One up for innovative advertising
IN the age of competitive marketing communication, even an outstanding product or service can hardly move forward or get muffled by business rivals without the push from effective advertising, which requires creativity now more than ever.
This also applies to endeavours to reinvent the education sector with unconventional ideas.
One such idea is ChemCaper, the world’s first educational RPG ( role playing game), which brings into digital realm the learning of Cambridge IGCSE Chemistry, facilitating understanding of the subject through immersive 3D gameplay.
Prior to its launch and still in its final stages of development, ChemCaper has garnered over 580 media coverages partly thanks to The One Academy graduates.
Under the developer, ACE EdVenture Group, the marketing efforts for ChemCaper earned two Gold awards at the prestigious Summit Creative Award 2015 in two categories – Print Materials and Education Marketing.
The Summit Creative Award internationally recognises talents in the advertising field.
The response towards ChemCaper during the Game Developers Conference 2015 and Game Connection America 2015 in San Francisco was overwhelming and was featured on a Times Square billboard.
“For the game conference, instead of a typical press release write- up, we were inspired to create the complete game packaging itself,” said brand designer Kenta Choo.
“Besides press kits, we also put together fun, captivating and playful marketing collaterals such as engaging pop- up business cards, a map of CampUngku ( a town in the ChemCaper game) for the game’s brochure, media kits that are packaged like a Collector’s Edition game box and button badges with witty Chemistry wordplays,” said ChemCaper’s project visualiser Roxanne Tan.
Using humour and wordplay, names of characters, minigames, quests and game items correspond to concepts found in Chemistry.
For The One Academy’s Advertising and Graphic Design Graduate Tan, the biggest challenge was to market the product across the categories of Education and Game.
“We have to make sure that it appears relevant to both categories and appeals to our target audience as well because this will affect the outcome of the design and the message that we are trying to deliver to our audience,” she explained.
“It is simply finding the right balance between both education and game categories.”
Graduate in BA ( Hons) Graphic Design, Choo credits The One Academy for his success as the college’s holistic syllabus, “Masters Train Masters” philosophy ( where guest lecturers from the creative industry present their real experiences) and constant encouragement to participate in competitions have moulded him into a seasoned artist for this project.
For Tan, “TOA has provided me the platform to expand my designs skills and enhanced my skills development as well as provided me the exposure and also made me qualified to enter the education and game industry as a visualiser.”
Advertising acts as a launching pad for ChemCaper to draw more attention.
As one of the leading creative institutions in the region, The One Academy is committed to providing the best art education through diploma and degree courses.
It offers Advertising and Graphic Design, Digital Animation with Game Development, Interior Architecture and Design, Film Visual Effects, Multimedia Design with Digital Media & Interactive Design, Illustration, Movie and Game Art, ESMOD Fashion Design and Pattern Making and Fine Arts.
The One Academy of Communication Design was established in 1991 with the aim of promoting the region as the world’s centre of creative reference.
Strategically located in Bandar Sunway, Selangor, with branches in George Town, Penang, and Beijing, China, it is today a topnotch leading international institute in art, design and creative multimedia, renowned with graduates who steer successful careers in creative capitals worldwide.
For more information on The One Academy, visit www. toa. edu. my or call 03- 5637 5510 or e- mail enquiry@ toa. edu. my.