December 10th, 2008

[From Silverscreen] Who watches the Watchmen in PlayStation Home?

So, this morning SCEE announced that all those PS3 owners eager to get their virtual feet into Home can do so from tomorrow.

Within the announcement are a few of the initiatives we have had up our sleeve for Watchmen in Home. We have been busy building T-shirts, avatars and even apartment Doomsday clocks, which will be available from January ahead of a very special event taking place in February.

Here’s the official blurb:

Starting with the release of the highly anticipated film, Watchmen, Paramount Pictures International will use PlayStation®Home to promote its latest films. Initially, PlayStation®Home residents will be able to view an exclusive video greeting from Watchmen Director Zack Snyder as well as the latest Watchmen trailer. A selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise e.g. T-Shirts with the smiley face logo, Doomsday clocks and character statues, will also be available in the New Year, ahead of an exclusive Q & A event where cast and filmmakers will meet selected press and competition winners fans within the Watchmen themed environment.

In the meantime, we have added a nice little exclusive introduction from Zack Snyder to the full length trailer already showing in Home. Above is a little video sneak peek of how it looks.

 




December 10th, 2008

Our New Social Media Microsite

Over the last month, we have been busy building a new type of marketing tool for the films we promote. After a conversation over a beer trying to think of what to name it, we couldn’t decide on anything. And still haven’t. The best we have so far is ‘Social Media Microsite’ or ‘Social Media Toolkit’.

No matter what we call it, our first example is My-DarkKnight.com and we couldn’t ask for a better film to work on. 

Here is the official blurb we put together:

To promote the DVD release of The Dark Knight, Warner Home Video International  and PPC Interactive – part of The Picture Production Company - have created a first of its kind ‘social media microsite’. Launched today, the new site will house a wealth of Batman-themed tools for fans to use on their profiles across the social web. 

The social media microsite invites fans to express their allegiance to one of the key characters in The Dark Knight using a variety of cool, creative and compelling customisation tools. Turning a profile picture into Batman or The Joker or grabbing a themed skin for your MySpace profile, blog or Twitter page are just some of ways fans can engage with the movie through http://www.my-darkknight.com.

The wonderful Google Analytics has shown us that the small, but tactical, seeding we did has driven this website to all corners of the internet. But let’s not forget that the real value is in the product itself, and the fact SuperHeroHype covered it is a real testament its appeal.

 




November 18th, 2008

Become The Spirit

The Spirit is the latest graphic novel to be made for the big screen. Written by Will Eisner and brought to cinematic life by fellow comic veteran Frank Miller, The Spirit hits UK screens in January and we have launched a three chapter online game to precede it, based on three classic arcade style games - platform, shoot ‘em up, and combat.

As we are trying to do with most of our projects now, we spent some time trying to find some appropriate channels to help promote it. At launch we placed the game in a grabbable widget on a number of high profile, yet relevant sites, for example WillEisner.com, ComicBulletins, ReelComix and FilmOnic. A few key posts like these really helped spread the game through the widget and we have seen some impressive numbers so far.




November 11th, 2008

PPC brings Pinky & Perky back to the small screen

Cult children’s entertainment characters Pinky & Perky are this week back on TV after a 25 year sabbatical. And PPC was at the heart of it.

Four years ago our CEO Steve O’Pray, along with a group of fellow investors, set up Pinky & Perky Enterprises after acquiring all IP and licensing rights to the characters.  Working alongside Lupus Films Ltd, various departments within PPC, including Interactive, came together to bring the classic characters back to life. After three years of development the original PPC production debuted on CBBC last week, beating all other kid’s channels in its timeslot. We were proud to carry out all creative development, post-production as well as the online presence.

Alongside the website, which will be expanded over the coming months, we also build an online game, PowerPig, which has also been picked up by the BBC and is currently housed nicely on the CBBC website.

(Special thanks to our own Pinky & Perky, Henry and Donut, for all their hard work!)




October 20th, 2008

The Advent of Anti-Social Networking

We have been working hard on the interactive campaign for ‘How to Lose Friends & Alienate People’ over the past couple of months. The title and the original book immediately made us think ‘what can we do on Facebook?’

One brainstorm later and we had ‘Anti-Social Networking’ - an application that allows you to insult your friends, rank them by their ‘crapness’, vandalise their profile pictures and even cheat at Scrabble.

From a marketer’s point of view, the application works two-fold. It envisages how the film’s protagonist, Sidney Young, would use Facebook, whilst also providing an enjoyable and engaging ‘game’ for anyone on Facebook. This is why Paramount jumped at the idea.

One week after launch and the public reaction has been just as exciting. Following a sneak preview of the application, Mashable (thanks Stan and Pete) wrote a glowing review and it has subsequently been mentioned in Popbitch, Lifehacker and The Daily Telegraph to name a few.

Welcome to the advent of Anti-Social Networking; or “Perfection in Viral Marketing” (Pete Cashmore, Mashable.com)

UPDATE - Anti-Social Networking has been awarded Runner-up in September’s IAB Creative Showcase. 




October 13th, 2008

Brideshead Revisited….Online

 

Be sure to visit the UK site we recently built for the release of Julian Jarrold’s remake of Brideshead Revisited. Aesthetically stunning and built on key art from the movie, the website includes synopsis, cast & filmmakers info as well as media galleries and site-wide soundtrack integration based on Adrian Johnston’s powerful score.

 

The Brideshead project was also one of those lucky occasions where we were involved with the project from design and build right through to PR and promotion. This holistic approach is one we see growing, where studios want to see creative build complemented by creative promotion, within a sole agency. We secured a wealth of coverage from trailer exclusive with the Telegraph to red carpet content syndication.

 




October 6th, 2008

The PPC Presents….MotoGP08

 

It was a mean feat but we did it. Give us a short deadline and we will still come back with an exceptional site. We had four weeks to turnaround the new international site for MotoGP (out October 24th) - and that includes seven local language versions and a full screen embeddable trailer too.




October 3rd, 2008

It’s a Madagascan World

We have produced a new little widget for Madagascar 2, containing trailers, downloads and competitions. We also gave anyone wishing to grab the widget the choice of skin based on their favourite character from the movie.




October 1st, 2008

Race to the Death

What better way to get excited about Jason Statham’s Death Race, than be able to enter a Death Race of your own?

Interactive created a global online game, centered around the Death Race concept. The race was split into two sections, the second of which ending with a showdown with the movie’s iconic ‘Dreadnought’ truck.

Prizes were awarded to the top racers in the weeks leading up to the cinematic release of the film with a running tally of ‘Death Race Fatalities’ updating in real-time on the homepage.




September 29th, 2008

Iron Man DVD Widget & ActionScript3

Iron Man hits DVD and Blu-Ray stateside this week. And a new global widget accompanies it.  It is the first US widget we have been involved in, and the first built in our new ActionScript 3 (AS3) wrapper.

AS3 is the next step forward in Flash scripting and enables our widgets to go one step further, offering more powerful apps like 3-D gameplay and fully scalable widgets.

The widget contains trailers, webisodes, details of DVD & Blu-ray features, synopsis, images and links to the official site and Marvel’s digital comic site. The animations were taken directly from the DVD menu providing a level of creative detail not usually found within widgets.

We are already working on a number of widgets for other films using AS3, using its extended capabilities to offer a better user experience and more functionality.