GRAND CENTRAL SOUND STUDIOS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company
UNIT MEDIA London, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Company 2
GLITCHERS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name
Company
Position
Kate Stanners
Saatchi & Saatchi
Chief Creative Officer
Jason Romeyko
Saatchi & Saatchi
Executive Creative Director
Andy Jex
Saatchi & Saatchi
Executive Creative Director
Rob Potts
Saatchi & Saatchi
Executive Creative Director
Vasilije Corluka
Saatchi & Saatchi Macedonia
Creative Director
Will John
Saatchi & Saatchi
Creative
Franki Goodwin
Saatchi & Saatchi
Creative
Rob Watts
Saatchi & Saatchi
Creative
Bibo Bergeron
BUF Paris
Director
Matt Hyde
Glitchers
Creative Director. Game Design
Hugo Scott-Slade
Glitchers
Technical Director. Game Design
Max Scott-Slade
Glitchers
Game Design Director
Andy Barnard
Glitchers
Developer. Game Design
Zhivko Terziivanov
Freelance
Creature Design. 3D Modelling & Texturing
Tristan Menard
Glitchers
Landscape Artwork
Tim Garrett
Freelance
Sound Design
Patrick Schofield
Freelance
UI Design
Clare Shaw
Saatchi & Saatchi
Business Leader
Sam Grischotti
Saatchi & Saatchi
Account Director
Matilda Jones & Marta Jales
Saatchi & Saatchi
Account Manager
Amie Mills
Saatchi & Saatchi
Project Manager
Charlie Brenninkmeijer & Jimmy Elston
Saatchi & Saatchi
Planners
Daniel Reeve, Barbara Gaiarim, Daniel Gomes
Saatchi & Saatchi
Designers
Bruno Di Lucca Goncalves
Saatchi & Saatchi
Design Lead
Evan Depko
MediaCom Dusseldorf
Director Media Consulting International
Andreea Milea
MediaCom Dusseldorf
Group Head Media Consulting International
Beate Czakon
MediaCom Dusseldorf
Group Head Media Consulting International
Kari Jackson-Kloenther
MediaCom Dusseldorf
Managing Partner
Lucy Boyd
Proud Robinson
Associate Director
Ben Robinson
Proud Robinson
Founder
The Campaign
To be successful the game needed to be addictive and entertaining, ensuring the science and the gaming were seamlessly integrated. Navigation was the answer. Navigational skills are one of the first cognitive functions dementia sufferers lose, and a popular gaming genre.
We created the first mobile game that would challenge and record navigational skills of players, and in doing so create a human benchmark for spatial navigation, against which dementia could be measured in the future. However, a game is only as good as the story it tells.
We created a backstory about a father & son where you are retracing the father’s adventures by navigating your boat through five different themed areas. This simple but powerful tale of a son trying to save his father’s memories is the metaphor for what people are doing by playing the game. The only game where anyone can help scientists fight dementia.
Creative Execution
Deutsche Telekom pulled together the expertise of researchers and gaming experts creating a game big enough to make a dent in dementia. A true collaboration that saw a telecom brand learn about the intricacies of medical research and University College London neuroscientists and Alzheimer’s Research learn about marketing and gaming.
Our challenge was finding the perfect balance between engagement and scientific utility, to capture the same quality of navigational data that could be achieved by a clinical trial hidden within an addictive mobile game. In doing so we would create the world’s largest open-source benchmark for human navigation.
For all the work that went into the game, it would have all been for nothing if we didn’t get it onto enough people’s phones. Deutsche Telekom went all in to make that happen; in some markets we gave free data to download and play and generated local media support from across Europe.
Launched on April 18th in the UK, followed by a global launch in 16 languages, the game earned a featured spot on Google Play. Over the next 2 years, a team at UCL will be analysing the data and creating benchmarks providing maximum use to the global scientific community.
In less than 5 days following global launch, the game was downloaded over 500,000 times, and picked up by over 400 media outlets worldwide. We were Top 20 in App Store and Google Play across 40 markets, and #1 free game in the majority of them. We used media and an influencer partnership with PewDiePie, reaching 3.2 million views in 24 hours.
After playing a combined total of 58 months, players generated the equivalent of 725 years of similar, lab-based research – a rate of 150 times faster. The largest previous study into dementia reached only 599 participants. A seismic shift that entirely depended on the innovation and advancement of the smartphone technology that we have in our pockets.
Averaging 5 stars across both app stores with 25,000 ratings, the response has been overwhelming. Thousands of people left reviews all sharing a common sentiment: they loved gaming with a new
Traditional dementia research was limited by access to participants. At most a study would be able to attract a couple of hundred participants and as a result the comprehension of the brain was always incomplete.
Our approach was to revolutionize the way research data was collected by getting people to volunteer information and time. The insight that people on average spend 3 billion hours a week playing games, increasingly on mobile platforms, meant that a mobile game was the natural solution to our problem.
We had 2 key audiences. Emotional Philanthropists are in search of ways to get involved in the issues they care about, to feel like they’re making a difference. The game, for them, needed to show that the impact they’re having on dementia is tangible and easy to share. The Casual Gamers, are looking for entertainment, something they can play for 2 minutes, waiting for a train.