Engaging Citizens through Immersive Alternate Reality
= EPIC WIN

Not quite the big boom back into blogging I had hoped (that post is still under way…) but I saw this and had to share it with you all. A few years ago, before the iPhone and the big app movement, 20:20London did an amazing integrated campaign for the PSP game Gangs of London. Leveraging the multiple communications channels available through mobile, and exploiting a citizens natural craving for an alternate reality, they were able to completely immerse the average joe into a world that could only otherwise be found by playing the game by using SMS, recorded voice and some fancy image recognition technology.

Foursquare offers a more recent and relevant example of turning life into a game, but this latest concept takes the biscuit. Watch the video and get excited. I certainly did! If this isn’t an example of understanding a human beings inherent need for entertainment, anchored with incentivisation, to exploit what is a traditionally mundane activity, I don’t know what is!