What Makes Award-Winning Gaming Campaigns?

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Hi, and welcome to the Navic Gaming podcast. I'm your host, Kaylee Moore. Today, we have a very different and special episode uh for you. I we are recording from Con in the south of France at the called Lions, which is one of the biggest advertising and marketing festivals in the entire world. And something very special happened this year. I was invited to be on the jury of the gaming category as was Cheryl Plattz who is our guest today. Thanks so much for joining us, Cheryl.
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here with you.
And today we're going to talk a little bit about what the judging process was like. We're going to go through some of the different themes that we saw when it

came to gaming submissions for gaming and entertainment. And we're also going to touch on what the future of brand integration with games looks like. But Cheryl, first of all, thank you for joining me and I'd love if you could do a little bit more of an in-depth intro about yourself.
Of course. Uh, hi everybody. My name is Cheryl Plattz and I am currently a video game everything video game adjunct instructor for Carnegie Melon University, video game author, uh video game podcaster of a podcast called Enduring Play, uh which focuses on how to create sustainable video game experiences that thrive instead of just surviving. Uh and I've had a career that spans both video games and more traditional product uh design experiences. I started in video games. I'm trained in computer science and human computer interaction. Uh but when my video game career kind of slowed down a little bit because people couldn't kind of get their head around a very

young video game producer leading teams and I was like who is also a female. I was like okay cool we'll try something else. And that's how I ended up spending 10 years doing things like being design lead of the Azure web platform for Microsoft or being uh the design lead who was in charge of the notifications platform for Alexa, uh, Amazon's Alexa. And so, it's been this big roundabout journey. And then the last couple of years was UX director for Riot Games, UX director at Scopely. And, um, currently, I'm attending the festival independently as the creative director and owner of Idea Plats LLC, my design education company, with which I have spoken on five continents. I've taught workshops about voice interaction, about creative uh, building shared understanding amongst creatives in many disciplines. My day job is with the Pokemon Company International as creative director of their game studio, but I don't speak on their behalf or represent them in conversations like this. I'm very proud

to be working with them, but that is separate from the conversation we're having here today and my uh service on the jury here at Khan. So we were two of 11 jury members and we had a really diverse group of people which I obviously was by design but I also think it was really interesting and I mean diversity when it comes to backgrounds and different types of work whether it's in gaming brands also ge geographical background we had uh someone from South Africa we had someone from France we had uh someone from from Japan a couple people from the states from the UK and I think the inform Orma, who puts this on, did a really great job of finding a mix of people that could look at the work and judge it with a lot of different experiences in the background. Before we get into the work itself, I know you were I we talked about this a little bit last night. We were both very pleasantly surprised to be invited to the jury. And when we did

a little bit of research, there wasn't that much details about the process of being on the jury and what that actually looks like. So, I want to dive into that a little bit. Will you just share what your experience was at from judging at home to what it looked like this last weekend when we were judging all together?
Absolutely. Yeah, it was a fun journey. And for for me, I it started with a LinkedIn message. I and I I believe that uh Lisa, who who recruits many of the jurists, uh found me because of my work on my book, The Game Development Strategy Guide, which which kind of aligned with what they were looking for, which was somebody who was from the games industry and can help represent sort of trends uh from the game development side. And you know, there was a little bit of back and forth for me to help understand what what was involved. Uh but once I said yes, things happened very quickly. there was a briefing and we there's a commitment to do prejudging uh where we were the month basically the end of April was when we

had our our first briefing we all got to meet to meet each other on teams uh and very carefully selected time for all these different time zones it's very international collaboration and then they have actually really great digital tools where they start sending us entries as they are vetted because there's also a very uh especially I think it's new this year but there there's a pretty in-depth vetting process to make sure that these applications that people give for these uh award entries which contain strategy and details on execution and details on impact. They spend a lot of time vetting to make sure that the impact is what people say it is to to maintain the integrity of the awards. So, as the awards clear the process um and are vetted, they start showing up in our queue for us to go and evaluate them. And that there will be multimedia links for each of the entries, like the actual case video and an image, uh social media links, so we can click through and go see like what the actual discussion was maybe in context, like if it was a

YouTube video, go see what people were saying on it. Uh and then the description that people would have entered. So, you know, if you're working on one of these uh submissions and you're writing things, we do look at the the writeups quite a bit and refer to those over and over again during the process. But the first round of judging was very personal. It's you're you're in your home, you're doing it alone. There's lots of videos that like to to prepare you for it, to help you understand the the scale and everything. Uh but we do this first round which takes about a month and then magic happens and they send us a mathematical short list of but the first round there's so many entries that we don't get to see everything.
Mhm.
So the second round is when you start to get to see things that maybe other jurors had reviewed whatever happened to be mathematically sorted to the top. uh and then we do another round of at home mathematical judging and it is from that list that the uh short list draft gets created and then that's where we start

when we get here in person.
Yeah, I think that's a very great overview. So then we got here on Friday night, we're recording this on Monday and I know this is going to air on Tuesday the following week once the winners have been announced. we can talk about them a little bit today. And then we met our jury, our fellow jury members, both for our category, and there's a ton of different categories here, too. Of course, in entertainment, from sporting, from PR, but also in categories that I wasn't even aware of, like pharma, for instance. So, lots of lots of different categories for creativity being judged. And then on Saturday, we did our first round where we had roughly roughly 30, I would say, on the list and we had to narrow it down to 20, which was so challenging. And I think that really speaks to the quality and the breath of work. And then we narrowed it down to 20. And then the

following day, which was Sunday, we had to choose. It was three bronze or did we get to add
we had four
we we got to add there were four bronze, two silvers, one gold, and one Grand Prix. And this is going to be announced uh at an award show tomorrow.
Mhm. And one of the most interesting things about the process for me was um and they let you know this is going to happen beforehand, but um they they kind of break that there's it's a scale of 1 to nine and they kind of help you understand like well these numbers are you know maybe this is not an awards candidate. These numbers are maybe we should talk about it and these numbers are you really feel like this is an awards candidate. Uh if you put something in your I really think this is an awards candidate scale. uh when we get to the short listing in person phase, there's an opportunity for us to um flag things that didn't mathematically clear. Yeah.
But we still feel like should be

