We created the first assassin-training Messenger chatbot.

We had to create a bit of a cult for the release of American Assassin, a Village Roadshow film. It also needed to sit on a platform that could be ‘re-activated’ in the event of possible sequels, while growing their email database.

So, we created an assassin-training chatbot to find the Australian Assassin.

For the first time, a Messenger chatbot was transformed into a fully immersive experience with 125 training games, including 5 levels of difficulty. We pulled apart functionality and utilised it in new ways—gamifying every part of it. Videos, distorted audio, emojis, carousels, timed responses, even location services were harnessed for users to analyse, decode and interact with.

Plus, 6 rich HTML assessment games—using the mobile’s accelerometer—created a microsite-type environment, all within the bot.

As this is a brand new (it finished yesterday) I don't have final assets or results - although anecdotally it did really well, with one player spending 11 hours interacting with the piece.

Please see below a few images from the work.

Retail can be fun (but it has to be useful).

I've broken the rule of three main ideas and decided to talk about the work we've been doing for Kmart a bit. Not because it's groundbreaking, but because I think it's good, and useful and it brings people closer to the check out counter.

The first is a little chatbot called Buddy. We launched it for Christmas based on a real human insight. It's easy to know what to give to your folks, but what about your Secret Santa, your kids' Secret Santas, and that nice neighbour from apartment 10? Buddy helps you navigate these questions and offers 'safe' suggestions. It's a simple bot, but people loved it and it even got some marriage proposals.

The second idea is the Kmart Stick & Style. Very simple. We basically digitalised the decor catalogue and distributed it as an iMessenger stickers pack. Basically, you can take a photo of your house and see how the Kmart items will look in it. The need behind it? For the first time we can try on decor like we try on clothes, creating confidence to buy.

Of course AR is just around the corner and will change everything. But our customers haven't turned that 'corner' yet - we'd have to build a custom app, advertise the app, distribute and update the app - all a bit unnecessary on the verge of the ARKit revolution. So while we wait for it, we created a very simple solution that helped Kmart customers feel more confident about their purchase decisions.

Witnessing a city's heartbeat through complex and beautiful data.

Have you ever seen the heart of a city? Not as in the geographical centre, or the business district. Its actual heart. What it feels, likes, beats harder for.

We did it. We created Sydney's heart. 

MasterCard was launching their Priceless Sydney program, a series of exclusive local experiences to cardholders. Our task was to create a closer connection with city. 

We combined several sources of data and built a visualisation tool that aggregates these conversations in real time, showing what's happening in the city's heart. It pulses with every Swans win, a new gig announcement, a new collection launch and all big events that are simultaneously connected to MasterCard's experiences and the emotions of a whole city.

In a way, this is my Hungerithm. 

Data is everywhere, and there’s no way back. And why would there be, right? Data is useful - critical even - in business and marketing. But it needs TLC, and human parameters to bring to life its beauty and emotion. Because we might try to remind ourselves all the time that 'advertising is not art, etc'. But it's certainly made of it.

See more of the campaign below, and please excuse quality of the video.

A Kung Fu film written by the internet.

We were tasked with launching Maggi Fusion brand of Asian inspired instant noodles. The main message was the ability of mixing flavours and make it your way. Oh, and it was a six months long campaign.

So we bought the rights to an old Kung Fu movie, cut it into 2-minute episodes in original language, built a subtitling tool and asked the community to write the story. The result was hilarious - and it reflected in sales. 

User Generated Content campaigns are close to impossible to facilitate. But this one succeeded in harnessing people's drive to be creative. It was simple, easy to use and a bit of fun.

The campaign also had a mobile site that created randomised gifs representing the flavour combinations.

See case study below, an example of a User Captioned video, and screenshots of the mobile site.