Hey guys – what’s going on? It’s over a week since Matmi announced the release of the Animal Athletics online game supporting Sport Relief – and not a word of it in the press. Or even in the online paper and magazine sites.

I think that’s a bit off. Sport Relief is an incredibly worthy cause. It funds loads of projects in the UK as well as abroad. The TV viewing is usually great and it even has the power to get tens of thousands of people to go out running and raise loads of money. A cool £25 million this year, I believe.

You would have thought a couple of journalists would have found the energy to pick up a pen and give one of the UK’s best known charities a bit more support, wouldn’t you? Or am I being naïve?

The Animal Athletics game has a year long marathon to run, not just a mile in March 2008. Please don’t tell me it’s because we don’t have an advertising budget to spend with your magazine, or that every top agency is in London (yawn…). This is a charity doing amazing work and Animal Athletics will give it amazing support for at least a year afterwards. We’ll be seeding and re-seeding it, negotiating deals with games sites, approaching educational establishments and much more.

Matmi’s doing its bit and I think it’s a real shame the press haven’t stepped up to the plate on this one too. Did I mention that Animal Athletics already engaged a million players in its first ten days? Nuff said.

OK you lazy lot! (Me included, actually…). If you’d like to support this year’s Sport Relief fund raising but don’t fancy running the mile (or like me, don’t even have the gear), then this one is for you!

Comic Relief has been so impressed with what we did for Red Nose Day since 16^th March 2007 that they’ve commissioned Matmi to produce the only online game promoting Sport Relief 2008. Entitled Animal Athletics, you can find it here and if you’d like to donate to a very worthy cause, you can link straight to the Sport Relief site from the game. Thank you all and wish us luck.

Whereas most Sport Relief efforts will be over and done by the time you read this blog, Animal Athletics starts a marathon to help Sport Relief raise funds and maintain awareness for a whole year. Our phenomenal Red Nose Day 2007 viral, Let It Flow, has engaged 14 million players around the world, consistently from March 2007 to March 2008. It’s never been out of the world’s Top Twenty most popular virals and it’s generated a 10% click thru to the Red Nose Day website. You do the maths!

Animal Athletics has a hard act to follow, but you know we love a challenge at Matmi. Have a play and see what you think. You can be a javelin throwing warthog, a pole vaulting rhino or a hurdling hamster – fun for all ages 0 – 99. Enjoy! Jeff.