Yeh-Hey! The Gorillaz game app we released this week has already hit the #1 spot as the best selling music game in the App Store for the UK & Ireland. And the iPad version’s doing well too – it’s risen to the #16 slot across all game categories. The lead article in How Do’s Weekly Wrap also mentioned us above the birth of the writer’s baby (not sure his better half will be pleased with that – but thank you, Christian!).

So it’s great to start enjoying the fruits of everyone’s hard work – and we’ve got everything crossed that this #1 will be the first of a few more… .

If you want to find out what all the fuss is about, get on down to the App Store! “Escape to Plastic Beach” is a whole lot of fun for the £1.19/$1.99 price tag.

Enjoy! Jeff

Or is that ‘intense’ Gorillaz suspense? I suspect both because the iPhone/iPad version of the “Escape to Plastic Beach” game for the world’s biggest virtual band, Gorillaz, went live in the App Store 48 hours ago – and I feel like a proud new parent waiting for friends and family to say “Aaaah, what a beautiful baby.”

The suspense here is unbearable!

Especially for Woody who’s spent several months of his life (awake and asleep…) designing chapter 3 of the original online game for the accelerometer functionality of Apple’s made-for-gaming platforms. “Escape to Plastic Beach” is one of the first game apps out on the iPad and big thanks to the guys at Apple for this impressive platform preview. We’ll be back – soon, I hope.

Sorry, what? Woody’s run away screaming? He’ll be back when we get some reviews in.

Yes – on that very note – please, please, please let us know what you think by dropping a comment here, or even better, posting a review in the App Store. I promise you there’s more than £1.19/$1.99’s worth of game action in this release from three top talents – Gorillaz, EMI and Matmi. (That’s not meant to sound arrogant, but we really are very good at this stuff; the online version’s already passed its first million plays…. ).

Bottom-of-my-heart thanks to everyone involved in ETPB. It’s been a tough journey at times with some steep learning curves and impossible deadlines – but we’re delighted with the results. I can hardly believe it’s just over a year since we released our very first iPhone game, “Monster Pinball”, and here we are on the iPad with Gorillaz!

Please do let us know what you think – here or in the App Store. Meanwhile, as all new parents should, we’re escaping to the pub to wet the baby’s head. Enjoy, Jeff.

I was fortunate enough to speak at this years Develop Conference again this year and, not being the shy & retiring type, I picked the hot topic of Flash vs. Unity – from a game developer’s perspective.

Flash is close to Matmi’s heart; we’ve been working with it for nearly a decade and in our early days, it was our hallmark platform. As Matmi grew, game players and clients got more demanding and we found ourselves outgrowing the functionality of Flash. We also spotted the trend towards mobile and made the leap onto that platform with Unity 3D – which has worked well for us… so far.

The Develop audience were a savvy bunch including plenty of Flash developers and for once, I stopped answering questions and started asking them. We had a very insightful 30 minute debate and I think a few eyes were opened. Hopefully, one of those eyeballs was Apple’s. Has David become Goliath, or does Apple remember what it was like to fight for fairness?

I hope it’s the latter. Developers need freedom to mix and match platforms, re-use code, re-skin applications and make max use of assets – because otherwise, clients won’t be able to justify the cost of our work and the whole industry will backfire spectactularly. Toolsets and middleware like Unity 3D may or may not continue to be available on the iPhone etc, but to continue to offer great value to the developers, they really do need them. I’ve got everything crossed for a good result because Apple platforms are great for gaming and we love them.

If you’ve got some constructive comment or insight into the subject of 3rd party development tools on the iPhone, comment here or drop us a line in confidence at jeff@matmi.com.

While the platform debate rolls on, I’d like to say big thanks to David and Alison at Unity 3D for a top night out at the Develop Conference. Great company; great food; great discussions (and probably a great big bill – but we’re worth it!). We had a blast, thank you, and I hope we can return the favour soon.

Susan and all the Tandem Events gang; nice work – great conference pulling some great speakers and a great crowd. Thank you all.

I’m not going to even think about the days getting shorter because I can’t believe we’ve just passed the summer solstice anyway! What a year it’s been so far….

We’ve added Gorillaz, Philips and Red Bull to our client list. The lovely people at Asda and Cancer Research have both come back for more. We’ve won another award for our first advergame for Vimto. I’ve been speaking at Elmwood’s Digital Picnic, Brandhouse’s Digital Sparks and I’m up next at the Develop Conference in July. And we need more desks and IT kit because we’ve got new Matmians on board – great!

