Saving The Source
Read the story- Brand
- Fanta
- Year
- 2013
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- Web
Objective
Fanta needed teenagers to spend more time with the brand than a TV spot or banner could ever hold, and to pass that time along to friends on their own. The company built «Play» into a story worth returning to and sharing, and rolled it out as one global franchise — localised into 190+ markets rather than run as a one-off promo.
Solution
You page forward through the story like a comic, but the pages aren't static: tap or click around a spread and it can trigger an animation, uncover a hidden video, or drop you into a short embedded mini-game before handing you back to the story. Eight characters — Todd, Tristan, Andy, Floyd, Lola, Maude, Gigi and the Lhava Twins — search for «the Source» after Play vanishes from their town, and you follow them chapter by chapter, nine in all, hunting each page for the next Easter egg. Whenever you find something worth passing on, a share control sits right there on the page, so you can send a chapter or a discovery to a friend without breaking out of the story. You can start on the web and pick the same story back up in the free iOS or Android app, in your own language, wherever you left off.
Results
Averaged over 9 minutes of engagement time per session across 190 countries.
- 1
Players reach the experience at Fanta's Play hub, opening the graphic novel's first page on desktop, or by installing the free "Play Fanta: Saving the Source" app on iOS or Android.
- 2
The story opens with Play vanishing from the town and its residents turning grey and joyless, the "Playless"; players are introduced to the eight-character cast — Todd, Tristan, Andy, Floyd, Lola, Maude, Gigi and the Lhava Twins — who set out to find and repair the Source.
- 3
The core loop is reading: players advance page by page through nine chapters and more than 40 illustrated spreads, each one animating as they move through it rather than sitting as a static comic panel.
- 4
Poking around a page's artwork triggers hidden animated Easter eggs, rewarding players who explore a spread instead of simply turning it.
- 5
At scripted points the narrative hands control to an embedded mini-game; players complete it and the story resumes afterward.
- 6
Some discoveries unlock hidden animated video sequences outside the normal page flow, giving players a reason to revisit earlier chapters.
- 7
Players can share a chapter or a find to social media from within the experience, echoed by the same characters on the campaign's Facebook page; the HTML5 build scales from desktop to phone and feature phones, with text and graphics localized to the player's market.
