Branded games: which game your company needs

Branded games: which game your company needs

Branded games: which game your company needs

A branded game is a video game customized with a company's identity and built around a specific goal: launching a product, collecting leads, animating a booth, engaging employees, teaching something. "Branded game" is the umbrella term for all custom company games, within the definitions of our guide: when the game serves marketing it's called an advergame, when it serves training or awareness it's called a serious game.

A branded game is a video game customized with a company's identity and built around a specific goal: launching a product, collecting leads, animating a booth, engaging employees, teaching something. "Branded game" is the umbrella term for all custom company games, within the definitions of our guide: when the game serves marketing it's called an advergame, when it serves training or awareness it's called a serious game.

The question to start from is where and when people will play. Everything else follows from there: mechanics, game length, devices and calls to action.

The question to start from is where and when people will play. Everything else follows from there: mechanics, game length, devices and calls to action.

Six situations and the right format for each one

Six situations and the right format for each one

You need to launch a product or run an online campaign

You need a custom advergame: a game designed around the product, living on the campaign's channels and collecting leads while people play. It's the format we used for Google's Pixel ecosystem and for the launch of "LOL - Chi ride è fuori" on Prime Video.

You have a few weeks and a set budget

You need a Ready Game: you start from a proven mechanic in our catalog and customize graphics, colors, sounds and calls to action. Same features as a custom game, much shorter time to launch.

You have a booth at a trade fair or conference

You need a game built for foot traffic: sessions lasting seconds, instant controls, competition between visitors. For Roche, at the AMCLI Congress, we built an arcade where visitors wipe out viruses and bacteria, turning the booth into the place people stop to play.

You have an audience in a venue or a public square

You need a Live Game: the game goes up on the big screen and the audience joins by scanning a QR code, using their smartphones as controllers. We've done it on the giant LED screen of Milan's Navigli for Urban Vision Group, for the 35th anniversary of Fuori e Strada, and at the Circo Massimo for Netflix's launch event for Zerocalcare's series, in front of over 10,000 people.

You want the game right on the sales page

The game embeds right into the sales page and ends with a benefit you can spend immediately: that's the case of Natural Elements on Amazon.de, where the further the player gets, the bigger the discount they unlock, and of Explore E-Taly for Plenitude and Be Charge, where the score gives access to the contest prizes.

You need to engage your company's people

You need a project designed for the inside: a challenge between offices or companies with a shared leaderboard, a web app for a convention, a playable training path. For this, see our dedicated page on human resources and the one on corporate training.

What it takes to get started

Four pieces of information are enough to identify the format and give an estimate:

  • The goal — building awareness, collecting leads, selling, training, engaging internally.

  • The audience — who's playing, and how digitally fluent they are.

  • Where the game lives — a social channel, a sales page, a booth, a big screen, an internal platform.

  • The date — whether there's an event or campaign the game has to be ready for.

What a project includes

  • concept and game design built around the goal;

  • graphics and sounds customized with the company's identity;

  • a responsive web game, playable in the browser on desktop and mobile with no app to install;

  • built-in calls to action: sign-ups, lead collection, prizes, discount codes, leaderboards;

  • a dashboard with gameplay data and support throughout the campaign period.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

Are branded games and advergames the same thing?

How long does it take to get the game online?

Does the game work on every phone?

Can the same game be reused for different occasions?

What data does a branded game collect?