Why has the downturn been Matmi’s up? Because we’re getting great results for our clients and making them look really good…..

Although our other halves have sometimes forgotten what we look like, in general the marvellous Matmians have been having a whale of a time this year. And I’m not gloating about it – there’s a very good reason.

What we do is working wonders for our clients and they keep coming back for more. Asda, EMI and Cancer Research have all run their second/third/fourth campaigns with us in the last six months because now they truly understand the power of branded entertainment as the new genre of advertising.

We’re talking TV equivalent airtime in terms of decades – and it’s voluntary, interactive, word-of-mouth marketing too (ie – the most influential type). Take a look at the Digital Diary for the facts and figures.

So what’s changed? Nothing – but when times are tough, people are more open-minded. “Necessity is the mother of invention” and all that. Now that a few big brands have successfully included cutting edge digital techniques (like advergames) in their online marketing, the rest have noticed and decided to catch us up.

That’s slightly scary for Matmi because we like to be “out there” in every sense of the word. But we put our business brains into gear (yes, we have that type of thinking here too) and work out the next move.

I predicted that the fusion of gaming with social media would be this year’s big trend – and it is. So much so that the big shakers like Facebook and Apple are only just keeping up. We’re a minnow in comparison physically, but we have a massive footprint digitally and that’s what qualifies us to show clients how to do the same. It’s no surprise to us that their Matmi campaigns are so successful – but it’s great to still be able to surprise them!

I think this is the beautiful secret of Matmi’s success. Give people what they want online (entertainment) and they’re really happy. Brand the entertainment – subtly – and the sponsors are happy. Come up with great concepts and challenging work and the marvellous Matmians are happy.

When everyone’s happy, you’ve got a success on your hands. I hope you can put the same principle to work in your business.

(And if you’d like to give it a test drive with an advergame, you know who to call).

Enjoy, Jeff.

We have been making advergames and virals for many years but sometimes the outrageous spread and success of particular projects even surprise us.

Take our recent game for Philips called Brilliant Brushes. The audience is kids (and their parents) in Europe.
This is kiddie power at it’s best.

Since “Brilliant Brushers” came out for Philips Sonicare in November 2009, it’s had a staggering 7.2 million plays and knocked our socks off! It’s not Grand Theft Auto by any stretch of the imagination – but those 4 – 10 year olds are definitely making their preferences known.

The game in question is an educational experience for under 10s and their parents to brighten up tooth brushing time – together. And that’s the secret of its success. It tugs on that emotional bond that parents want the best for their kids, and engages adult and child in a pleasurable brush with top dental hygiene for nearly 7 minutes a time.

7 million plays at 7 mins = 49 million minutes
49 million / 60 (mins in hour) = 816,666 hours
816,666 / 24 (hours in day)= 34,027 days
34,027 / 365 (days in year) = 93 years

7 minutes! That’s 93 years worth of educational airtime – and counting!!

Never mind the kids learning a lot from this game – we have too; don’t underestimate your audience. Give them something they like and they’ll do the rest quite naturally. Kids – you’re great teachers and we love it.

Creating emotional connections with the brand helps build customer loyalty and with 93 years worth of positive brand engagement it is clear to see why this is the future of advertising online.

See Brilliant Brushers for yourself right here!

From Vimto to Red Bull in the blink of a bike gear!

Whoa – slow down there! Body armour, full face helmets, a winding downhill mountain-side course on a bike at speeds over 40mph? Oh yes…. the Red Bull Road Rage event on Belgium’s famous Côte de la Redoute racetrack is more a test of mettle than metal.

Our challenge was to bring all the skill, speed, excitement and unpredictability of flying down a twisty mountain road, virtually airborne, and put it at your fingertips to play (safely…) at home. We’ve learned more about bike gears, acceleration, turning angles, skids, slides and crashes than we really wanted to know (only joking…) but the results are pretty darned good (though we say it ourselves).

You can play the game here. And if you get bored of extreme bike racing, you can always try the cliff diving instead. Mmmm – what if we added in some missiles…. . No! Keep it real. Enjoy.

A funny thing has happened in the last year at Matmi; every major brand we’ve worked with has come back for more. We like it; it makes us want to do an even better job next time around.

Cancer Research and the amazing work it does for sufferers of the disease and their supporters needs no introduction. Their Run 10K fund raising races in September and October are part of the nation’s calendar. This year, they’re running in 22 locations around the UK – and we’re helping to promote them again with a free-to-play, three level, online platform game with Facebook functionality.

