Wonderground
- Brand
- GE
- Year
- 2013
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Noise
Objective
GE wanted the public to see it as more than appliances and lightbulbs — a company doing real work in science and technology. To build that awareness among city-dwelling early adopters of mobile location tech, it wrapped the message in an entertaining outdoor hunt that linked a phone screen to real streets.
Solution
Players open the free app or gewonderground.com and pick one of five cities — New York, LA, San Francisco, Boston, or Chicago — then choose from a list of nearby locations, each built around a hidden object. A clue points them toward it; once they track the object down in real life, they hold up the phone camera to scan it, and the app identifies it and surfaces a fact about the spot and the science or technology behind it, narrated along the way by host Jason Silva as the "Wonder Junkie." Each find banks points and unlocks achievements, and players can compare scores with friends and family or build their own custom hunts to share. Anyone who'd rather stay in can run the same fact-finding missions from the web version without leaving the house.
- 1
The player downloads the free GE Wonderground app for iPhone or Android, or opens the web version at gewonderground.com.
- 2
A video host, "wonder junkie" Jason Silva, introduces the game, framing the city as full of hidden knowledge most people walk past.
- 3
The app detects the player's location and unlocks a menu of missions for that city — New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, or Chicago — with ten missions available in New York.
- 4
Choosing a mission gives the player a text clue pointing to a hidden object at a real-world location, such as a clue directing them to an archway at NYU.
- 5
The player travels to the location, searches for the object described, and scans it with the phone's camera once it is found.
- 6
A successful scan reveals a fact about the place and about GE's science and technology work, such as its invention of Silly Putty or its woolly-mammoth cloning research.
- 7
Completed missions earn the player points and achievements.
- 8
Points rank the player against friends and family also playing the game.
- 9
Players can build their own missions at any location and share them with friends, earning further points and achievements for missions they create.
- 10
Players who prefer to stay in can instead use the web version at gewonderground.com, which offers 360 fact-finding missions completed entirely from home, without searching for physical objects.
