Commentary
AKQA - McDonald's
- by August 26, 2008
McDonald's
http://awards.sf.akqa.com/thelostring/
Finalist Use of Gaming
PJ Pereira, executive creative director; Toria Emery, creative director; Edwin Veelo, associate creative director; Jane McGonigal, game director; Sari Hamman, art director; Jason Apaliski, art director; Carl Bock, designer; Cerra Buckholtz, associate designer; Keith Hostert, copywriter; Andrew McMurchie, associate copywriter; Aynne Valencia, senior interaction designer; Marie Hartmann, interaction designer; Antti Kupila, creative developer; Steve Sherwood, senior technical manager
If alternate reality games (arg) are the next big thing in immersive marketing, then McDonald's deft and subtle The Lost Ring extravaganza
sets the bar high early in this game. Leveraging a long-standing relationship with the Olympics, McDonald's agency, akqa, crafted an enormous DaVinci Code-like experience in which more than 2
million users accessed historical documents, secret codes and a charismatic academic character, and communicated with each other to solve a mystery that culminated during the 2008 Games. Phenomenal
production values and fully absorbing game play made the experience more important than any ham-handed brand message. The sponsor leveraged the essence of gaming and immersion in alternate worlds
to create value for the audience and demonstrate a real kinship with gaming and the Games.
