NCM Media Networks is encouraging movie theater audiences to wave their arms around in the air. Working with Audience Entertainment Group, it has added a 90-second game to its programming that turns theatergoers into a virtual “human joystick” to control the on-screen action.
Audience Entertainment Group calls this interactive product AudienceGame. Neither partner is naming the initial client to bring this to NCM’s FirstLook pre-feature program, but the company’s website shows AquaDuck, a spot promoting Disney Cruises that lets theater audiences ride down a water chute from the perspective of Donald Duck. By collectively waving their arms, they can cause Donald to bump into and collect rubber ducks scattered along the tube.
NCM did not disclose which movies the game will be playing with, but let’s hope it’s not The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
“We are always looking for ways to make FirstLook an even more exciting part of the movie theater experience, and being able to launch the first national AudienceGame is great fun because moviegoers can truly interact directly with a brand on the big screen, making it both the star and the entertainment,” said Cliff Marks, NCM’s president of sales and marketing. “Agencies and marketers are viewing AudienceGames as a good way to extend their integrated online and mobile marketing efforts. After all, playing a game with a theater full of people is about as social as media can get!”
This is the first national campaign of its kind in the United States, and the first Audience Entertainment Group project to combine live video and animated overlays. The company has previously created group games sponsored by mobile phone brand Orange at the Festival Of Lights in Lyon and at a charity concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall, in addition to playing at IMAX theaters, arenas, rock concerts and other public venues in nine different countries
NCM operates NCM Media Networks, an integrated media company reaching U.S. consumers in movie theaters, online and through mobile technology. The NCM Cinema Network and NCM Fathom present cinema advertising and events across the nation’s largest digital in-theater network, comprised of theaters owned by AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark Holdings Inc., Regal Entertainment Group and other leading regional theater circuits.
Related links:
http://www.audiencentertainment.com
Just seeing this article, so sorry for the late response. We did AudienceGames in 2007 with msnbc.com and again with Volvo, when I was with the Brand Experience Lab. Surprised to see it listed here as the first of it’s kind! In fact, I was the person who first talked about it being a new form of social media. Oh well, everything old is new again, right?
Thank you for pointing that out, David. I didn’t realize the Volvo campaign was national – apologies.
Here’s a link to more info about AudienceGames: http://bit.ly/I5T26f