| Title | SEA HERO QUEST |
| Brand | DEUTSCHE TELEKOM |
| Product/Service | DEUTSCHE TELEKOM |
| Category |
A06. Financial Products & Services, Commercial Public Services, Business Products & Services |
|
Entrant
|
SAATCHI & SAATCHI London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Idea Creation
|
SAATCHI & SAATCHI London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Media Placement
|
MEDIACOM Düsseldorf, GERMANY
|
|
PR
|
PROUD ROBINSON Brighton, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Production
|
BUF Paris, FRANCE
|
|
Production 2
|
GRAND CENTRAL SOUND STUDIOS London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Additional Company
|
UNIT MEDIA London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Additional Company 2
|
GLITCHERS London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Credits
| 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 that 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.
The idea was to create 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 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.
Campaign Success
Deutsche Telekom pulled together researchers and gaming experts, creating a game big enough to make a dent in dementia. A true collaboration which saw a telecom brand learn about medical research and University College London neuroscientists and Alzheimer’s Research learn about gaming.
Our challenge was to balance engagement and scientific utility, to capture the same quality of navigational data achieved in a clinical trial, hidden within an addictive mobile game. In doing so we created 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 people’s phones.
Launched on April 18th in the UK, followed by a global launch in 16 languages, the game featured on Google Play. Over the next 2 years, a UCL team will be analysing the data, providing maximum use to the global scientific community.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results
In less than 5 days following global launch, primarily driven by PR, 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 total of 58 months, players generated 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 it.
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service
This is a story of the power of participation to solve an inscrutable problem. Dementia affects millions of people, it is incurable and there is not even any reliable early diagnosis. We believe in “Life is for sharing.” and dementia destroys the ability to share our lives. With Sea Hero Quest we were able to rally hundreds of thousands of people to attack a problem that could only be addressed by a group of that size. We had to get all these people to download and play a game on the most personal media space of all – their mobile
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 while waiting for the train.