• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 29, 2007

SNBC.com is giving new meaning to audience interaction with an in-cinema game that’s part of a broader campaign aimed at newshounds.  

Dubbed “A Fuller Spectrum of News,” the $4 million initiative seeks to position the No. 2 online news provider as a brand that guarantees a diverse and intriguing array of news, entertainment and other information.

The “Newsbreaker Live” game debuted in May in three theaters in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and White Plains, N.Y., and deploys a technology called CrowdGaming, developed in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Leaning to the left or the right like a human joystick, the audience tries to smash up a wall of colored bricks up on the screen. The game paddle responds in real-time to the collective motion of the audience. As bricks containing live news headlines fall, moviegoers try to catch them with the paddle to accumulate points.

MSNBC.com also launched an Internet version of the Newsbreaker game and a screensaver that allows users to click on the undulating color grid to read headlines and stories. The integrated campaign developed by New York agency SS+K, includes TV, print and online media, as well as the games, to encourage interaction with the site's news content. All without having to wear 3-D glasses.