discussed. And I love that part of the process because it helps us bring up things that we think maybe are representative of underrepresented groups or representative of a trend that that maybe people didn't have all the context on. And we did have some really in-depth discussions about some things on that that border. And so I love that the process wasn't just strictly mathematical. I mean it is very much based on like and inspired by that collective math but it's not like hard cell. It's like you can ask people to consider have you taken a little extra context and and uh use that while we're solidifying the list. And I was very pleasantly surprised how open all the jury members were to reviewing work exactly like you said that didn't necessarily make the initial list of 30. We there was definitely at least one that we brought back on that got ranked quite highly and I think it was one that it actually wasn't in my first batch, but I know I

would have overlooked it because it was smaller in scale than a lot of what we saw, but the impact was there. And we're going to get into that one a little bit later, but I would love if you could share with the audience, there's a lot of different scales, there's a lot of different types of games. just a couple of of entries to show what what we were looking at.
Uh, sure. Yeah. So, we'll talk a little bit more at the inside the jury room session later this week about some trends, but uh, personally, some of the the trends and examples that I saw, and maybe I'll pull from some of the things on the border that didn't get awarded because we like to to share,
uh, to share the love. And let me think about uh things that we liked. You know, I I think uh there's the Resident Evil launch, right? That's this is a really interesting one for me because uh they they submitted the in the audio video category and they had a really great uh

basically horror movie that this that's three or four minutes long and really great fan response. And uh the supporting materials talked about how they promoted that video. Uh and but when we got into the discussion, you know, the there's we're looking for creativity and we're looking for innovation. And it was interesting because that piece was really innovative in context with everything else that had gone on in the campaign, but it was hard like cuz I that was one of the ones I rated most highly, but it was hard in the room to to like lift it up as innovative because folks were like, "Well, I've seen this before. I've seen this kind of thing before."
And sometimes you hear see a thing, you're like, gosh, I wish it was in another category. like wish I could bring more context in or oh you submitted here and you submitted here but what if it was like launch relaunch

or something you can't do that as a juror you uh have to submit you review the work in the categories it's submitted but it's that's interesting right uh but it speaks to like we there's really great craft work but the lions have all kinds of different juries right there is a media category and so really great film film making or short film making can be recognized there. What is it about this piece that speaks to that that it that really deserves to be in the gaming category? You know, we were talking about the you know brand I believe the the description is basically like promotion of brands that celebrates them through gameplay, right? And
we're like where's the game where is the game play here? Uh, and so that's the kind of conversation that we have in the room. And there was another piece that was really close that we we loved. Uh, I

I don't know if I'm going to pronounce it right. Capy Barrapi.
Yeah, I think I think so. Cap Capibar. Yeah, Capy Bari.
That one was And that brought up a really interesting conversation around gaming trends. Yeah,
because this is a prop that was a submission from and I I never pronounced this Ban brand correctly, the beer brand uh Hogoden. Uh but yeah, I I know when I I watched the videos it was like I don't ever pronounce that. Well, but anyway, maybe we'll look that up.
We'll link to
we'll link to the correct pronunciation
in the show notes. Uh the uh so the beer hog garden who is uh in China was looking for a way to connect with their uh local fans and the uh copy I think is is the animal

uh was a meme and known for calmness known and so they were like well let's just build arcade cabinets where you can we'll build a game where you can pet these cappy bars in there and uh the discussion was interesting at first because people were like what's a game about petting this this behind but that was where we got to talk about some of the things from like I'd observed while writing my book about like
a lot of players now play for comfort they play for self soothing this actually connected to something that's very real and very now um but what was challenging for that one was so small scale
it was we loved it we loved it so and it was just so hard to compete against uh some of the other things that were that were there. But really amazing, brilliant conversation piece. People should go check out that entry cuz because we it's right there.
It was in the humor category, too. And I I wonder because gaming was one part of

the broader campaign. They also had uh they had cappy bars like in not not real capy bars but fake cappy bars that you could stroke on escalators going up to the subway too and it really it took off but the gaming component I do think was interesting and I love your take on comfort games and I also love that I think a lot of people play cozy games but you're you're in your own home to see a cozy or a comfort game extend to an arcade setting where in the video obviously it's it's for beer, right? So, you're having beers with your friends and cozy gaming, but out in the world with the cappy bar and a beer and your friends I thought was uh interesting and something we don't usually see. Yeah, just the expressions on their faces. It was it was lovely. And of course, maybe it's staged, maybe it's not, but yeah, I thought it was lovely, too. And and there's no like wind conditions. It's just giving you positive feedback for But that's okay. There are games like that now. There's like what's the wind condition on Sims? I worked on The Sims,

right? And that's one of regarded as one of the best games of all time. And and there's not really a win condition on it. I mean,
all Sims are probably gonna die if you play it eventually, right? Play it long enough and they they age out or or you you build their your pool wrong or something. But it's about the qual the experience just like that that very fuzzy arcade machine.
Um I want to talk a little bit about trends that we saw. One of the things I was a little bit surprised by, I as you know work a lot in the UGC space and there were definitely a handful of submissions of people who were building within Roblox or you know islands for Fortnite but less than I thought. So that was interesting to me and I don't know if we're kind of getting over there there have been criticisms criticisms and there's been valid criticisms of people who are just building a game because that's what they think they should do without creative strategy and at the end of the day this is the lions which awards creativity in gaming although I do think there are

some creative examples here. This uh entry I personally loved it didn't make it to the short list. I'm not even sure if I voted for it for the short list, but it was the Salvation Army, which is a thrift store in America, built a thrift store within Roblox that allowed people to thrift thrift digital clothing. And they were doing it to build brand connection with Salvation Army, to drive people to Salvation Army. But I also think there's a interesting conversation on sustainability of also being able to thrift your digital goods which maybe you keep forever but maybe it was a moment of self-expression and rather than just have it in a game you know to sell it to someone else for a discounted price I thought was a really unique concept. Any thoughts on any of the Roblox or the UFN entries that we saw?
So very much. Yeah. And I'm glad you you brought that one up. I was disappointed because I couldn't play that one. Like I I I saw the entry and I like tried to

