Dreamworks Animation has spent the last decade developing a large library of properties. Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon…the list grows with every new release.

Each of these IP's has its own website and each of these websites have games created to promote that IP.

With all these campaigns, Dreamworks has many many games on many many different pages all across the web, but there was nothing linking those games together.

Game traffic flares up with a new film’s ad campaign and then disappears into the dark corners of the web. Dreamworks came to SMERC looking for a way to retain and re-engage existing fans between ad campaigns while simultaneously introducing new fans to the library of quality pre-existing content.

Our solution: Dreamworks Social Arcade

Play games from every Dreamworks IP in one place!

The Dreamworks Arcade is a game portal that leverages DW’s vast library of branded games to create a community that strengthens brand engagement between IPs and increases consumer loyalty.

Built with the Game Cloud unified platform, the Dreamworks Arcade gathers all Dreamworks’ games in one place and extends gameplay across all properties, creating a user experience that rewards exploration of the full catalog of Dreamworks IPs. Essentially, we are gamifying the process of being a Dreamworks fan!

Earn Stars playing Puss in Boots games and use them to buy powerups for Kung Fu Panda games!

Taking advantage of Game Cloud Network’s full social integration and gamification capabilities, the Dreamworks Arcade allows players to create an account with branded avatars and link their account to Facebook. Performance in ANY game in the arcade rewards XP which allows players to gain levels and ranks for their avatars.

Players earn rewards each day just for returning to the Arcade!

Players work towards earning branded achievements which reward Stars. Players use Stars in the Store to buy branded power-ups that increase the length of their games, give them extra turns, or double their points!

Earn Achievements and other rewards by playing games and engaging with the Dreamworks Arcade community!

A fully COPPA-compliant social community offers all the fun of social play in a way that is safe for kids. Players add friends and compete in fun game challenges.

Compete against friends in game challenges!

An activity feed lets players know what their friends are up to and an extensive leaderboard lets players see how their performance compares to the best of the best. Older players are able to share games, progress, and achievements on Facebook.

Link your account to Facebook to Share game actions and Achievements with friends.

Finally, a simple-to-use CMS allows for the easy addition of new games, ensuring that the Dreamworks Arcade is constantly updated with new content.

The social features, gamification elements, and sheer volume of games will keep players coming back between ad campaigns and help maintain brand engagement. New ad campaigns with new games reinvigorate the existing IPs and the circle begins again.

Keeping fans engaged was the goal and we think players will have a hard time turning away from the Dreamworks Arcade.

Check out the Dreamworks Arcade for yourself HERE!

Yesterday SELF received a personal letter from Michelle Obama on ‘The White House’ letterhead — which we will be reading on center stage today at American University in Washington at SELF’s first ever ‘Workout on the Quad’.

Mrs. Obama congratulated SELF Magazine on promoting health and wellness across our country — as it dovetails with her defining mission as First Lady. She stated that she was grateful to both the magazine and the social game because   — “by promoting physical fitness through an interactive experience, SELF is changing the way its readers approach what it means to lead a healthy lifestyle, and for that I am incredibly grateful”.

More on this Monday.

However, rather than surrender to our cabin fever, we set about busying ourselves.

First we created an awesome HTML5 platform.

Then we looked around for something to do with it.

With St. Patrick’s Day rapidly approaching, we decided to chase the gloomy grays of winter away with a bright, fun, green game to add to our Game Cloud Network platform. And the game we created was…

Rainbow Tangle

 Help the leprechaun untangle his rainbow!

The clumsy leprechaun has a bit of a problem with his rainbow. Help him untangle it.

Match the shapes to untangle the knots!

Match the colored shapes on the right to remove the combinations on the left. Do it fast because the clock is ticking!

We’re really glad to have been able to focus our energies on something so bright, colorful, and fun and we think you should check it out and see for yourself on desktop, iPhone, iPad, Android, tablet or however you go online.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY RAINBOW TANGLE!

We were intrigued by the story about a family of the ‘Croodaceous’ era dealing with generational difficulties while looking for a new home…all in a world of fantastic and dangerous creatures.

DreamWorks' newest film The Croods!

We couldn’t wait to get our grubby little hands back in the DreamWorks toybox.

