Universal Pictures International (UPI) Korea has chosen to partner with Branded Mini-Games to promote their movie Pixels in Korea. Using the Branded Mini-Games platform, UPI Korea will employ a customised, signature mini-game to create interest and hype in the marketing and promotions for the Hollywood movie. Due for its United States release in July, the movie is headlined by leading Hollywood stars including Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Peter Dinklage.
Pixels is a film by Sony Pictures and released by UPI in South Korea. Pixels is a story about aliens intercepting video feeds of classic arcade games from earth and misreading them as a declaration of war, leading to an invasion of earth using these arcade games as models. In the movie, the United States President has to enlist the help of a ragtag team consisting of veteran arcade game players and a military strategist to fend off the aliens and save the planet.
“This is a milestone for Branded Mini-Games as it validates the power and success of Advergames in brand building, marketing and promotions. This is a perfect fit as Advergames are an ideal platform to promote movies, particularly one based on video games,” said Massoud Loodin, Head of Business, M-BIZ Global.
The Branded Mini-Games platform is the ideal channel for UPI to promote the movie through engaging and interacting with consumers by incorporating elements of the story line with classic arcade games, educating and reminding viewers of their childhood and younger days.
The mini-game will be launched on the Sony Pictures Korea Facebook page from 22 June to 19 July. Users are required to sign in with their Facebook account to participate in the competition, which ends with a visit to the Pixels movie website. The template for the mini-game will be based on ‘Spot the Difference’, where users will need to spot the difference between 2 Pixels’ movie posters and the top 20 participants on the event leader board will be awarded various attractive prizes.
Advent of Advergames
Since its introduction in 1995, advergaming or ‘advertising through games’ has risen in popularity due to the proliferation of smartphones and the acceptance of playing mobile games. According to Danielle Hrin Kuek, Producer, M-BIZ Global, the Southeast Asia market is a burgeoning market for advergaming, with industry estimations computing the market worth at US$84 million in 2014. This is expected to increase between 17 to 19 percent on an annual basis in the region.
