A launch game or microsite still works when it is built around the product and leads to a sale. Most of that is decided before anyone writes a line of code.
When does a launch game or microsite earn its cost?
It earns its cost when three things are true.
- The product is something people want to play with. A vehicle, a guitar, a drink with a story. If the product is fun to explore, an experience that lets people explore it makes sense.
- The idea is worth sharing. People send a game or a site to a friend when it is clever, beautiful, or useful. If nobody would forward it, it will not travel.
- There is a clear path to the dealer or the buy button. Every visit should end one step closer to a sale: find a dealer, build your own, book a test drive, buy now.
At Carmichael Lynch I built games and microsites supporting the Porsche Cayenne launch. At Olson, the Phillips UV vodka site won a One Show Interactive Merit. See the Phillips UV case.
When is it a waste?
When it is a microsite nobody can find. A separate address with no links from the main site, no search presence, and a media budget that ends on launch day gets a burst of visits and then nothing. It is also a waste when it is a game with no link back to the product, where people play, close the tab, and never learn what was being sold. Put the experience on your main site, or link it from there and back again.
How do we measure a launch experience?
Decide what counts before it goes live. The useful measures are the ones that lead to a sale: dealer searches, builds started, quote requests, test drive bookings, and clicks to the buy button. Visits and time on site tell you people showed up. Set up the tracking in the prototype, so you know it works before the money goes into the full build.
Where do people look for a new product now?
More and more, they ask an AI assistant or a search engine, and a game hidden on a microsite is invisible to both. The assistants quote plain pages that answer questions: what it is, what it costs, how it compares, where to buy it. A launch now needs those pages on your main site alongside the fun part. I cover how to get named by the assistants in how do I get my business cited by AI assistants, and the service is AI search.
What does a launch game or microsite cost?
Prototypes and one-off projects are $150 an hour or a fixed quote. Start with a rough playable version and put it in front of a few people from the audience before you pay for the finished build. If it is part of a bigger launch with a site and a brand, see brand and web and prototypes.
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.