But DreamWorks wanted more than just a game. They wanted to create a Croods activity exploring the rich world and crazy animals of the Croodaceous era. And they wanted fans to be able to experience that world and those animals across all platforms.

So we made the Croods Croodaceous Creature Collector!

Get to know the wild animal combinations represented by the creatures of the Croodaceous era!

Using our new HTML5 Engine, we created a fun matching game that can be played however you access the internet! Fans can explore the fun animal combinations of Croodaceous era creatures on their desktops, iPhones, iPads, Android devices, tablets, and more.

Solve the clues and reveal the hidden Croodaceous creature!

Click the stones to find the characteristics referred to in the riddle.

Learn about the Croodaceous creature you’ve discovered and print fun info sheets at home!

View all the creatures you’ve unlocked and build your Croodaceous collection!

Croods is a bona fide hit and we are proud to have been able to create the Croods Croodaceous Creature Collector to  promote its success and to serve as an example of our new HTML5 engine.

Play Croods Croodaceous Creature Collector HERE!

The most difficult task for anyone working in the rapidly changing fields of mobile and social gaming is to recognize and prepare for coming trends. These fields are constantly evolving and our job at SMERC is to anticipate changes and create solutions for them so that we can meet a client’s current needs and help prepare them to meet future needs.

This is how you view the web

The mobile device is becoming the preferred tool for accessing the internet.

The Pew Research Center revealed that 62% of the entire US adult population had used their mobile devices to access the internet in the past 30 days, and that 45% of 18-29 year olds and 17% of ALL mobile device owners rely on their devices for the majority of their online activities. This has nearly doubled over the last three years and the numbers are only going up.

Studies by Morgan Stanley point to the explosive growth of the mobile market and suggest that within a year the number of people who use mobile devices to access the internet will overtake the number of people who exclusively rely on desktop computers.

With so many people relying on their mobile devices to access the internet, it is becoming increasingly necessary for your website, game, or application to be optimized for the mobile experience.  To this end, SMERC has developed a sophisticated HTML5 engine that optimizes performance across platforms.

HTML5: The only solution for cross-platform mobile applications.

Our HTML5 engine allows us to create dynamic games and applications with all the gameplay and social functionality expected from Flash and other programming languages, but with the cross-platform potential that only HTML5 offers.

Whether users access your app on their desktop, iPhone, iPad, Android, or tablet, HTML5 offers a consistent experience across all browsers.

But don’t take our word for it…

Check out the Croodaceous Creature Collector, an activity we created for DreamWorks to promote the theatrical release of The Croods:

Discover the Croodaceous creatures and unlock printable fact sheets!

Click HERE to play the Croods Croodaceous Creature Collector…

OR check out the game we made for our own Game Cloud Network Portal featuring full gamification integration in addition to the addictive gameplay that has become the SMERC standard:

Help the leprechaun untangle his rainbow by matching colored shapes!

CONTACT US to find out how HTML5 can help you meet your needs.

It’s SELF Magazine’s 20^th Anniversary, and to celebrate, SELF decided to pair with HerCampus.com to bring the massively successful annual Workout in the Park event to one college campus. With so many great colleges to choose from, picking just one lucky campus to host the first ever Workout on the Quad event was nearly impossible.

So, rather than making the difficult choice, SELF decided to leave the decision in the hands of the students and approached SMERC to figure out a way to use the award winning Workout in the Park Social Game to let students decide which school should host.

And thusly, the SELF Workout in the Park Social Game Challenge was born!

Students chose their school and competed against players from other schools to earn the most points by completing workouts and finishing quests.

Perform workouts to earn points for your school!

A leaderboard tracked top schools and top players so participants could see how their school was doing and how their contributions stacked up to those of the other players.

Check how your school is doing and how many points you've earned for it on the Leaderboard!

Two weeks later, thousands of participants had entered over 100 major American universities to win the chance to host the Workout on the Quad event.

Leading schools boasted scores representing up to 10,000 in-game workouts performed by students hoping for their school to win.

Stay tuned HERE for the official announcement of the winning school.

See what other new features we’ve got going for SELF Workout in the Park HERE!

