Kidnap Game x Travel Channel Re-launching a DTC brand under a new corporate umbrella, with a side of humor.
The situation: Travel Channel wanted to build awareness and traffic for its content-rich Web site, TravelChannel.com, as part of a new effort to redefine itself as a widely accessible, multimedia source for travel-related information.
Together with marketing and customer relationship management agency RAPP, Travel Channel identified the Facebook community as an ideal target market, because of its reach and demographics. And a game built on Facebook's application platform, which would ultimately link to the Travel Channel Web site, stood out as a way to both engage these users and stimulate the sense of discovery and adventure that Travel Channel fans crave.
The challenge, however, lay in the estimate that over 95% of Facebook applications have fewer than 10 daily users, a statistic that the Travel Channel and RAPP were determined to beat. In July 2008, the companies commissioned the services of social marketing firm Context Optional to assist in developing a Travel Channel application that users would find value in, choose to return to, and share with friends.
The idea and execution: Imagine a world in which you persuade your customers to kidnap their friends so that you can then convince them it's in their best interest to visit your Web site. Virtually, it's already happening. And turning out quite well.
Travel Channel's Kidnap! Facebook application—a game launched in August 2008—rewards users for "kidnapping" their friends and pushes traffic through to TravelChannel.com by incorporating travel-related content into the game.
The application was designed to spread virally and encourage repeat use, and it has succeeded on both fronts, far outperforming the limited amount of paid promotion that was initiated when the application first launched.
“The play is amazing," said Pete Dorogoff, Head of Digital Marketing for Travel Channel, who also emphasized the cable network's achievement in using social media to reach substantial mass volume and appeal.
How it works:
The game rewards users for "kidnapping" their friends with a choice of methods, such as "8-Ball in a Tube Sock" and "Giant Sticky Paper." Through Facebook, these friends then receive a notification letting them know they've been "Kidnap'd," with options to "Escape" or "Ignore."
All users are provided with one "Body Double" per level for an easy escape. When no more "Body Doubles" are available, however, kidnapped friends remain "trapped" at the kidnapper's hideout—one of 30 cities worldwide that the user chooses when joining the application—until that person correctly answers a trivia question about the hideout location.
Kidnapped friends are offered assistance for correctly answering the questions via a Travel Channel Cheat Sheet prompt and button, which links to a page on the Travel Channel site highlighting hideout city information such as history, cuisine, and notable landmarks. This element represents the first and most transparent reference to the application's sponsor. A user's passport, which is stamped each time the player "escapes" a hideout, also links to the Travel Channel site with information about those locations "visited."
A points system rewards a kidnapped friend for correctly answering the question within three days; after that, an increasing percentage of the points are awarded to the kidnapper, with all points going to the kidnapper if at any time the question is answered incorrectly. Points determine a user's ranking on the game's leadership board, and users can earn additional points for answering trivia questions, even without being kidnapped.
Players can also advance levels by kidnapping more friends. Higher levels provide users with additional kidnapping methods, extra "Body Doubles," and the opportunity to switch hideout locations.
The result: Within the first six weeks of launch, the game registered 225,521 monthly active users and 23,034 daily active users; 1,711,300 sent kidnap requests; and a 28% lift in traffic to TravelChannel.com. Since then, usage has grown to a whopping 2.4+ million players and an average of more than 1.1 million daily engagements.
At its peak, the game boasted close to three million active users per month, and its Web site has seen 28 percent traffic growth through the app alone.
