NEW OLYMPIC THEMED GAME FOR BHF STRENGTHENS HEALTHY HEARTS CAMPAIGN
Children are set to receive important lessons about the best ways to keep their hearts healthy and reduce obesity levels thanks to a brand new interactive web game called Monster Games devised by digital marketing agency Itineris on behalf of the British Heart Foundation.
Itineris, which offers services in creative design, digital strategy, email marketing, website design and development, created an Olympics-themed game called Monster Games to help 7-11 year olds learn about heart health as a follow up to its first game for the charity, Monster Heart. By logging onto www.bhf.org.uk/cbhf, participants can choose one of eight monsters to participate in an Olympic sport and gain medals from competing in the contest.
The new game was commissioned to complement the existing Monster Heart game, rated as the most popular programme on the British Heart Foundation children’s website, in order to provide motivation for players to return to the website for fresh material as well as to continue the important health message to the charity’s target audience.
According to the recent figures from the National Child Measurement scheme, by the age of 11, 33% of children are overweight or obese. Itineris created Monster Games to encourage players to look after their hearts by competing in activities such as the Lightspeed Dash, Zero-G Long Jump and Spaceshot. Game results can be stored, encouraging the player to re-visit the site to improve their last score. It is also possible for the participant to e-mail their results to a friend, adding the option of a viral marketing campaign in a controlled environment.
Matt Horsup, business development manager at Itineris, said: “We took inspiration from classic eighties computer games such as Daley Thompson’s Decathlon for Monster Games to help educate British Heart Foundation’s key audiences about health and obesity in a fun an interactive way. One of the things that was key to the game was participants had to match the correct monster characteristic to the right game. For example, Manchu is good at power events like weightlifting but not so good at long distance running because of his physique. This educates players on how different training and body shapes can help with different sporting events.”
The original Monster Heart game recently scooped three gold awards at the 2010 International Communicator Awards. Run by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, the awards honour the best in creative advertising, corporate communications, public relations and web design from across the globe. Based on the Tamagotchi idea, Itineris initially created a platform where children could personalise their own monster and learn to feed it, and keep it healthy as well as happy in order for it to survive.