Fitting in with O2's current marketing strategy targeted at families, the game is called Asteroid Storm and will take families on a big-screen adventure that they can control from their cinema seats by waving their hands in the air. The game was developed in a partnership with cinema advertising company Pearl and Dean.
O2 will touch also run cinema ads for its new touch screen calendar device, the O2 Joggler, around the game, and will drive consumers to O2's website to find out about mobile products.
The mobile operator is currently running its first family-targeted marketing activity, comprising a £6m campaign to support the Joggler and its Your Family bolt-on tariff. The creative, developed by VCCP, shows a kitchen scene where the fridge is the hub of family life, and features a family of animated fridge magnets. An O2 family zone is also touring the UK, visiting summer fetes, O2 Scrum on the Beach events and little league competitions until August.
The new interactive game will launch on 10 July and will sit within Pearl and Dean's first ever 3D-only movie trailer reel. It will be backed with online activity promoting the game.
The game will run ahead of new family movies, Ice Age 3 3D and G-Force in the summer, followed by Up and Toy Story 3D in the autumn.
The Asteroid Storm game takes place on the Starship O2, which is trapped in an asteroid belt. The audience is told by the captain that the ship has been damaged and that their help is needed to steer the ship back on course. By different sides of the theatre putting their hands in the air, the audience is able to control the direction that the spaceship moves and thereby navigate it successfully out of danger as asteroids fly out of the screen towards them in 3D.
The interactive campaign uses floor projectors and was conceived by O2's media agency, ZenithOptimedia. Creative work was done by VCCP and Agency Republic.
To build anticipation for the interactive 3D game experience, cinema-goers in the main foyer will be invited to take part in interactive floor projections including Wac-a-roid, where players stamp out asteroids as they appear.
O2 expects over one million families to take part in the 3D game and five million to play the interactive foyer games.
Richard Murfitt, O2's head of campaigns, said the aim was to put families into the heart of the action on the big-screen.