Afterglow Ski Game

Objective

Afterglow had already turned Philips Ambilight into a cult short film about night freeriding in LED suits, but TV ads can't carry an audience into gaming and tech circles on their own. Philips needed a second wave that kept that momentum alive and let the Ambilight idea — light reshaping what you see — become something people did, not just watched.

Solution

The game opens straight in the browser at a one-click address, no install: you're dropped first-person onto the same dark mountain from the film and start skiing down. The slope ahead is black except for Philips Ambilight TVs scattered across it — ride into one and it lights up a stretch of the run, giving you just enough visibility to spot the next gate or drop. You chase down as many sets as you can on the way, since each one is the only thing standing between you and skiing blind. A run ends when you either wipe out in the dark or make it to the bottom with your haul of collected TVs, and it played the same way on tablets as in a desktop browser.

Results

The browser ski game drew hundreds of thousands of players in this second phase of the campaign, extending Philips' reach into gaming and tech communities after the original film had already passed 6.5 million views on YouTube and Vimeo within months of launch.