Sebastian Siethoff - McDonald’s - Convergence 2008 @ VIDFEST
At Convergence 2008 this year, I attended the presentation by Sebastian Seithoff, Global Marketing Director - Young Adults, McDonald’s.
As I am a player of The Lost Ring alternate reality game, I was interested to hear Sebastian speak. Not only is McDonald’s the main sponsor, but it is their first foray into the genre of alternate reality games. The Lost Ring, which is linked to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, kicked off in March as 50 bloggers receiving packages with an Olympic-themed poster and a clue pointing them to a website with a unique trailer.
My mystery package
Alternate reality games are part of a genre (e.g. I love Bees ) that mix online and offline realities through clues and activities that focus on the abilities of players to solve puzzles through collaborative means. For example, players of The Lost Ring have collaborated with local participants through The Lost Ring forums to construct city training missions, which may be shared via YouTube, Flickr, and blogs in order to compare times and techniques. The activity of players and characters on different social media platforms can be monitored on an online map.
Characters use a variety of social media tools such as twitter, YouTube, and Flickr to broadcast information relevant for players of the game. The Lost Ring is developed by AKQA, a marketing agency based in San Francisco and Jane McGonigal.
Sebastian Siethoff - McDonald’s
His presentation began with a focus on youth - how they are using social networks and how they are developing an awareness of their global environment and tapping into the increased interest worldwide in the social media culture.
Sebastian Siethoff - McDonald’s
He then provided a background on The Lost Ring for the audience before discussing the unique, less-overt, branding approach McDonald’s is using in relation to the game in order to strengthen ties with the global youth culture.
Sebastian Siethoff - McDonald’s
My complete flickr set from Convergence 2008 is here.
Relevance:
Although advertising has been linked to video games [see the recent design week article] this type of marketing by McDonald’s tied to an alternate reality game is still novel (see Donna’s marketing blog for her analysis after a presentation by Neil Golden, CMO, McDonald’s USA about their sponsorship. Will this lead to other companies seeing value in similar ventures and what are the metrics upon which this relationship will be considered successful?
Sebastian Siethoff - McDonald’s










