A new online advergame, www.gettheglass.com, the latest installment of the GOT MILK? campaign, has all the makings of a classic family board game such as Monopoly and Life. But in this case players are not competing to build up their wealth or acquire property–they are instead trying to get their hands on earth's last glass of milk, which is immersed in a heavily-fortressed fantasy world.
A slew of commercials also belong to the interactive campaign, which aims to position milk as a precious commodity not to be taken for granted. Consumers get to see milk through the eyes of the ailing Adachi family, desperate for milk and its healing powers. The first spot opens on a glass of milk enclosed in a refrigerator chamber heavily watched by security cameras in a maximum security compound. Hiding inside a disguised plumbing service van, the Adachis send their son to perform a mission impossible feat.
"We wanted to make sure the Adachis never got the glass in the TV spots but take it a step further and allow the users to have the chance to take the challenge online," said Feh Tarty, creative director at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners (GS&P).
Jorge Calleja, senior art director/designer, said when he and copywriter Paul Charney got the brief from the California Milk Processor Board, the objective was to make milk as valuable as the Holy Grail and have the Adachi family trying to obtain it. "When we brainstormed for this, Paul and I realized that the obvious way to go was to make a game. People would have to deal with certain obstacles to get to the milk. Since we see milk as a family-oriented brand, we took it to the board game level," explained Calleja.
Get The Glass closely resembles a traditional board game with virtual "spaces" and mouse-maneuvered "dice." While the look and feel of the game hearkens back to a time when families played board games together around the fire, this game is contemporary, employing complex, Flash animation graphics.
"For a challenge like this we really needed a top-of-the-line shop to build this thing," said Calleja. So they opted for Swedish creative digital agency North Kingdom. The agency worked on last year's GOT MILK? campaign, which introduced alien planet Brittleactica whose ailing inhabitants discover a white magic elixir found on earth. North Kingdom created the online presence to develop the Brittleactica theme.
The sites did extremely well so the California Milk Processor Board put more advertising dollars into interactive this year to maximize its small budget.
For this online endeavor, North Kingdom built a real model back in November, filmed it and from there did all the Flash implementation with 3D.
At the start of the game, users are told their mission: Your mission is to help the milk-deprived Adachi family navigate/survive all five regions of the board, break into Fort Bridge and get the glass. But be careful. For Bridge security is hot on your tail. If they catch up. they're more than happy to ship the Adachis off to Milkatraz. Three trips to Milkatraz and the game is over.
When users agree to play, the cover of a retro looking board game flies off and an incredibly detailed, multi-dimensional board unfolds. Game pieces then spring to life and assemble on the board, as a camera shifts from a bird's-eye view to swoop down to place players at the beginning of the game. Using the mouse, players throw a single die and land on three types of cards: Fortune cards move you forward. Misfortune cards move you back and Mastermind cards require you to solve a puzzle. Each step of the way, players have to overcome physical handicaps caused by the lack of milk–brittle bones, weak muscles, insomnia, PMS and broken nails.
Sometimes the Fort Fridge security guards are in hot pursuit forcing players to complete an interactive challenge to escape them. If they fail, they will be sent directly to Milkatraz. For instance, because Mr. Adachi doesn't have milk to rebuild his muscles, he has trouble steering his van, so players have 30 seconds and three chances to help him steer clear of vines in the road.
Pat McKay, creative director for GS&P, said the advergame is also being promoted through banner ads in addition to the tv spots. Since the launch last month, there have been 3.8 million click throughs and about 645,000 unique views. The GS&P team is proud of those numbers, its work as well as North Kingdom's, especially that of Robert Lindström, art director/designer and David Eriksson, creative director/producer.
"They are amazing. We were running out of time so we needed to put extra hands into the project to make sure we could finish it. So Paul and I flew to Sweden and it was a very intense two weeks," said Calleja, adding that he has never worked with such a dedicated production team.
Heather Wischmann was senior interactive producer for GS&P and Annelie Jönsson was producer for North Kingdom. Martha Jurzynski was the account director and Ashley Weber was the assistant account manager for GS&P.
"To get something like this going and to have it out on time is such a huge challenge," said Calleja.
But it was well worth it because the campaign seems to be working. The California Milk Processor Board has already sold 10 million more gallons of milk than it did the previous year.
