Curve brings you the latest international news from the world of industrial design and product development. It is published four times a year in February, April,
July and October.

Related works:

1. Commemorative launch materials for the opening of the Calleja stores

In 2006, Europlay was awarded Class A and C licenses allowing it to operate a fully integrated gambling system. Bulldog was hired to develop a strategic brand platform that would align with the company’s business strategy, ensure differentiation in a highly competitive market and inspire investors to recognise the potential value of Europlay’s offering by becoming stakeholders.

Our first objective was to define what makes Europlay special and different in the competitive context of the igaming industry. We found that a key issue which prevents more people from participating in gambling as a pastime is that it is still seen as an activity that is a socially unacceptable. Much of this is down to the well publicised consequences of problem gambling.

Paradoxically, a common thread amongst a diverse demographic of people that strenuously claimed NOT to gamble is that many of them, regularly purchased lottery tickets or scratch cards. Inspired by this insight, we crafted a new brand aimed at people who like to play money games but who don’t consider themselves gamblers.

If this does not sound very original, given the gaming industry’s current obsession with appearing socially responsible, consider this; all major gaming websites, under the guise of social responsibility, allow players to set their own limit in respect of how much they can lose. Isn’t that like asking an alcoholic to decide when he/she has had enough to drink?

We saw this as a case of reach outstripping grasp and with low stakes, high involvement games, strict measures to ensure responsible participation and game themes that reflect emerging consumer attitudes to everyday life situations affected by politics, fashion, popular culture etc – the Mowjow brand was born.

In order to explain Mowjow’s intent, spirit and expression to potential investors, the brand kernel was outlined in a manual that included: audience insight, industry niche, competitors, vision, business objectives and key offerings. The manual also contained a comprehensive identity – defining: key messages, symbolic expressions, architecture and standards to ensure consistent application.

Bulldog also designed Mowjow’s first mobile phone game: “Seduction Lottery”. This is a downloadable Java application that works on the majority of current mobile phones. Built around a dating theme, Seduction Lottery adds role play, escapism and greater involvement to the traditional lottery game experience. This is important because experiencing a lottery game on a mobile phone is not the same as physically participating. The main difference being, the length of time between the stake and the outcome. On a mobile phone, this is instant, making a more involved user experience imperative – especially when the player loses (even though the stake is very low). Seduction Lottery rewards players with a simple but highly enjoyable experience whether they win or lose.

That said, because of the risqué nature of the game theme, not everyone will like Seduction Lottery. It is designed to appeal to an 18 25 age group and reflects a world which they will recognise as what is around them. This is not to say that all 18-25 year olds should be stereotyped as belonging to a homogeneous ‘sex obsessed’ subculture. What it does say is that there are attitudes and feelings which this age group are likely recognise, and these have been used to develop a game theme that celebrates both commonalities and differences.

In any case, the technical architecture behind the game was designed in such a way as to allow the skinning of new themes on to the existing back end. This allows the creation of multiple games that target very different groups of people with relatively low development costs.

In order to inspire, inform and ultimately move potential investors to become stakeholders in the project, we also developed a short brand film about Mowjow and the Seduction Lottery game.

‘Cocaine Charlie’ is a character that did not make the final selection. As you can see, the early development visuals contained much more detail than the final versions. Along the way, we realised that the screen size on some phones (and resolution) was so small that this would be impossible to retain.

For more information, feel free to get in touch at info(at)virtualbulldog.com

No related posts.

No related posts.