The Very Good Wishes
- Brand
- Publicis
- Year
- 2014
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Other
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- DigitasLBi Paris
Objective
Publicis Groupe's annual year-end address from CEO Maurice Lévy had always been a straightforward speech, and leadership wanted 2015's edition to double as proof of the group's own digital chops while giving employees, clients and the wider market something to actually engage with and pass along. The stunt also gave the group a way to tie its corporate ritual to a cause, pairing the greeting with a donation to Make-A-Wish, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses in nearly 50 countries.
Solution
You watch the address on YouTube from your computer, then pair your phone or tablet with it to turn the handset into a controller. As Lévy delivers his speech from his office, tilting the device steers a claw-machine grabber across the room, scooping up the plush toys and gifts scattered around him — 30 objects in all, including 9 hidden ones like a candy jar, a lamp, a phone and a Cannes Lion that unlock extra surprises when found. Move the claw too roughly, or try to grab Lévy himself, and you're penalized. Whatever you catch slides off the computer screen onto your phone, arriving gift-wrapped and ready to share on social media.
- 1
The player opens a New Year's greeting video from Publicis Groupe on a desktop browser, where CEO Maurice Lévy begins delivering a speech from his office; the video prompts the viewer to sync a phone or tablet to the desktop.
- 2
Once synced, a fairground claw appears in the office scene on the desktop screen, and the phone becomes a controller: tilting the device (via its accelerometer) steers the claw around the room.
- 3
The core loop has the player aiming the claw at plush toys and gifts scattered through the office and grabbing them, with up to 30 items available to catch over the course of the video.
- 4
Each item the claw catches slides off the desktop screen and reappears on the phone already wrapped as a gift, visually completing the catch as a present.
- 5
The player can send a wrapped gift straight to social media from the phone.
- 6
Nine hidden objects (among them a candy jar, a lamp, a phone, and a Cannes Lion trophy) are tucked into the scene; catching one unlocks an extra surprise beyond the standard gift.
- 7
Steering the claw too far off-target or grabbing Lévy himself costs the player a penalty, and the game runs alongside the speech until it ends, closing on Publicis Groupe's announcement of a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
