Evolution
- Brand
- V Energy Drink
- Year
- 2010
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Liquid Studios
- With
- Watermark Ltd
- With
- Colenso BBDO
Objective
V (Frucor) needed a way to hold New Zealand energy-drink drinkers' attention over a long stretch, not just a single hit. The story leaned directly on the brand's core promise — restoring a world that's run out of energy — and staggering three chapters over six weeks was built to pull the same players back again and again, with fresh prizes at every stage keeping the incentive alive.
Solution
Players arrive on V's promo site and step into 2035, where Earth is dying for lack of energy and a scientist must evolve into pure energy to reach a distant planet's power source. They guide him through a puzzle-quest told in hand-drawn scenes, working from flooded underwater caverns through a mechanical world and on toward space, solving each area's puzzles to advance the story. Only one world is playable at a time — the next opens on its own release date — so a session simply ends when the current chapter is cleared, and the player comes back once the following world unlocks. Clearing a world enters the player into that chapter's prize draw, with a headline prize (a laptop, a modified Mazda RX8, a trip to NASA's space center) at stake per world, alongside daily giveaways for players still working through it.
Results
More than 20,000 players took part, averaging 51 minutes of play each; the campaign handed out 1,250 daily prizes over its run, and the eventual world winners logged as much as 5.6 to 18 hours in the game.
- 1
The game opens as a browser experience on the energy drink brand's New Zealand promo site, setting up a 2035 sci-fi premise in which Earth is rapidly losing energy and a scientist discovers a distant planet that could save it. The player takes on the role of that scientist, whose goal is to evolve from human into pure energy by passing through three sequential worlds — Liquid, Mechanical and Space.
- 2
The first world, Liquid, unlocks on a scheduled date within the campaign and drops the player into hand-drawn underwater caves and science labs, where puzzles are solved to uncover hidden symbols. The collected symbols are used to power up a giant mechanical fish, and once the fish surfaces the world is complete. Finishing Liquid enters the player into a prize draw for a year's supply of the drink and a laptop.
- 3
The second world, Mechanical, unlocks later in the campaign and centers on analytical puzzles, each of which yields a piece of energy. The collected solutions combine into a final code that, once entered correctly, launches a rocket carrying the player into the next world. Completing Mechanical enters the player into a draw for a tuned sports car.
- 4
The third world, Space, unlocks near the end of the campaign and presents a large alien environment of unbalanced planets. The player finds the key to each planet, releasing the crystal inside and sending its energy back to Earth, completing the game's core objective. Finishing Space enters the player into the campaign's grand-prize draw, a trip to a space center.
- 5
Running alongside the three worlds for the full length of the campaign is a separate daily prize draw, giving away items such as phones, game consoles, gift vouchers, cameras and branded product to entrants regardless of world progress.
- 6
The campaign accepts new entries only until a fixed closing date, after which the game stops taking players and the winners of the three worlds are announced separately a few days later.
