Design

A Case Study in Unique Advertising

By November 20, 2008 No Comments

Urban Dictionary defines “Wazzel” as just another word for anything you want it to be, a sign for something intangible:

“Is it me or does that look like wazzel on the table?”

“Anybody coming for a wazzel with me?”

“ARGH, My Firefox connection is wazzeling up!”

For Wazzel.com, however, it has become a brand, and part of the brand is a new game that the team at Ninthlink designed for the site.

Wazzel.com is a sports social network site, aimed for the armchair quarterback types, the every fan that enjoys sports, beer, and lots of talk. The Wazzel game, now on Facebook, is (we predict) the “It” game for 2009 and an example of the marketing trends that we will discuss in the forthcoming book and the direction brand online will be heading towards.

The game is what we call a standalone widget: its application is not only for the specific client website, but can be transferred to other platforms, such as Facebook, and used there. It brings like-minded people together. More importantly, it is a viral marketing method of getting one’s brand out there, talked about, and known.

“Have you played the new Wazzle Facebook game?”

“I just got turned on to Wazzle and I’m in the Top Ten.”

“I bet I can beat you at Wazzle.”

A Useful Tool

The importance of such a tool is that is uses sports culture, online technology, and leisure as a means to attracting people, who in turn can be marketed to as a niche consumer base. Have a product that is perfect for all kinds of sports fans? You can reach them by advertising at the Wazzel game site.

A recent example of this is Buddy Media, which unveiled the new Ad Battle Facebook application. This does with advertising what Wazzel does with sports, allowing users to view two different print and television ads submitted by fellow Facebook users and vote on which ad they think “wins” the battle. As an ad wins battles, its ranking increases, with the highest (and lowest) scoring ads highlighted under the “Best and Worst” section.

The Ninthlink team can develop an innovative game or widget for your site and brand as well. If you can imagine it, we can design it and make it happen.

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