• by Ken Liebeskind , April 6, 2001

A viral game campaign is successfully branding a complex IT product.

The campaign for Verado, a Greenwood Village, CO Internet data center (IDC) firm, employed "The IT Security Game," which was sent to a select number of IT professionals who were encouraged to pass it along to their colleagues. Players are also encouraged to request information from Verado.

Carat Interactive, a Santa Monica, CA interactive agency, partnered with Intrapromote, a Valparaiso, IN firm that creates pass along games on the campaign, which launched in February. The results have been promising with 20,000 downloads of the game reported after the first five weeks and 40,000 two weeks later, meaning there was heavy viral pass along.

The campaign began with newsletters and opt-in emails sent to a select group of IT professionals with a downloadable URL that took recipients to the game. The game, which pits players against evil villains like spammers and mad scientists, was ideal for IT professionals, because they "have a heavy dungeons and dragons fantasy life," says Lance Wawer, director of Carat Interactive. "IT professionals have an entire language of their own and they're a heavy viral and gaming community, so we thought this game might be appealing."

The game was part of an online campaign that also included rich media, alternate sized ads like Skyscrapers and search engine optimization, Wawer says. "We're competing against IBM and other major network TV spenders. We had less money to spend, so we had to do it in a more clever way."

It was a branding campaign because "IDCs are not known as a category," Wawer says. Also, Verado had just changed its name from First World Communication, which is still the name of the company's DSL division. Wawer says the company is selling off the DSL division, making the branding campaign for Verado essential.

The goal of the game promotion is to get users to play often, "so they have unsolicited recall of the brand," he says. Also, Verado's service is a high ticket item that players won't necessarily be ready to purchase. If they play the game often, they'll consider Verado when they are ready to purchase, he notes.

The game has a Verado logo at the top right of the screen and Verado's name gets mentioned during the game: when a player loses, a message pops up that says, "If you had Verado technology, it wouldn't have happened."

Of the 40,000 who have downloaded the game so far, 5,000 have requested additional information from Verado, which prompts Wawer to say, "It seems to be doing what we want. Downloads doubled after two more weeks, so the viral element is working. After a six month arc, we'll see real sales numbers and market share grow." In the meantime, play on.

- Ken Liebeskind may be reached at kenrunz@aol.com