Yesterday, in an article titled Self Magazine Refocuses for a Younger Audience, the New York Times had a lot to say about SELF redirecting itself towards youth culture. Some key bits read as such:

The brand has also licensed its name to a new line of fitness gear including yoga mats and kettlebells and is considering extending that to healthy food products. Self is also capitalizing on its annual event, “Self Workout in the Park,” by announcing a college-themed contest, “Self Workout on the Quad,” where college students who participate most heavily with the Facebook “Workout in the Park” social game can win an event at their school.

 

Self Workout on the Quad is a contest in which participants in he social game compete to bring the real life SELF Workout in the Park to their school.  Talk about an incredible synergy! The contest helps expand the reach of the social game and bring in a new demographic for the real world event it is based on. It’s another example of how SMERC is helping to pioneer transmedia marketing.

SELF Workout in the Park Presented by Nike + Kinect Training!

We’ve bragged before about SELF Workout in the Park. It’s our massive Facebook social app, we’ve said. It makes a fun game out of reaching fitness goals and increasing the health and well-being of the player’s avatar, we’ve bragged. We’ve even not-so-humbly pointed out the many steps we’ve taken to fuel progress towards real-world self improvement goals. We are very proud and not at all shy about it. But we aren’t the only ones working at the intersection between gaming and health.

Nike + Kinect Training for XBOX

Nike and XBOX have partnered to create Nike + Kinect Training, which offers XBOX Kinect users the chance to receive personalized Nike training with real-time coaching. All without having to leave the house. Nike + Kinect Training is a valuable workout experience and a great gaming experience at the same time.

So it makes sense that when XBOX wanted to promote their awesome new workout/gaming hybrid, they turned to another workout/gaming hybrid: SELF Workout in the Park.

To fully showcase Nike + Kinect Training we decided to present players with a total park takeover! Banners above and below the game frame advertise Nike +  Kinect Training, while the loading screen proudly displays new ‘Presented By’ animated images with the Nike + Kinect Training logo.

The Loading Screen includes 'Presented By' animations and branded banner advertisements.

An in-game popup lets players know whats going on and points them to a NEW in-game item: the Kinect Yoga Mat.  This new Yoga Mat, branded with a “Kinect for XBOX360″ logo, is available for a limited time only and offers players a special resource boost whenever they work out on it.

Kinect Yoga Mat

We think Nike and XBOX are doing great things with the Kinect and we are glad to be working with them to make exercise less of a chore and more fun!

Get your own Kinect Yoga Mat for a limited time HERE!

Social Media Club, Inc.
Thursday, January 17, 2013 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (CST)
New York, NY

Event Details
Gamification has gained the attention of companies around the world as an effective means of increasing customer and employee engagement, loyalty and adoption. But yet many people still see gamification as just another buzzword in marketing. Join Social Media Club NYC to learn more about gamification and behavior management from leading strategists – and why some believe gamification has the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate, learn, collaborate, work and live our every day lives.
Guests include:

Paul Hearing, Sr. Producer at Badgeville
Brian Wane of SMERC http://www.smerc.com/
Others to be announced.

Light refreshments will be served.
1/17/13 Arrive at 6pm for networking, 6:30 panel.

Thank you to PR Newswire as our new venue host.

Diesel Limited Edition by Mister Cartoon

Mister Cartoon’s brand is all about the streets,  so no traditional campaign was going to cut it. Instead we set out to create an experience placing users inside Cartoon’s world: a world of concrete, graffiti, tattoos…and cruising in lowriders. We called the experience Time 2 Ride.

Photography by famed urban photographer Estevan Oriol!

Time 2 Ride lets players create a video of themselves cruisin’ and bouncing in a fully tricked out lowrider and then share that video on their Facebook wall!

Share your video on Facebook. Friends can Vote on your video or create their own!

Players provide a picture of themselves and a passenger: upload, select from FB pics, or create one with a webcam! After choosing a background, players hit the switches to see an animated video of themselves bouncing in a classic ’64 Impala.

Watch a video of yourself and a friend in a vintage lowrider!

Create the best video to win an awesome prize!

SMERC tested, Snoop Dogg approved!

You can keep sitting there jealous and slack-jawed, or you can make your own lowrider video at Time-2-Ride.com!