Play the “Bigger Game” During The Big Game
There’s a bigger game at stake during the Big Game on Sunday. The advertising game. With sponsors spending billions of dollars pre, post and during the game and consumers wondering what outlandish entertainment the branding game has in store. And now, statistics are proving what we’ve always known to be true.
39% of people prefer the advertising to the Super Bowl game. Of those, 64% said they talk about the ads the next day.
At Halo, we play ad games every day but this one’s for you to play.
How To Play BIG GAME ADVERTISING BINGO.
1. Print out the Bingo-style game boards where numbers are replaced by the advertisers (and in some cases, potential advertisements). The center square, the Halo logo, is played as a free space. Share them with your friends, and you’re ready to play.
2. When one of the ads on your board is televised before, during or after the game, cross it off.
3. The first person to get five in a row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) wins.
Of course, you’re welcome to create your own unique ways to play.
WARNING: This may prevent more conventional use of commercial breaks for eating, calling home or relieving oneself.
Be sure to post your comments and board pictures using #biggamebingo on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook. Download and print your game cards below.
The Five Things You Shouldn’t Have Missed Last Week: Monday, December 17
Volkswagen: The Polowers Race - via Adverblog
Face-aging app created to help young people save for retirement - via CBC
An Instagram Advent Calendar - via Mashable
50-Foot Duck Floats Down The River Thames - via Inquisitr
Toys’R’Us Towers by Ubisoft is like Tiny Tower, but with actual rewards - via Games.com
The Five Things You Shouldn’t Have Missed This Week: Friday, August 31
Create music from muscles with the new interactive ad for Old Spice (featuring Terry Crews) - via CBS
Campbell’s Soup releases Warhol special edition cans - via Creative Review
Las Vegas Ads Salute Prince Harry, Denounce the Traitors in His Midst - AdWeek
Louis Vuitton’s take on the ‘spot the difference’ game - via Games.com
Obama Does Reddit AMA: President Answers Questions and Crashes Site - via ABC
101 Series: What Is an API?
Have you ever heard the term “API”? You most likely have, but do you know what it means? API stands for application programming interface, and is defined as “a specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other.” For our purposes here, we are focusing on internet- based APIs.
Companies release an API so other companies can build on top of them. Sometimes this means creating a marketing product, while other times it can simply be the addition of a feature that the original product doesn’t offer. All those apps, games, and custom tabs you see on Facebook? They’re all there due to use of the Facebook API. An API generally adds value to a product because other companies build compelling apps to complement the main product. (Twitpic, for example, was originally built on the Twitter API to enable photo sharing.) However, depending on the terms of service, you may also be able to use an API to create a customized marketing experience for your customers. Occasionally, entire new products and companies can be built on top of an API.
Some interesting apps/sites/products built on top of APIs include:
- Instaprint: a physical printer that will print Instagram photos taken in a specific location or with a specific tag.
- Weeplaces: an app which visualizes your Foursquare and/or Facebook check-ins.
- The Wilderness Downtown: a Chrome/HTML5 interactive music video by Google and The Arcade Fire, which uses the Google Maps API.
- We Are Hunted: an app which tracks and ranks popular and emerging music across blogs, social media, and music services like Spotify.
You can access some popular APIs here:
In short, for general purposes, an API can be termed as “a toolkit that allows you to build upon something.”
Check out the previous installments of our 101 Series: What is a Hashtag? HERE, What is a Meme? HERE, What does ### at the end of a press release mean? HERE, and What is a GIF? HERE!