find it and it had, you know, it was no longer there in uh Roblox, but I loved the idea and what so in in my book, The Game Development Strategy Guide, I talk about the motivators of play. And one of the more modern motivators of play is self-exression. Uh and self-expression as a motivator of play didn't make as much sense in a world where we didn't have the internet, we didn't have scale, we didn't have uh multiplayer as as prominent, right? you're just like playing for yourself and and maybe you're intrinsically motivated enough that you're having fun just playing digital paint or something. But now that you have these big platforms, self-expression, the entirety of League of Legends is basically funded on people buying skins. They like you can't like they don't the purchases don't really tie to gameplay terribly much. Like you can unlock a champion here or there, but mostly it's like I just want to look good. I want people to see me differently. And so what I loved about the Salvation Army piece was that it it spoke to that that very real driver of play like of that motivator of play

self-expression in a way that like was very accessible and it also like you know some of the the places that people get into trouble in a game like Roblox is like monetization right and it's like the opposite of exploitive exploitative monetization when you're like hey these are these are affordable outfits these are you know these and so it was it felt kind of like a joyful celebration of self-expression and there was also this sense of immediiacy right like there the pieces had a sort of I I couldn't verify this of course but it seemed like some of the pieces had a uniqueness not all right but or like a limited time sense and so that leans into that it's almost becomes like a game loop like you got to go in and get the piece before other folks and and that's that's almost like a status symbol or a form of mastery over the shopping. So, there was a lot going on that I thought was was very cool about that and I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't continuing on cuz I thought it would be a neat addition to that that space. But, you know,

the fact that it wasn't available cuz it it was something that had launched I think in March and we were judging in like early May spoke to me about this ephemeral nature of the engagements. there were several uh interactive worlds or interactive experience that was proposed to us that we had no way of evaluating the gameplay and it's not a requirement but you know there were several places where I felt like I might have been able to vote more like vote something higher if I had more than a video like because the the the impact metrics didn't tell the whole story was like I don't know if this was quality like what you've given me doesn't if you give me a metric that says gameplay hours watched. That doesn't tell me that the game was good. That just tells me that you picked a streamer that had a lot of people following them, right?
And I think so I do a lot of award submissions for our clients as a PR person. And I personally had a lot of

learnings in this space as well of what metrics do we dive into and think like that is a gray area. you just know how it was framed. And I think the hours watched of gameplay is very different than actual people who played the game for instance. And so this is a learning that I'll be taking back whenever I'm doing award submissions for clients of what are the KPIs that would actually show or prove success and then use those. I have a feeling with a lot of these the PR people knew that and just the numbers weren't there. So there are other more vanity metrics, right? Or views, streams, that kind of thing. um especially when it's when you're working with paid influencers. But something interesting for the people who do award submissions that and is there any way in your submission that you can allow people access to the gameplay which I know isn't possible especially in these branded experiences there's contracts if if you only have a Fortnite island for two months. How are jurors next year

going to evaluate it? But something to keep in mind because there could be workarounds there. And you know, another uh experience that I rated highly, it didn't quite make it to the short list, but there was uh Sara, I think, had done a Stranger Things collaboration, and they sent us like a a full video of like their whole collabor like raw gameplay, right? I thought that was really cool.
That's cool. I didn't They weren't on my list, so I didn't see that.
Like, if I I had like a list, there was many entries I wanted to bring back up because it's tough in that like segmented when I know not everybody's able to see all of the entries. But uh that I thought that was interesting, right? Like and I think it it builds trust as a juror when you're willing to show like raw gameplay or players experiencing your game. Uh because it it it's it's tough when you just see some of those sanitized metrics. Uh we're trying to award innovative celebration of brands through gameplay and hours watched is not gameplay. like searching for your island is not the

same as playing your island. Uh or or you know now time spent in the island uh number of people downloading your game uh those things start to become a little bit more compelling. Uh but in the end some of the things that are most compelling are like the conversions you get through that. Right. The and one of the things one of our fellow jurors kept bringing up is like what problem does this campaign solve? Yeah.
Right. And that's one of the takeaways I want to bring back to my teams because sometimes even game developers struggle with like measurable success criteria. And one thing I tell my teams all the time is make sure we're solving the right problem before we even start this thing. Do we know what success looks like? Have we agreed on the problem we're solving? And we have have we agreed on what that measurement looks like? If you don't start, if you don't do that before chasing the shiny, you might have a really great campaign and and not have a language to articulate what was great about it on these big

global stages. And so, you're giving yourself a gift, your future self, a gift by taking the time up front to say like, what is the goal and how do we measure it? And have we built this campaign to measure that success? And I know it's tough when you have a big great idea. I get it. I struggle with that too. But like it was very evident which campaigns had done the work to set clear goals and drawn the line to clear impact and which campaigns had like chased a bit of a shiny and were like you know a lot of people showed up like that is great
and some had huge metrics right like there was the McDonald's Minecraft movie collaboration where if you looked at the results of that by purchase it was just it was insane but we I don't think it is even on our short list. It was on our original list of 30.
It got really close, but and that was a really long conversation for us. And that was a theme I wrote down. I don't

know if we'll get to talking about it on Wednesday, but for me, a thing that kept coming up was big brand plus big brand creates an illusion of innovation
by scale, right? Like you just look at the numbers, you're like, "Oh my god, that's so successful." But like is it success we've seen before? Like does it deserve an award over and over again or is there does the conversation need to move to something else? Like sometimes you just have two big brands. You put them together, those people are going to show up
regardless, right? And sometimes that's on not telling a story in a specific way that's like solving a problem or something. if you focus on the volume as opposed to like change in behavior or something like that if it's just raw visits instead of like longitudinal behavior.
Um but but yeah, this that that was something I wrote down in my notebook was like big brand big brand can create this illusion of innovation and but then

