Monopoly City Streets: Wow.

Best extension of an old-school brand into digital world (IMHO) in the last decade…

Overview:

Just thought I’d write about it as I enjoy it so much – the Monopoly City Streets online brand (game) experience using GoogleMaps at it’s core.

Still playing….everyday for about 7 weeks now….it’s so damn addictive!

Mind you, if you don’t log on everyday to collect your rent, you don’t earn a penny.

My Achievement Level:

Now I have reach a Level 5 property mogul, with 15 streets and $4,606,944,000.00 in accumulated wealth and over $300,000,000 in daily rent revenue…still get over taxed of course…(note: global leader is $13,208,060,626,000.000)

If only virtual life mirrored real life….sometimes it does, Telstra recently abandoned all their second life customers: kinda reminds you of their regional Australia policy not so long ago…).

I even own the whole “Sheridan Street” in Palm Cove near Port Douglas….It’s good to dream sometimes…

As a Marketing Campaign:

With an estimated 1.7m unique users engaging and playing regularly (if you don’t log in daily, you miss out on your rental earnings!), the success of this campaign has potentially backfired for Hasbro and it’s creators Tribal DDB UK.

The idea is 5 star, however the technical implementation is about a 1 star (according to many blogs).

This implementation has seen a full re-start, and constant server/game/cheating interuptions.

These have led to a revolt, with some users banding together in acclimation to have the Hasbro & their Tribal DDB UK agency staff  “be pushed into a shit-filled canal and poked and prodded with long poles” (read the full rant here)

Summary & End Game:

Having said all that stuff, this is by far the longest engagement I’ve had with a non-digital age brand in the online space…ever.

I love how digital constantly breathes new life into old school products – and in cases like this (and the new Trivial Pursuit online game).

But it all ends soon!  On the 9th December, the are pulling the plug.

I wonder what their transition strategy is of the many people engaged in the game…