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Selling product engagement

The Province February 28, 2008
By Glenda Luymes

The product is simple — a bottle of Coke.

But the product experience is a whole different game.

For Vancouver video-game development company Shift Control Media, the way consumers experience Coke involves entertainment and technology.

By creating cutting-edge video games that consumers can play on Coca-Cola’s website, the two-year-old Fairview district company is bridging the gap between marketing and the large and lucrative gaming world.

And it’s catching on.

“It’s a very compelling way for brands to have a more meaningful dialogue with consumers,” Shift Control president and CEO Tim Zuckert explained yesterday.

Advergaming, as it’s called in the marketing world, is currently a $250-million industry and is expected to grow to over $1 billion in the next five years.

The industry is grounded in the popularity of video games, which outrank social networking and video sharing as the No. 1 form of online entertainment.

Product placement in video games, such as EA’s Need For Speed, has been around for a few years. Billboards along race tracks in the game advertise products, while integral aspects of the game, such as oil and tires, are specifically branded.

Shift Control takes it one step further with games created around specific products.
“Companies see the games as a way to draw people to their website and engage them further in their message,” said Shift Control chief operating officer Mark Findlay.

One of Shift Control’s largest contracts so far has been with Coca-Cola.

The soft-drink giant recently launched a new website at www.coca-cola.com that’s tied to its Happiness Factory television commercials from last year’s Super Bowl.

Shift Control created four games for the site, allowing consumers to learn more about the characters in the commercial.

In Capper’s Catapult Game, players use a slingshot to cap a giant bottle of Coke. Speed and accuracy determine the score.

“Instead of just delivering a message, we see the role of games as being much more entertaining. For the consumer, there’s a value to them by going to the site . . . For the company, it starts a dialogue,” said Findlay.

Shift Control set up shop in Vancouver — the “hub” of the video-game-development industry, according to Findlay — to take advantage of the deep pool of video-game talent.

A second office in New York City takes care of marketing and promotion. With about 10 staff in all, the company has seen steady growth, picking up new contracts with NBC TV, Yahoo! and, most recently, creating a political online game called Dance 2 DC.

“It’s important to us that, first and foremost, we’re making great games,” said Zuckert.

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