Brand Experience Lab in the U.S. hopes to revolutionise brand marketing in movie theatres with interactive games that foster audience participation and “socialisation” using a proprietary vision-based technology.

Its AudienceGames system is driven by the “collective movement” of theatre audiences, who serve as “human joysticks”, controlling game elements on the screen “as they move left or right”, said David Polinchock, Brand Experience Lab’s founder.

Brand Experience Lab developed its first custom games for MSNBC.com in the U.S. and Volvo in the UK last year. For MSNBC, the company developed an in-theatre game called NewsBreaker. It also conceived an advergame in theatres for the Volvo XC7, which preceded showings of the movie Ratatouille.

Surveys conducted with users interacting with the AudienceGames sponsored by MSNBC and Volvo suggested high engagement with the games: 78 percent of the respondents played the NewsBreaker game, and 84 percent of those surveyed played the game sponsored by Volvo.

The clear audience preference for games over conventional ads was borne out by those surveys. 93 percent of those playing the game sponsored by MSNBC expressed a desire for more games in the cinema, and 86 percent said they preferred a game to an ad. Similarly, 68 percent of those playing the game sponsored by Volvo desired more games, and 74 percent preferred a game to an ad.

Perhaps more importantly, the surveys also indicated that the games significantly enhanced brand awareness and interest in MSNBC and Volvo. For example, 71 percent of those surveyed in a test with the MSNBC game reported recalling MSNBC as the sponsor of the game unaided.

Polinchock contrasted this rate favourably with results from a recent Arbitron study of in-cinema advertising, which showed 59 percent of moviegoers in the survey recalling viewing commercials at theatres. In addition, 75 percent of those surveyed indicated a greater likelihood of using MSNBC.

The game for Volvo also helped to improve Volvo’s brand image, with 21 percent of the respondents reporting gaining a better image of Volvo, and seemed to stimulate greater interest in purchasing Volvos, with 37 percent of those surveyed indicating a greater likelihood of purchasing a Volvo.

According to Polinchock, AudienceGames has a major cost advantage over many interactive systems in theatres – due to its single-camera system, it involves “significantly reduced ongoing maintenance costs”, unlike systems which require seats to be wired.

Brand Experience Lab has entered into a partnership with National CineMedia – which also uses Reactrix's gestural technology in its cinema lobbies – to roll out AudienceGames on a large scale via the cinema chain's Digital Content Network.

National CineMedia plans to conduct a technical test of the system in September to assess the compatibility of AudienceGames’ technology with National CineMedia’s automated system, which is behind its FirstLook digital entertainment and advertising programme. Current plans call for AudienceGames to be introduced on 500 to 700 screens in the top 20 U.S. markets, if the pilot test is successful.

www.brandexperiencelab.org 

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