Looking at the film's official website and Facebook page, online games are notably used to engage fans.
Upon inspection, the three games are surprisingly elementary, which can be beneficial in targeting families and casual gamers, but have minimal replay value or prolonged engagement.
Three games featured on the official website
The film's digital marketing campaign is targeting audiences across the board, attempting to reach the literary fans with polls and engagement questions about the source material, young males with clips, comics, and articles highlighting the action and sci-fi, and families with its Disney-brand and partnership with Read.gov to promote with reading.
Below are five recommendations how John Carter's digital campaign can use engagement games more effectively and build awareness with each of its target audience without sacrificing their brand image:
1. App up Lost Symbol
Available on the Facebook page and website, Lost Symbol is a casual puzzle-matching game similar to Bejeweled.
Short games make fantastic engagement tools since people can get instant gratification from it with little investment during what leisure moments they have; one can start, continue, and end the game easily at any time.
While Lost Symbol is available on the web, it is absent as a mobile app. "Roughly four in 10 U.S. adults now have a smartphone," and when people are bored, waiting, or don't have anyone to talk to or text, they turn to mobile games for a pleasurable diversion.
Done right, a mobile game would have relatively short load time unlike Lost Symbol's web version that is plagued with several lengthy loading screens.
Moreover, on a touchscreen, these puzzle-matching games become more engrossing because one is intuitively touching the screen instead of using a point-and-click mouse. This would lead to longer and more involved playtime.
Lost Symbol gives the option of story or arcade mode in the website version and reward "prizes" such as revealing concept art for completing levels in the Facebook version; both are great ways of introducing players to the film's plot and making-of background.
Combining a touch-screen casual game with rewarding players when they complete goals with back-story about John Carter will certainly pique people's interest in the film as they play to release date and after.
2. Play and read a Gamebook
I hope I am not generalizing when I say the majority of Generation Y and Z did not grow up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom novels let alone know who John Carter is.
Why not introduce A Princess of Mars, the original novel and source material of John Carter, to them but in an updated format - an interactive digital gamebook?
Encouraging families to read together with their kids ages 8 to 14 using an iPad or tablet, iPhone or smartphone, or iPod touch, the gamebook would encourage the reader to participate by tapping active links to hear sounds, learn definitions, and find out additional facts related to the story and characters.
Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries: Shadow Ranch (Photo source: NY1)
Periodically, the reader can play story-related mini-games and unlock rewards, which can help keep those with short attention spans alert. Best of all, on portable devices one can conveniently read wherever they are and resume at any time.
Some gamebooks such as Her Interactive's Nancy Drew Mobile Mysteries offer the above but also a Choose Your Own Adventure element to change the outcome of the story. Since John Carter's source material has been cherished for years, that interactive aspect is not necessary.
A gamebook would not change Burroughs's novel, but modernize and add to it. Grandparents and parents can re-read it with these effects and experience the story in a new way while their children can enjoy it for the first time in a fun, interactive way leading up to its film adaptation's big screen arrival.
3. Mars on Earth
AR Invaders (Photo source: Mashable)
If one cannot go to Mars, an augmented reality mobile game can bring Mars to wherever one is. It is still a casual game yet stays true to the film's sci-fi story.
Immersing the target 13-34 audience in a reality with creatures Carter fends off in the movie will create an emotional connection to the character and allow player to become part of the story.
An excellent example of this type of game is Soulbit's AR Invaders, which allow gamers to blast flying saucers all around them, play in "a 360 degree-mode (if you’re standing up) or 180-degree mode (for when you’re sitting down)," and enter a multi-player game with friends.
A John Carter version can tone down any violence to keep it for all ages, while still introduce the creatures and characters to players.
One can also print out special QR codes or tags from the website that creates new creatures and features in the game, as shown in the video below.
4. Decode... Words With Friends
Translating text into Martian images and decoding them would hardly qualify as a "game," but they are the other two games featured on the John Carter website.
And they are as unexciting as they sound unless one is particularly interested in sending long-winded Martian messages to their friends. I can't imagine anyone spending more than five minutes on each portion.
Instead of simply allowing visitors to translate their own messages, one can reward them with Martian codes that reveal a surprise when decoded.
Teaming up with the popular Words With Friends game app will ensure players can compete with their friends and complete goals together at their own convenience.
Giving the game a Mars twist, there will be new colors and themed backgrounds.
Most importantly, players will be rewarded with a Martian badge when they spell out a unique word pertaining to the John Carter world. There will be a long list of acceptable words which can used; after collecting an allotted number of the same color badges, a Martian symbol code is unlocked.
By tapping it, one "decodes" its meaning and is rewarded with its message along with a link to an exclusive clip, concept art, wallpaper, or behind the scenes footage they can watch on their phone or tablet.
People love finishing goals and completing a collection; teaming up with their friends over a Carter game will build awareness of the film and hopefully be something they talk about going to see.
5. Jumping back to the Platform
Creating a video game to tie-in with a feature film can be expensive, but a scaled down platform game can engage male and female audiences of all ages, be family friendly by steering away from gore and violence, and stay economical with its simplicity.
John Carter leaps (Screencap from trailer)
Due to the lesser gravity of Mars, John Carter is stronger, more agile, and can jump an un-Earthly higher on the planet as seen in the trailer.
Prince of Persia 1989 video game (Photo source: Wikipedia)
Going retro and releasing a platform mobile game similar to the original Prince of Persia will attract players because of how easy it is to play. All one has to do is make John jump to safety. The game play can possibly even revive nostalgia among parents, young adults, and older Carter novel fans.
With multiple levels and higher difficulty, along with rewards of film clips and footage for completing them, the longer people are continuously playing, having fun, and are aware and excited for the film.
Come opening day, they will want to see the game play out in live-action 3D with dazzling special effects on the big screen.
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