when you poke at it you're like this this is not this is safe. it is is do it is templated
and I think that's one of the things we kept coming back to as well like con lion rewards creativity. So, there were some really good campaigns, which I'm including the uh Minecraft McDonald's in there when when it looks at the results and also the craft behind it too, but there wasn't something deeper like all of the winners, even on a much smaller scale, like they were so wellthought out and executed and clever. And I think every single person in the room and on the jury thought like, man, I wish I would have been part of that. And there were clear winners in that category. Let's talk a little bit about real world problems because I mean we can talk about I I think all the winners solved very clear problems but one of the there were a couple of entries this year

that I was blown away by that solved very tangible realw world not just gaming problems. And I'm thinking about virtual donors and also the uh the was it the firecatcher? I think that was the name of it.
Yeah.
Do you do you remember either of those two or want to speak to those?
Uh so the virtual donors, if we're getting that that name correct, there was a really great campaign trying to inspire gamers to uh become organ donors. And there was actually a cluster of ve of different campaigns around medical awareness and medical engagement, but this one stood out because it it seemed to tie particularly into the Fortnite gameplay loop particularly well. But the essentially the the hook was like if you register as an organ donor, you can unlock this mod that helps you bring eight people back to life in the game as you will bring

people back to life in your passing in real life, right? And and it's a very compelling story when you like see somebody in a game spawn these eight hearts, you're like, "What is going on?" Right? And there's like a unique sort of icon associated with the mod and everything. Uh, and when you and I love that you brought out too, like there's a very specific storytelling element to this, too. Like this. Do you want to talk about the specific mod developer?
Yeah. So, I I love mod author stories. It's one of my favorite things I get to do with PR is to tell the pe the stories of the people behind the creations. And this campaign was started in Belgium. I think it was a it was listed under charity, too. So, it's a nonprofit. There was not a huge budget for this by any means. And the organizers or the creators of this found a mod author who I believe was based in New Zealand whose wife was actually on the lung transplant list. And he created this mod in three different titles. And eight isn't just a

random number. It was that if the average organ donor can save up a young organ donor can save up to eight lives. So it was it was tangible. It was well thought out and it and also to get the mods you had to actually sign up through the registry of the Belgian site and there were as you mentioned a couple of others uh in this realm but there wasn't that direct connected action. This was the only one that did make it to the short list that I don't know if I I could have seen move up to to a bronze. This was the only one that I felt strongly about that didn't get there. Yeah, it was really the it was a contender for sure. And I you know it's and they also had were just very good at their storytelling. Like the the case video is very strong. And I I love that they chose multiple games. Like Fortnite got the most engagement by far, but I love that you're trying to meet players where they are. Give them a variety of options. You know, that was that was an interesting conversation in the room

because people were like, "Well, some of these these games like maybe the gameplay benefit isn't as large." And so you start getting and that's the difficulty when you start getting up into the metal like the the n every and it's very evident right like every time you clear a bar the nature of the conversation changes and the nature of the scrutiny changes. something that we were like all vibing on. Suddenly it's like but what about
the that level of craft or what about that level of impact cuz now and and so it's it was it was very interesting to see that where we could
be kind of all in agreement about a thing and then when we took the next level of scrutiny it was very clear like this one is where it needs to be and we it doesn't have enough to bring it to the next level. Um, but like great work and there and you know another one of the pieces that I I was on my short list of things I wanted to bring back for the short list uh was and almost this it was it was this or or the one we're going to talk about in a second but uh first

person surgeons I think it was called uh like
I like that one too.
It was great. Uh there was the it's a partnership between uh a a a medical school and a prominent a a a prominent esports professional and very thoughtful curriculum around basically like using I think it was Call of Duty, but basically saying like hey uh the skills you learn in these games are the same skills you need to be good at surgery and we're going to walk you through that like situational awareness. and like and and like teamwork and and these things. Um, I thought it was really compelling and I loved how it
really broke down what a pro esports player does in a way that can be applied to other things and and really used games and the fun games bring to engaged the these surgeons a different way. I think one of the reasons it it didn't click for me just yet was like that it's like so early that like the impact

numbers weren't there for me to like really pitch it in the room when it didn't clear initially number but like I loved I hope they'll like continue and come back like I hope that has the the legs to to get there eventually cuz that was a really cool application of like brands and gaming and and and everything together.
Yeah. and that real world impact, but it was I agree too early uh to tell on that one. And then the other one that I mentioned was called fire catchers. And so obviously with uh climate change, fires especially in Europe, especially in south of France are becoming a major problem. And there's cameras everywhere all over the forest in France, but there aren't enough people and there's the AI apparently isn't fine-tuned enough to detect fires. And so what they did is they put on Twitch, so streaming platform, when someone's waiting there for their favorite streamer, it's just idle time, but you have engaged gamers. And so they partnered with streamers in France that before they came on to

stream, they streamed the the forest and gave gamers the options if you were to see smoke, you flag it in the chat and it prevented, I think they said five major forest fires. Yeah. And I thought that was such one, it is it is a real world problem. How do we get people who are eager to give attention to look at something to pay close attention to something? And I feel like the person who created that that person is a gamer, right? They know about Twitch. They know about that idle time. I thought it was such a creative idea to solve a very real world problem. Oh, yeah. that that one was uh it was and and that was one of the a couple of them that got kind of like got pitched by folks that didn't necessarily clear but was brought back and and it was also interesting how that conversation changed because I think it made it to our short list but we weren't able to get it to bronze and I think one of the things that reflects kind of the the uh the interesting tension in this

