Taking inspiration from retro playground origami favourite "the fortune teller", Hive has used the same mechanic to drive awareness of what it calls its "situation placement" offering and the range of opportunities within the videogames sector.
Hive Partners launched last year and has since brokered agreements for games publishers like Sega, Team17 and Rebellion for and consumer brands, including Red Bull, which appeared in top seller 'Worms 3D' and 'Judge Dredd v Judge Death'. Both games ran across all major formats, such as PlayStation2, Xbox and PC, on a global release scale.
Ed Bartlett, CEO at Hive Partners, said: "As an example of both ends of the scale, recent work we have done with Red Bull energy drink saw two very different scenarios. The first, in the popular 'Judge Dredd' game, played on the fact that caffeine is an illegal substance within the Mega City One game setting. As such, we had an entire level of the game where the player, as Judge Dredd, had to track down a gang illegally smuggling the Red Bull product (replete with dealers tagging Banksy-style Red Bull logos on the walls).
"However, the smugglers were much harder to apprehend than other criminals within the game because, having drank Red Bull, they were much more physically agile and accurate with their targeting."
In 'Worms' the situation was almost a polar opposite, Bartlett said. In that instance the agency integrated Red Bull as a "power-up".
"When utilised, the end user can see the worm drink from the inimitable harlequin can, at which point their health is boosted back to 100% and their worm character is able to perform gymnastic jumps, allowing them to escape danger. Again, this fits in with the nature of the gameplay perfectly and, as the game is built around health, the Red Bull product becomes a talisman," he said.
Hive Partners wants to use the mailer to get across the idea in the minds of Europe's brands and marketers that gaming is no longer just child's play.
"It's no secret that brands and agencies are looking to expand into new markets, largely due to the increasing uptake of 'adbusting' digital video recorders and rising media costs. Games are not only able to consistently reach the elusive male 15-34 category, they also have the unique ability to interactively display the physical benefits of a product through a tailored gameplay situation," Bartlett said.
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