let yourself get so sucked in (and you still haven't found that bottle to enter the sweepstakes).
"With each visit to Secret Place, guests can discover more clues to find the secret Perrier bottle that unlocks your ticket into that sweepstakes, so we would certainly like to see people come back multiple times, and share with their friends via social," Gauthier Gay, group marketing manager at Perrier, told Mashable.
Although this is a lot of fanfare to bring attention to a sweepstakes (without even a new product), it's the latest effort from the company to lure users into the "experience" of Perrier, instead of just pushing out content.
"The Perrier target consumer is young, edgy, highly digital, and loves to socialize –- and these are exactly the people who will be attracted to Secret Place," Gay said. "And with digital and social playing an increasing role in these consumers' lives, we're maximizing these assets with Secret Place to enhance the experience."
Source: Mashable 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment