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ELEMENT ACADEMY

INTERACTIVE TRAILER

PLAYSTATION HOME

Following the success of the IRON MAN 2 Interactive trailer, we have now pushed live our second itrailer for Paramount, this time for the new SHREK film.

This time round, as well as allowing users to jump into the world of Shrek and explore backstory, character info and synopses through hotspots within the trailer, we have added a further interactive element through the ability to play flash mini-games within the trailer.

Once again, as the trailer is fully embeddable on blogs and websites as well as being playable within Facebook, it provides a compelling application for both user and host as it is packed full with editorial goodness, giving bloggers a real reason to embed.

Even though 2009 was very busy, it has been over a year since we last produced a campaign of this scale. Our work on WATCHMEN involved multiple elements, many interlinked, helping us to deliver an impressive campaign for Paramount Pictures International that has since been recognised by The Webbys.

As IRON MAN 2 hits cinemas around the world, we can now again sit back and digest all that we have accomplished. It’s been one hell of a ride – offering our first grabbable and sharable Augmented Reality experience, a game-changing embeddable interactive trailer and possibly the coolest thing to ever happen in Playstation Home (Joystiq said it, not us).

Read on for the full breakdown…

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As regular readers will know, we run a dedicated blog for our virtual world activity called Silverscreen and try to keep content separate across the two blogs. However sometimes we do something that is just too darn cool to keep contained to one.

Here is re-post of an announcement that went out on Silverscreen yesterday and has since been picked up by every major gaming blog this morning (links at the end).

Now this is definitely coolest thing we have yet to do in Playstation Home.

On Thursday Paramount Pictures International and AUDI AG will be launching a brand new Iron Man mini-game located in the Audi Space. As the first in-world game ever made for a film in Home, this is definitely worth your time to visit!

You will have the chance to throw on the Iron Man suit and pilot your way through a tricky skyscraper obstacle course, picking up arc reactors and dodging the mines to power your way onto the leaderboard.

If you make the leaderboard, then do your best to stay on it; the Top 10 scorers (when the game closes at the end of June 2010) will be rewarded with an Iron Man suit to keep. Do you have the raw talent – or sheer dedication – to prove that you have what it takes to wear the Iron Man suit?

To wet your appetites, check out the video below

Full info – IAmIronMan2.com/Home

Further coverage:

Kotaku
Playstation EU Blog
Edge Online
Joystiq
PS3News
AlphaZone4
CVG
VideoGamer

It seems a distant memory now, but it still lives in our hearts as one of the most ambitious online campaigns we have ever put together here at PPC.

And what better recognition than to yesterday receive word that our WATCHMEN campaign has been listed as an Official Honoree for the Online Campaigns category at The Webbys this year.

Not much beats a Webby, except maybe a BAFTA. But we already have one of those.

Anyone not familiar with the campaign can see our full our write up we posted this time last year.

Needless to say, we were pretty chuffed to see ‘We Are Autobots’ make the Metro before Christmas. But we are absolutely STOKED to see it featured on Sky News.

See the clip below (we feature about the four minute mark)

Or watch the abridged clip here…

To support the international release of Up In The Air, the third film by Jason Reitman, we created a portable online quiz, based around the main character of the movie, Ryan Bingham.

The quiz takes you goes through a series of questions that relate to Ryan Bingham’s many philosophies on life. You are able to see how you compare to Ryan’s personality and then how compatible you are with your friends, using the power of Facebook Connect.

The application also featured five video clips from the film which were edited by PPC Film, and together formed an engaging and successful personality quiz.

Before Christmas we began work on a particularly challenging project for Paramount to promote Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones.

Without giving away any aspects of the plot, the film presents the viewer with a magical place between heaven and earth known as The In Between. Jackon’s vision includes awe-inspiring vistas of the In Between and we wanted to promote these whilst also asking the public to suggest their own vision of the In Between through the submission of user-generated content.

How it works

The site, Experience The In Between, features a number of breath-taking images from the In Between. However upon closer inspection, each one is in fact a user-generated ‘photo-mosaic’, made up of thousands of individual photos uploaded by people from all over the world, to show the memories they would hope to find in their own personal In Between.

Photos can be uploaded from your desktop, or through your Facebook or Flickr account. For anyone who doesn’t have a photo to submit, we have worked with Flickr to integrate its API so anyone can submit a photo from Flickr’s Creative Commons pool.

As more photos get uploaded, more of the vista will be revealed. And after three weeks and thousands of images added, the experience is really enjoyable for all.

We Are Autobots, the Augmented Reality app we put together for the theatrical promotion of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has picked up a gong for ‘Best Web Based Augmented Reality App’.

Winning the Readers Choice Awards, run by website Augmented Planet, is a great recognition for our work in AR and is also a kick-ass end to the year.

Next up, The Webbys. Bring on 2010.

[UPDATED 22.12.09] - D&AD has featured We Are Autobots as one of this year’s leading AR campaigns in this morning’s Metro newspaper including a few trusty words from our very own Dan Light.  Click on the image below to read on…

After a year spent gaining a reputation as veterans of virtual worlds and augmented reality, it is great to get our teeth into some new and fresh tech. Just before the year draws to a close we have got our first app onto the iPhone, to support the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray release of Paranormal Activity, one of this year’s surprise box office hits.

Available today in the iTunes App Store, ‘Paranormal Activity Locator’ enables you to take photographs of your environment, augmenting the images with evidence of any paranormal activity in your vicinity.  These photographs are recorded on a map of the surrounding area, and can be easily shared on Facebook and by email.

Paranormal Activity is the story of a middle class couple who move into a suburban house and become increasingly disturbed by a demonic presence.  Produced for just $15,000, it has already grossed more than $100million dollars globally and is being released on DVD and Blu-ray in the New Year.

We have executed some ground-breaking social gaming and augmented reality applications already this year, and hope our debut app for the iPhone will be the first of many.

iTunes App Store Link

With the Christmas DVD release of TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, STAR TREK and G.I. JOE, we have been busy developing Augmented Reality (AR) experiences for each title. As frequent readers of this blog will know, we have already produced AR content for their cinema releases so it was essential that the updated versions improved on the three very popular experiences.

TRANSFORMERS II now lets you control Optimus Prime in a battle simulation against Decepticon targets – but only after you have completed the tasks necessary to return Optimus to battle ready status. You can now see a full model of Optimus as well as examine his main weapons.

Check out the below video for a preview of the experience and check back in the next week or so for more info on the Star Trek and G.I. JOE experiences still in production.

STAR TREK has been divided into three separate AR experiences: A condensed version of the tour with emphasis on firing the weapons and Warp engines. A wonderfully simple flying game where you launch the Enterprise into the room and watch it fly around your head and a 3rd person navigation exercise where you can test your reactions as you negotiate your way through asteroids and laser fire.

G.I. JOE was always going to be a desktop fighting game – the perfect fit for a title of such palatable aggression and action sequences. As with all our Paramount AR developments we used 3D models from either the film or the official game to deliver the best possible experience. For this game the challenge is simple (even if its execution takes some practice) – choose to fight as Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow then battle your sworn enemies…

Augmented Reality encourages the users to interact with the product in a way which they previously could not. It changes the relationship consumers have with packaging; previously it could be seen as a means to an end, simply a way of protecting and delivering the product. However in using the packaging to launch official, original content we can raise the value of what is being purchased to a much higher level.

Click on any of the images above to check out the individual experiences

Augmented Reality has certainly been a hit in 2009, ending up being a part of marketing campaigns across almost every industry. Some think it’s just a fad, they might be right. But they might be wrong too. Time will tell.

Either way we have, and will continue to have, a blast working with it.

Revolution Magazine has put together its top AR campaigns list and our ‘We Are Autobots‘ AR experience stars at number 8. Nice.

The Full List.

Strangely this did not make the Top 10.

Earlier this year we developed one of the first ‘augmented reality’ (AR) applications to be used as part of a major theatrical film marketing campaign. Experience The Enterprise used AR to deliver a virtual tour of the Starship Enterprise in the palm of your hand.

Those forward thinking guys at Paramount were so impressed with the application; they want buyers of the DVD and Blu-Ray to join the party too.

As Variety is reporting this morning, Paramount Home Entertainment’s “Star Trek” DVD and Blu-ray release is about to again boldly go where no one has gone before.

“With the packaging feature dubbed “augmented reality,” consumers will be able to hold their disc packaging in front of any standard webcam to unlock an interactive hologram on the computer screen, through which they can tour five cabins on the Enterprise, even shooting enemies from the ship’s deck.”

Users will have to log in to a website to access the feature, but they control the hologram by holding the disc packaging.

“If you took the visual cue in the package and turned your hand, then you’re turning the ship,” Paramount Home Video senior VP of brand marketing Bob Buchi said.”

We are really pleased to be working with Paramount Home Entertainment to deliver this experience and that our original application is able to have a life beyond Star Trek’s theatrical window.

Variety’s article has gone on to be picked up on some pretty substantial sites today including The Guardian,
ComingSoon, Trekmovie and i09.

Here at PPC Interactive, we’ve just put together a new, mind-blowing fan kit for Paramount’s GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra. This, our all-encompassing fan site, allows you to ally with either Joe or Cobra through a variety of creative content; create profile pics, get skins for Twitter, Myspace and Bebo, quiz yourself on Joe trivia, access downloads for your desktop, sign up to news alerts, and embed a variety of personalised applications into your social network, blog or website. Phew!

Be sure to catch GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra in cinemas 7 August