22 Apr 10

The Plot Thickens

By Andrew Niven, MediaCom Beyond Advetising.

A stranger shuffles into a small Indian village and word soon spreads; could it really be one of the most famous movie stars in the country?

Inside an ornate European palace a former F1 world champion shoves a Warhol print under his tux and smuggles it into the night.

And in the UK Helen Hobbes, a housewife makes a discovery that leads her to abandon everything; her family, her home and her loving husband to go on a quest for a mysterious man she doesn’t even know yet.

No, these scenes aren’t part of some new Roger Waters concept album and neither do they appear in the latest David Lynch TV series. They are, in fact, all Alternate Reality Games (ARG), a growing genre that encourages players to interact with a fictional world to follow stories that take place in real time and can unfold over many months.

The first is from ‘Aamir Tracked’ an ARG to promote the movie ‘3 Idiots’ (http://idiotsacademy.zapak.com/arg/) which asked participants to see if they could track down Bollywood megastar Aamir Khan as he roamed the Indian countryside in disguise.

In the second example players are challenged to help F1 star Lewis Hamilton rescue stolen works of art (http://www.secretlewis.com/) using websites, videos, social networking, mobile phones and attending real life events in cities that host F1 Grand Prix.

And the third is Facebook’s first ARG, ‘Spirit of Adventure.’(apps.facebook.com/spiritofadventure ) No celebrities here, this series relies on regular text as well as drawings, photos and letters to be opened and read to generate its mystery. There are also puzzles with new challenges linked into the story every week, a fan page with a discussion forum where players can chat and interact with the development team. In addition there’s 70 ‘keepsakes’ for players to collect by completing the puzzles, interacting with the game, and, of course, sharing with each other on Facebook.

With the massive success of the ARG ‘Why So Serious?’ (created for The Dark Knight) ARGs look set to be the first truly trans-media storytelling genre and a big opportunity for brands and advertisers who want to engage their audiences across multiple touchpoints. 

Sourced from; Facebook, brand e-biz, www.ndreams.co.uk