2011 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

In a mere 15 days, the ME2 interactive banner recorded 247,000 chat messages, from 35,000 unique chatters and achieved a conversion rate of 15 per cent from online gamers to mobile gamers. Gamers set meeting times to go onto the banner and chat, creating a buzzing ME2 community. The rich media interaction rate grew to 14.61 per cent, with rich media impressions totalling 7,308,291, and rich media interactive impressions totalling 1,067,604. Our client STC was very happy with the online-to-mobile conversion rate, and ME2 set the ball rolling for meeting the rising demand for online gaming in Saudi Arabia.

Creative Execution

We transformed the online banner into a window that opens up to the parallel world of ME2, a world that required no commitment and no obligations, where gamers could interact with one another. The real-time interactive banner simulates the characteristics of the actual ME2 application, and any users interacting with the banner at the same time could begin chatting immediately. This would stimulate gamers’ curiosity with no effort required on their part. In order to spread the word on ME2, we gave gamers the opportunity to tell others about this virtual venue through Facebook, and invite their friends to meet on ME2. This gave gamers a chance to enjoy ME2 before committing to a mobile subscription, and widen the pool of ME2 subscribers to subsequently make the mobile game more enjoyable.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

As the leading telecom provider in Saudi Arabia, STC took it upon itself to cater to the rising demand for mobile gaming by creating the first social mobile game in the Kingdom, ME2. Exclusive to STC users, ME2 is a virtual life game that allows people to subscribe, choose an avatar, and chat with fellow STC users. As the practice is not common in the conservative Kingdom, STC did not want to publicly associate itself with the game, leaving ME2 without a brand halo support. Not having much weight as a 'standalone' brand, we felt ME2 could not demand too much time and effort from gamers; ME2 online banners required gamers to subscribe to the game through their mobile phones, deterring potential gamers. It was important that gamers had a smooth, seamless experience when coming in contact with ME2 for the first time, a no-strings-attached experience that would be enjoyable from the get-go.