category was it's a really great use of Twitch Mhm. But when we weren't once we got it to to I believe short list like it was difficult to say like but is it a like it's use of Twitch and it's gaming adjacent but is it game play and like when we looked at the notes we're like well we we were inspired by gameplay when we designed this and there's a little bit of like okay I report this for and and but but like there wasn't really a game loop right and and so to say it's like game inspired by gameplay but it like it and you don't have to. So, it was hard to find the game play or the game that part of it. It's game adjacent and that was but it was such a noble cause and it's such a noble thing and and it's tough. I think one of the hard things for juries is to like just sit and evaluate the work as it is in the moment because it's a bunch of creatives and we could go off and be like but what about this and what about this and like no no no okay what what is in the brief what happened what is the actual like

mathematical implication and sometimes it'll be like we're going to do x and y in future years but that's not what we're evaluating we're evaluating what got submitted now what the impact is now um it'd be great to like see it come back and evolve. Like I would love for them to come back and and come with like a tighter motivational loop that gets even more results like oh my god like that that's a great start but that was the nature of kind of trying to to figure out where that landed but but really cool innovative idea and and you know they did say that they're kind of getting some traction at a at a national level which is amazing.
One of the things that you mentioned when we talked about virtual donors and how they uh I there was modded content for three different games is the type of work that we saw spoke to such a wide variety of gaming audiences. I think when I initially went into it I thought it would be more mainstream like you know just FIFA which we did see and

we do have winners in those categories as well but there were I think very typically under represented gamers in gaming throughout. Were there any underrepresented under reppresented games that had submissions that you were impressed by? there was some heat around work coming from Latin American communities and like some some of it was around uh like the Golden Island, you know, and I thought I like I voted that one reasonably highly, but I think it was tough for for the impact to like tell the story of like how is this impact proportional, you know, like it like what makes this it seemed like it to me it was it was very impactful for the region, but how do you like tell the story in a way that people from other regions understand that that's really impactful. But um it it was that I think la

diversion for golden and it it felt like they were pretty authentic and it seemed like the numbers kind of track for people actually playing the island. But um there were a couple of things from uh that there were also some cool there was a a cool program for kind of trying to use gaming to get people out of sort of recidivism and and life of crime for lack of a better word. And that was a really cool a wonderful campaign. It bore some similarities to some stuff that had been recognized earlier. And so that was I think one of the the challenges there sometimes is like when things are very directly correlated to prior work is like how do you find the differentiating factor. Um but I loved seeing those threads
and maybe not just underserved right. I think the different types of fandom is more what I was thinking of. For instance, there was a very strong submission

completely targeted towards the Dungeons and Dragons community done by IKEA, which I thought was so clever. So, apparently I'm I'm not in the Dungeons and Dragons community. A lot of people get their names, their gaming names from former IKEA cataloges of and apparently IKEA cataloges haven't been published since 2021. And at the I believe Milan Games Week, IKEA came and they published a Dungeons and Dragon gaming catalog for all of those fans to pick their favorite their favorite names from it. It didn't I don't think it was
short. It did not. Yeah.
I think it I think it was short list, but it didn't it didn't clear bronze. But I thought that was such a a creative idea for a very particular type of fandom that could only have been created by someone who did deeply understand the community.
Yes, that was and it was lovely. That was like a really great pilot of an idea.
That was one of those ones where we're like all of us were like, "Oh, I wish I

had one of those first of all. Second of all, like, oh, I wish been involved in something like that." And then also like it the impact like was was very limited and so it was like beautiful but like the you just you can't help but fall in love with the video of the fans picking up that book in the the convention center, right? And just literally just yelling brand names of these and like when you look at the like celebrating brand through gameplay like that's literally the definition of the category, right? Which is why it's even though it's a very simple solution, it makes sense in the short list. like if someone's just just yelling lack because that's that they've pulled the name of the lack chair out of the book like that's that's interesting and that there was a lot of love for that there and so I and that speaks to not all that the solutions need to be highly technical or or highly complicated you know and and some of the stuff we recognized was uh more simple from a technical perspective but it spoke to

but it had a clear theory of change and it had clear impact. So, it didn't need to move mountains to do what it did. Um, you know, I'm going to shout at another thing that's just kind of random, but it's another one of the ones I wanted to pull out, like I wanted to be able to promote, but I think was a cool example. There was a lot of heat in like the uh the new technologies category. There was a lot of stuff that I think was really cool and just was hard for people to get their head around maybe, but uh the fantasy herd, did that come up for you? Yeah, I rated that one quite high.
I rated that one highly, too. So, there is it's a New Zealand and I unfortunately I'm forgetting the exact brand of the the milk, but go check out the fantasy herd uh or submission because they basically to promote their product. They they used uh wearable technology for cows to track milk production and health of the cows. and all the cows had names and you could

like draft them onto fantasy teams and uh and it like they they had measurable impact on sales and their their fans want to see another season. Uh and like really interesting use of tech wearable technology which is what fit with that category uh to drive this this fantasy gameplay element. I thought that was that was really interesting and and probably more complex than the jury may have even really truly appreciated. Uh that was that was really cool. There was another one from the National Guard which was like using VR to help people understand how they respond to like wildfires and other and and they had
that one was uh the I I really like the results on that one like there like the
there were you know first of all VR is hard and this was a touring VR uh installation and so for that to even work good job because you're like uh but like giving pe showing people how to engage in teamwork to put out a forest fire or There's a lot of gamers who want to

connect to each other, right? Like that's one of the companionship is one of the more modern motivators of play multiplayer. And we're losing third spaces, Right. And so to get to to go into a high school and show players a multiplayer experience that gives them skills that help them understand how to keep communities safe, like really hit to something like a lot of young people feel uh unsafe or or unmed by climate change or or just by disasters or just by and so that was a really cool use of gameplay to give a thread to like, oh, there are things I can do in my community to help each other to team up with other people to to to help in in in an emergency. And so I I really liked that use of of VR technology. That was very cool.
Oh, yeah. I wish I would have seen that one. I didn't think I had any VR.
Yeah, that was a category that it must have been.
Okay. Interesting. All right. I want to talk a little bit about the winners, right? And maybe we start with the one that you had brought back, which I

