• by Staff Writers , September 6, 2007

Players expect cutting-edge content. Game developers deliver with branded entertainment.

Editor's Note: There was no winner selected in this category.

A&E
The Sopranos A&E Connection Game

A&E: Guy Slattery, Senior Vice President, Marketing; Lori Peterzell, Vice President, Marketing; Stacy Krusch, Director, Strategic Alliances & Consumer Promotion
Civic Entertainment Group: Dan Silberman, Vice President Publicity; Stuart Ruderfer, CEO; David Cohn, CEO; Seth Grossbard, Senior Project Manager; Sarah Swanson, Project Manager; Kevin Slavin, Managing Director; Frank Lantz, Creative Director; Kati London, Project Manager

The campaign for the sopranos on A&E is best described by one word: innovative. The premise of the game was similar to bingo - collect characters, items, and places. To do this, players needed to "capture" that piece by photographing one of the ads across different mediums and sending it to image recognition software. Then the players arranged their pieces strategically on the board, anticipating what is going to happen in the episodes. During the broadcasts, the players gained points based, in part, on how long the piece was on screen. At the end of the season, the player with the most points won $100,000.

PHD
Discovery Channel/"Future Weapons"

PHD: Jennifer Neal, AndyVon Kennel, Jay Altschuler, Craig Daitch, Anne Dean
Microsoft: Ian Ali, Chad Schulte Discovery Networks (Media Planning & Parnerships): Chris Schembri, Brad Feinberg, Kristi Cannata

To promote the new series future weapons for Discovery, PHD launched three initiatives on Microsoft's Xbox 360. First, the shop ran in-game ads promoting the series that ran in games ranging from Splinter Cell to Rainbow Six. Next, it sponsored two new maps for the successful game Gears of War, and made them available for free to the community through Xbox Live. Finally, it gave away over two million Microsoft Points (a currency used to buy downloadable content on Xbox Live) in the three days before the launch of the series.

TRUE NORTH INC.
ABC Family / "Kyle XY" Game

True North: Tom Goosmann, Chief Creative; Derek Little, Creative Director; Bart Henderson, Sr. Art Director; Billy Thompson, Flash; John Como, Director of Client Service; Carolyn Mowatt, Account Supervisor; Jocelyn Farhangian, Account Executive
ABC Family: Danielle Mullin, Vice President Marketing; Jenna Stein, Manager Consumer Marketing

Some games grab attention but don't know what to do with it. Not so with True North's game for ABC Family's Kyle XY. This game tested players' concentration, coordination, and memory. After playing through, the game suggests the player might be a candidate to be a member of the "Latnok Society," a fictional group that is part of the show's story.