Case Studies
Client
Genesis Energy
Agency
Rivet
Visit
Quick Overview
School students and teachers were key target audiences for ElectroCity.
By December 2007 over 700 teachers had registered and the site generated 1.8 million visitors sessions.
Awards
- Gold for ‘Best Online and Mobile Game’ and Silver for ‘Best Website’ at the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association (AWARD) awards held on 30 November 2007 in Sydney.
- Silver at the New York Festivals Innovative Advertising Awards in 2008.
- Silver for the ‘Graphic: Interactive Media and Website Design’ award in the Best Design Awards held on 18 October 2007 in New Zealand.
- Third place for ‘Best Electronic/Interactive Consumer Website’ at The John Caples International Awards held on 8 March 2008 in New York.
- Gold in the Science/Health/Environment category at the Australian Interactive Media Awards held on 7 March 2008 in Australia.
- RSVP Award for best examples of direct and interactive marketing campaigns judged on strategy and creative and The NEXUS Awards for the best products, services and processes that drive campaigns at the 2008 NZ Direct and Interactive Marketing Awards.
- Silver in the Website Design and Application category at the AXIS Awards held in May 2008 in Auckland.
- Featured in the 2009 AD&D Annual, recognised as the bible of the creative communities worldwide.
Genesis Energy ElectroCity
ElectroCity captured the imagination of students in New Zealand but also overseas, generating in excess of 50,000 site visits per day.
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What was needed
ElectroCity is an online game to increase public awareness of the conflicts between energy demand, energy supply choices and environmental damage.
School students and teachers were key target audiences for ElectroCity. The game is easy to play but each game has many variables and permutations.
Ubiquity were selected by Lowe Rivet to develop the back-end functionality for the underlying website. Players had to be able to save their games mid-play and resume at a later time, save their end-game results so other players could access the key stats on a scoreboard and re-load full end games.
How Ubiquity helped
Ubiquity developed the database structure, security model, web services and underlying web functionality to support the game, consulting with Lowe Rivet and Terabyte at each step.
In addition to the save and reload functionality, Ubiquity integrated the game data with a schools database system, so teachers could register their classes to take part.
Students can save their games alongside those of their fellow students and their teacher. Players can enter personal details to load their game to the online scoreboard, enter their game in public or inter-school competitions and receive email updates on prizewinners.
Ubiquity also developed and managed the email-marketing programme that supported the launch of the game to schools.
We created all of the functions you need in a highly trafficked online game - saving, resuming, comparing games - as well as all of the highly personalised email messages. We also setup a hosting environment capable of the expected volume of visitors.
What was achieved?
The email launch programme, managed by Ubiquity, became the catalyst for the rapid, viral growth in popularity of the game. ElectroCity captured the imagination of students in New Zealand but also overseas, generating in excess of 50,000 site visits per day.
As of December 2007 it had generated 1.8 million total visitor sessions and over 700 teachers had registered. The website and database system performed perfectly, even during times of peak loading.
ElectroCity has been recognised in the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association awards, the Australian Interactive Media Awards and the Designers Institute of NZ Awards. Interest in the game remains high and ElectroCity is a key component of Genesis Energy's ongoing public relations programme.