believe got a bronze. It did get a bronze. Yeah.
Okay. Do you want to talk about that one and what was so compelling?
Yeah. So, as I mentioned, there's this mechanic where we we get the mathematical short list and then we are then we kind of look and we're like, "Okay, there's duplicates and and are are things in the right categories and and have we and once we we figure things out if there's space, jurors can can bring up one per juror something that they think might have been overlooked." And that was really tough because we just talked about a bunch of things we liked. I had a bunch of them scroll down, but there was one entry that had spoken to me and there were a number of things I I know about the gaming community, right? Like horror is is very big right now.
We didn't have a lot of representation from Asian gaming in general. M
uh and we also didn't like what had managed to make it through there wasn't a lot of like we had seen kind of a decline in like the Roblox and Fortnite stuff uh but not a lot of like indie

gaming things
and there was this there was a submission from the cow corporation in Japan silent cleaning and it's this uh basically this one or twohour indie game you can download from Steam it's all in Japanese, although I hope they'll look closer to English. Uh, but the the premise was build a narrative-based horror game where the the mechanics are totally centered around the cow products. And they they very intentionally used game design to make it so you you had to like differentiate between similar products. So like they literally had streamers like reading the labels of their products on air, not because they were sponsored, but because like that was the game plan. and they're like trying really into it. Uh but they had had every all the elements of horror like jump scares and everything. It had a very distinct sort of uh I call it classic in my book, but like lowfi

aesthetic, which is smart if you're if you're doing something and you're maybe not a AAA studio, but uh the results were so compelling like sales of their products jumped 200%. And these are cleaning products that have been around for a hundred years or more. uh and uh influencer engagement was massive like 200,000 downloads of this free Steam game about cleaning in Japan. Uh it was charting on Steam. Like it was and this is this is this is a a cleaning brand that had nothing to do with gaming and like a really bold choice for them to go in this and they just embraced the genre fully. And what I also loved about their case study was they it wasn't just
we're going to do a game, right? Cuz I've seen a lot of that, right? Like you could see it all the time in Fortnite levels like we did a map. Uh but they don't think about the game loop. They don't think about motivation. They don't think about and so there was a lot of craft in there when they in the description they're like the last level

is very thoughtfully designed with like rows of toilets to like increase the the tension and the speed and so that it it'll really get people engaged, right? like there's there were very intentional design decisions made to make it engaging for players, not just like a transaction, but like a quality experience. And that's what got these big Japanese streamers, horror game streamers, like really into it, just super broadcasting it. They I think they said they had 3,200 videos on YouTube of the game.
Organic or not?
Organic, right? Uh and so it was just the more I watched it, the more I looked at the numbers, I'm like, I I can't look away from this one. It's just it's a celebration of the subg genre in gaming. It's a brand that like by all rights should not have been successful at this and they they're thriving and and people are out there buying this product and and and like cleaning their houses more and and enjoying the jump scares as a result. So I I brought that back uh to the group. And the other thing I knew was it was one of those ones that

because it had only been submitted in one category,
a lot of the jury hadn't seen it. And so because it hadn't cleared in its one category, I spoke with one juror uh beforehand and had had mentioned that there weren't a lot of things from the Asian like continent, I was like, I think this is my only chance to get this thing in front of the jury. I don't think the other side has seen this. So I it's of all the things like some of the other things I liked, I knew everybody had seen because they had been submitted in multiple categories. So it had kind of had its chance. But this one, I was like, I honestly think a lot of the jury hasn't seen it because of the way the math works and everything. And so I'm going to and so uh put that out there and was pleasantly surprised and uh and and it made its way to a bronze. And I'm so grateful you did cuz I I hadn't seen it. And I also think when you're reviewing so many in the beginning, you might not focus on the 200,000 downloads when we're comparing it to other games doesn't sound huge, but then when we really talked about it as a jury to be

like, they launched this game on Steam, there wasn't a huge marketing budget behind it. How did they even handle the discoverability and they still had 200,000 downloads? Like when you put all of the different criteria, it's truly incredible what they were able to do. Another one that a lot of people championed which I believe was silver. I'm talking Skittles taste the rainbow. Was it silver?
The Skittles flute.
The Skittles flute which is well this with the Cappy bar therapy were the two most bizarre entries. U but it just absolutely delighted people. And what was funny is I think jury members changed opinions along the way and by the end people were just obsessed with the flute. Do you want to talk about the activation?
Yeah. So, uh, the the Skittles gaming flute, you know, you're watching all these these submissions and a lot of them are, hey, here's here's this Fortnite level or here the and then

Skittles just comes in hard at you with like this super retro thing and it's like the tagline's like blow your way to victory. I'm like, I'm sorry, where what are we doing? And they and they they took a real flute and they turned it into a game controller that you had to play like play as a flute like blow through it and play to to to control a game. And then they and they did this because they were looking for a specific community of gamers to connect with. And they they they identified this as challenge gamers, right? Uh uh speedrunners, etc., right? Folks who and I described I was in the jury room. I was trying to kind of give some more context for the the jury. I was like this group of gamers, they take the conditions of winning that already exists in a game and say like that's not enough for me.
I my it's the motivation of play. I discussed mastery, right? Like it's not enough to master what everybody else

does. I'm going to create additional constraints and master those because that's what makes me feel good is like being the best of the best, right? And so, and often that means, you know, in the in their uh demo video, it's like people who are like playing open world games with a DDR dance pad or something like really wild stuff. And so, they were like, "Wild? Why not?" And the thing about the Skittles gaming flute, like we we saw a lot of things that were like controller mods for for like an Xbox controller or things like that. Uh but this thing like it was so brand inspired. When you talk about brand integration, it's if you go and look at it, it is uh it has a it is bright red and all of the keys are Skittles, right? Like it's literally playing the rainbow just and uh the box like it talks to you when you open it.
They did bring one. They did bring one. We could try it out. It was impressive.
It's a very if you have physical media and you could bring it in, it's very

