• by Aaron Baar , May 30, 2014

Deciding which color fits best in one’s living can be a stressful endeavor, as anyone who’s been through a home renovation can attest. Paint company Benjamin Moore is looking to inject a little fun into the process with a new branded mobile game and app.

Taking a cue from the mobile game “Blendoko,” where users align colored squares on a board to create a sequence of blends that move one color into another, the company has created “Bendoku,” a similar game based on three of the company’s signature color collections. The venture into gaming is meant to appeal to younger female homeowners, who are also a growing demographic for mobile gaming.

“Our strategy is focused on what matters to our end users. We are focused on how our products fit into users lives,” David Melancon, chief marketing officer at Benjamin Moore, tells Marketing Daily. “One of the things we know is a lot of people are online. The mobile space is growing, and it’s growing fast among our target consumer.”

The initiative’s inspiration came when Melancon discovered the “Blendoku” game last year. “I thought it fit very well with our brand,” he says “There’s lots of brands that get into games in ways that don’t [make sense].”

The game is available through Apple’s App Store, Google Play and Amazon’s Kindle mobile app store. Benjamin Moore will promote the game through its social channels, as well as advertising on the Blendoku game. (Blendoku’s game developers, Lonely Few, assisted with creating Bendoku.) Melancon is not concerned that an audience playing the original might not be interested in the branded game. 

“They use different colors in a similar way. People who like playing their game will like playing ours,” he says. “It doesn’t take away from their game any more than a new crossword puzzle book takes away from your old crossword puzzle book.”