Last year’s “Rooftop Runner” advergame got off to a fast start, achieving 2 million plays in its first month but its successor, “Rooftop Raiser”, has an immediate advantage. Players will be able to post their scores to the Wall of the Facebook pages, and notify their friends to challenge them to play. The viral anti just got upped – significantly – so we’ll be watching this one with interest.

Successfully engaging people with a brand is all about making an emotional connection with them. The emotional element for Cancer Research is obvious – which may explain the 36 years worth of airtime that 2009’s Rooftop Runner has already delivered.

We’re really proud of the value for money we can deliver –particularly for charities like Cancer Research. Shouldn’t you be taking a look at the advergame advantage for your own brand?

You know who to call.

Play the game here

The lovely people at Asda have come back for more Matmi magic as well – and we’re delighted to be working with them again!

From the green messages of the recycling game “Landfill Bill” in 2008, we’re on the green pitches of the World Cup helping Asda customers to “Make A Save”! What else?! Whether it’s in the net or in your basket, you win either way.

“Make A Save” has had the Facebook Connect treatment so you can post scores to your Wall and challenge your friends to play – which ups its viral potential significantly, of course. You get to be the goalie in the game, facing five football strikers, each intent on landing their shot in the net. Save at least three of the five shots over seven increasingly challenging levels to score points for each save and add valuable multipliers for consecutive saves.

Unfortunately, Jesus (one of our game gurus, not himself) thought this was too easy, so randomly, the football will transform into a more tricky flying object – super-fast cuddly toy, a wayward beach ball or a nastily curving turnip (Jesus watches a lot of Terry Pratchett… ).

Make a save and your player does Asda’s “pocket tapping” move in celebration and you could pick up some cool offers from Asda which they’ll be updating over the summer.

Great to be working with you again, Asda, and at least we know this game will go the distance! Good luck to England – in fact, good luck to everyone from Matmi. People in every country in the world play our games – even Vatican City. Buona fortuna, monsignor…

Let’s hope Rob Green can make a save..

PLAY NOW

Imagine an advert that:

- You don’t have to place
- Lasts for five, six, even seven minutes at a time
- Your customers will watch by choice
- Your audience can interact with, rather than passively watch

It sounds like a fantasy, unless you’re talking about an advergame. Our 2009 advergame for Cancer Research has had over 36 years worth of direct interaction between supporters and the brand. Are you sure about placing that ad now? Let me tell you more….

We all know that with traditional advertising, it can be difficult to hold consumers’ attention. A typical TV spot gives you around thirty seconds to make an impression and print ads have to make their point almost immediately.

With an advergame however, you can hold a person’s attention for a theoretically indefinite amount of time. Advertising stops being a passive exercise when you give your customers something to engage with, allowing you to build customer loyalty through positive emotional attachment.

For example, our “Escape to Plastic Beach” game for the Gorillaz has an average playtime of around 8.5 minutes. That’s the equivalent of seventeen TV commercials, and the whole time the player is swimming in branded elements – sometimes literally.

Advergames can also reach places that traditional advertising can’t easily get to. An advergame has the same world of mouth element that a TV commercial or a print ad have, and it’s much more portable. Social networks like Facebook and Netlog have made sharing content easier than ever before, and this allows your brand to reach its audience without having to pay for a choice billboard or a prime slot on the television. If your game is good enough, people will come to you, rather than you having to go to them.

This portability doesn’t come at the expense of reach either, because an advergame can accumulate millions of plays. The game we made for Lily Allen, “Escape the Fear”, has been played nearly six million times since December 2008. The fact that we’re talking about a game that came out more than a year ago also neatly illustrates the third point, that advergames have a much longer shelf life than traditional advertising. A well made game will continue to attract players on a much longer timeline than a print advert, and will remain current much longer than a TV commercial.

Let it Flow 36 million users and counting...

With so much of the word now online, advergames are the smart way of reaching your audience in a way that they will remember and talk about. And if you want to talk about return on investment for advergaming vs. traditional advertising? Advergaming is in a different league.

You know who to call. Jeff.

If you looked at a copy of the Manchester Evening News on Friday, you might have seen an article/interview with our illustrious leader Jeff.  If you didn’t see a copy, you can click here to read the article on the MEN website.

While we’re very happy to get the coverage, there’s one correction we’d like to make.  It was reported that Jeff said the following: “Within four years it is predicted that more people will be using an iPhone to access the internet than a computer.” when what he actually said was: “Within four years it is predicted that more people will be using a mobile phone to access the internet than a computer.”

It’s a small thing, but it’s an important one!