compelling. But just, you know, and this one they they they sent and they made six, I think, of these flutes and they sent them to influencers and and let them do like 72 hours straight on these things. I'm like, I have I have like physical devices I've bought that don't last for 72 hours. They they created this bonkers peripheral and then sent it out on faith to people whose job it is to bra basically break things and and let it go and and the results there communities were loved it and they had you know a deep chat engagement right like and so in this case you know we talked about downloads we talked about like the difference between minutes watched versus minutes played now this type of engagement this was in co influencer and co-reamer I think uh No, no, it's use of humor. Okay. So, use of humor is a little bit more flexible, right? Like it's and so it's the humor was the audience's relationship with the streamers.
Uh, and it's a little bit of shot and

freed, right? Because you've got this streamer and they're like running out of breath because they can't control the thing. And so, in that case, looking at the goals the brand has, that's how much do they are they in the picture in this conversation? And they literally had like how often they were mentioned in the chat
which was like once a minute for for like the whole weekend. Yes. And so they were the and that speaks to having your goals clear, right? It wasn't just like people watching it. Like that's quality engagement for the brand people and you know they showed some of the chat too. It's very much people being like Skittles we love you. This is great. What is this? We don't understand it but we love it. Um it's just it's it's like like deranged genius. I just like it it's so many people had to keep saying yes to that.
Yeah, exactly. And for that and the cafe bar like I want to meet the people who pitched that idea and then the person who actually green lit that cuz there were so many times along the way that someone could have just been like what

the or really also it was Skittles first gaming activation ever. was it? I didn't have that context.
Yeah, that's what it said in the video. And of all the different, you know, snack products that are advertising in gaming and this didn't come off as an ad at all. It was truly just organic chaos on brand and it delighted the streamers, the audience, and every single person inventory.
Yeah. And it the funny thing was like it didn't have to come with like a coupon code. it didn't have to come with the giveaway, which is a very common thing. Like there are a lot of coupon codes and giveaways that come through. And that's a conversation that comes up, right? Like that's a that's a very specific type of activation. And then we have to consider
how much of the behavior changes because people like free stuff versus how much of the behavior changes because people are genuinely inacting with it, right? Like that heightens the conversation when you're throwing the free stuff at people. But this wasn't like there

wasn't even like a it was just like this joyful activation around the thing. Uh it's just go go do this go do the stuff at least as far as it was presented in the case video. I wish I had seen the streams live. I think that would have been really fun. And that's that's part of what you want from these things is like the wish for the visceral participation. Um I wonder what it would and I think we were all a little surprised like we we we saw it go to the short list then we saw it go to the Bronson like as a collective as we start talking through these things and that the level goes up and but it it held as we started to evaluate
and different people championed it at different times like it was definitely a beloved entry of everyone. All right, we are going to shift because we only have 10 minutes left which we are in a recording studio in con and all the influencers are here. So the fact that we were able to get in was a miracle and we haven't even talked about the true winner of pretty much everything and that was Supercell. I believe they had

four entries shortlisted and three were placed including the Grand Prix and the Gold Award. Do you want to start with maybe your favorite of all the Supercell entries?
You know, for me it was really tough because like the one that spoke to me like the the most was probably uh the the cracked royale. like that one kept I kept coming back to uh which was a a localized campaign in Brazil where and it was a lowbudget one that was recognized break for breakthrough on a budget but uh where they recognized that players in Brazil one in three players in Brazil just don't upgrade their phone when their phones cracked and so they they uh were found a way to kind of pro uphold players for their skill in playing the game while their phones were cracked uh and when we started talking about like I already liked it. I thought it was very clever and like the numbers were really huge, right? Like that like
385,000

people new users I think
something like that. um really and and for a constrained market, right? Like for a single market activation uh really really compelling. And then when we started talking about it too, we were like,
you know, that actually involves more of the comm like it's it's the it's very clever too because it it's very hard to just get that video on your own. Yeah.
Like you need somebody to play with you. uh you you need someone to help or something to help you videotape this this broken phone and record it. And so it it inherently just creates this conversation. Uh and so it was it saw a community, they that community self-reported feeling seen and it it had this like halo effect of growing. So like that one I really loved. Like I it was tough because we had some other entries. Super Sal had a really great year but that just had undeniable impact. But I loved that entry for what it did.

I like that because my favorite was shortlisted, but I don't think was placed and it was called D balloons and it was in the audio visual content. And what they did is they created a trailer video for Clash Royale. And they did it through balloons, like just balloon characters, and they used over 10,000. And they did a behindthe-scenes video of it. And for me, just the craft of it, how wild it was. And one of the things that I kept bringing up is in a world of just AI slop, someone creating something just so beautiful and bizarre and weird. I'm really glad we live in a world where this is this there's a budget for this, right? But I do think it was also entered into other categories other than just gaming. And then let's talk about the two winners. Maybe we talk about gold first uh which was pocket-size uh halftime show. Do you want to speak to

that?
Yeah. And I'm also going to say too like I like one thing I struggled with was like how strong a year Supercell had, right? Like I and I was really grateful for like the integrity measures that the the con lines folks had because like I had several questions several times like can like is this okay? Are we doing the right thing? Have you could they and they had watchers in the room monitoring all our conversation and taking notes. They've like double checked all the numbers several times. There's checks every time we moved up a like a metal level to make sure everything was it because you know like it's tough like when so many entries are strong coming from one company. Uh, but these two the entries in particular, both of them are these like once in feel like once in a lifetime kind of campaigns. But this one in particular, pocket-sized halftime show. I didn't get to see either of these in my first round of judging. I only saw them in the second round. But this one
essentially the the problem they were trying to solve was they couldn't they didn't feel like they could afford a Super Bowl spot, but they wanted to

engage in some way. And so they're like, "Well, what if we just run a halftime show of our own during the Super Bowl, but then what what talent would we involve?" And then they they attached to a narrative that an artist was which was who was the artist? Lil Wayne.
Lil Wayne was snubbed.
Lil Wayne was snubbed uh from the previous halftime show, I think. And so they were like, "Well, what if we gave Lil Wayne, but they also kind of like leaned into the the brief of like Lil Wayne small the giant like this small giant thing and like pocketsize halftime show." And so they and they did this. So for I believe the whole weekend like every match was interrupted by a halftime show that like flipped the perspective to landscape and did like a full production value com combination liveaction and full uh rendered video full-on halftime show with a song and characters from the

game and but and the craft of everything in the the video right like so many references to the game. The Coldplay meme is there. Uh Kiss Cam meme is there. There's like so many things there that just uh it it just felt like a love letter. And and what they ended up with was we kept coming back to like the the impact like the the major media mentions. Like if your goal is to get press during the Super Bowl and you've got Billboard and Campaign Magazine and other folks giving you press time during that media cycle without a Super Bowl ad, that is achieving your goals.
Absolutely. And I think it I mean they did get a lot of gaming press too, but it was able to transcend gaming into cultural and mainstream in a way that is hard no matter what. But when you're already entering in a completely competitive media landscape leading up to the Super Bowl, it was it was incredible. And I know we only have a couple minutes left, so let's talk about the Grand Prix, which was Copycat's

Welcome. So for Copycats Welcome, it's it was Clash Royale, right? Clash Royale is one of probably the most popular mobile game, but they have a lot of knockoffs and a lot of copycats. And as we know, IP issues are huge in mobile gaming. And so they created such a brilliant campaign to solve this problem. Do you want to share?
Yeah, they uh basically they said, "Hey, we acknowledged that these these copycats exist." And they created uh basically a web form where you could ex tell how much time you had spent in that game and how much relative investment you had given. And that would translate into an offer for in-game currency that you could use in Clash Royale to either come back to Clash Royale or use it for the first time and presumably a generous amount of currency. And the case video showed a lot of folks talking about the like the message they sent to the community, right? And the thing that stuck out for me here was like how players felt like their time was valued, like how they felt like and and it as a

a video game professor like I hear my my students talk about like how sometimes they feel guilty about spending money on microtransactions. And I know I have like downloaded the wrong game sometimes and like that doesn't feel good. Sometimes you get have like a couple levels in you realize this isn't the one you thought it was cuz like they've done a lot of investment on the first three levels and it just falls right off and then you're like well what do I do about that money? Maybe I just don't want to engage in this genre. And so what's lovely about this is it kind of just it's this this it's just this blank slate. It's like hey it doesn't matter if like you got tricked or if you spent money in other places you are welcome here. Your time is honored. Come back and and give this a shot and uh no judgment. And it it it makes it kind of reduces the stakes of that really difficult to navigate discoverability problem on the app stores in a way that celebrated players uh and and seemed to resonate and and the results were undeniable like like millions of players.
I think it was 1.65

million new players and over 5 million re-engaged players.
Yeah. just just bonkers like impact like very difficult to ignore and and obviously they're a big game so they they can do that swing but like it's still
uh when you set clear goals and you do that sort of stuff and then the quality of that you know part of that is in the case study as well being able to show like that real community engagement of
sometimes it's like you see one or two influencers and then it's like a string of 20 people talking and you see the other stuff in the supporting notes, you're like, "Okay, it does really seem like this genuinely resonated and the numbers are there."
Yeah.
Uh but it sends this I I liked that it sent the message that player time matters.
And that it's it's okay if you make a mistake. It's okay if you go and experiment with these other people. you're always welcome back or I I liked I really liked that and I loved that that that seemed to resonate with players
and to solve a problem just in a

constructive way of maybe there's lawsuits too but they aren't just out there suing people or talking about how horrible this is for the industry but instead turning it into a positive a very real problem
and it's a confidence in the quality of your own game right is like
100%
we don't need to do that we know that we have what it takes just just come back and give us a chance
yeah So, Cheryl, I'm gonna end with one final question since we probably only have 30 seconds left. After seeing all of this, what do you hope that brands who are going to be activating an in-game take away? Like, if you were invited back on the jury next year, what would you like to see? I think, you know, if there's one thing you take away from the Skittles case study, it's that gamers are not a monolith. There are many sub genres of gamers and knowing which which community within gaming you're engaging with having strong goals, strong success criteria and communicating how you hit those. Uh

those things are a path to better success. Um also, you know, I talk a lot about this in my book, but the gamers of today are not the gamers from 10 or 20 years ago. If you're making your experiences for what you wanted when you were growing up, you might be missing the plot. Because the gamers of today were raised in a world where Roblox and Minecraft and blockier graphics and more accessible, comforting, casual gameplay is the norm. And so, uh, even if you're not developing in those environments, be careful like what you place value in. Do do you really need to spend a ton of money on really quick graphics on your uh on your standalone game? Silent cleaning says no, right? Like spend but quality of gameplay gamers know. They know if you've done your homework and that I think is a big big takeaway for me is like gamers know. They can tell and uh they're gravitating towards places where uh the craft is there, the Skittles flute, the the silent cleaning.

Um going back to Clash Royale with the the big offers, right? So, uh, seek out partnerships with game developers, and there are a lot of game developers looking for work, they'd be happy to talk to you about your activations. If you're if you're a brand looking to work in this space, so there's lots of opportunity there, or you can pick up my book, the game development strategy guide to or just read the free first chapter that talks about the motivators of play. Uh, there's lots of material out there for you to learn more and engage gamers where they are. Cheryl, thank you so much for joining me on the Navic podcast and it was such a pleasure serving on the jury with you and now it's time for us to go have some rosé.
I look forward to that. Thank you so much. If you enjoyed today's episode, whether on YouTube or your favorite podcast app, make sure to like, subscribe, comment, or give a fivestar review. And if you want to reach out or provide feedback, shoot us a note at podcastnavic.co co or find us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Plus, if you want to learn more about

what Navic has to offer, make sure to check out our website, www.navic.co. There you can sign up for the number one games industry newsletter, Navic Digest, or contact us to learn about our wide-ranging consulting and advisory services. Again, that is www.navic.co. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you in the next episode.