Success Story
Roll the dice
Leading advertising and creative agencies use Adobe® tools
to create an immersive interactive branding experience
Well known for its successful got milk?® television
commercials, the California Milk Processor Board
(CMPB) is always looking for new and creative ways
to extol the virtues of milk. GET THE GLASS, an
integrated advertising campaign focusing on the
milk-deprived Adachi family, is the latest installment
in the got milk?® chronicle.
The CMPB wanted an advertising campaign that
would deepen consumers’ relationship with the
CMPB brand. Naturally, it turned to Goodby,
Silverstein & Partners, the agency responsible for
the got milk?® advertising campaigns. Goodby
recommended a campaign that included traditional
broadcast advertising and an interactive branding
experience. “The interactive branding experience
builds on the story and entertainment value of the
commercials and gets consumers to spend more time
with the CMPB brand,” says Paul Charney, senior
copywriter for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
North Kingdom built a physical 3D model of the GetTheGlass.com game board, filmed the
virtual world using a special HD camera, and completed all post production in Adobe After
Effects. The finished interactive experience is a mix of the physical model enhanced with 3D
and motion graphics.
“Efficiently managing
download time is a
critical part of the process
for our Adobe Flash
developers. Adobe Flash
Professional enabled us
to compress the huge 3D
video files and put the
load time up front, so
when people are playing
GetTheGlass.com it is
very fluid and they don’t
have to wait for sections
to load.”
David Eriksson,
creative director,
North Kingdom
Goodby worked with the creative digital agency
North Kingdom to create GetTheGlass.com,
a sophisticated online experience that mimics
a traditional board game. The agencies used
Adobe Flash® Professional, Photoshop®,
Illustrator®, and After Effects® software
to develop the award-winning website.
This one-of-a-kind, interactive branding
experience garnered over one million visits
within the first six weeks of its launch.
The broadcast advertising continues to drive
traffic to the site, where consumers spend
an average of 10 minutes helping the Adachis
GET THE GLASS.
“Including an interactive branding experience
as an integral part of its advertising campaign
has positively impacted the California Milk
Processor Board’s got milk?® brand,” says
Charney. “It has broadened the reach of this
California brand to one that is recognized
around the world.”
Tradition with a twist
As part of the GET THE GLASS advertising
campaign, Goodby developed the concept
of an interactive branding experience that
leverages people’s familiarity with traditional
board games where players roll the dice,
answer questions, and move game pieces.
“There is a vocabulary for board games that
everyone knows,” says Charney. “We wanted
to capture the traditional board game feel,
while simultaneously integrating
contemporary elements.”
Goodby wanted to create a unique experience
that combined familiar board game
conventions with a 3D movie-like feel.
Goodby designers used Adobe Photoshop
to convey the immersive design and game
logic to the developers at North Kingdom.
Using the composites as a guide, North
Kingdom brought the experience to life.
The final product includes five distinct areas
that feature different challenges for players to
master. The goal is to help the Adachi family
navigate all five regions, break into Fort Fridge,
and get the glass of milk. The site also includes
five sub-games within the overall interactive
experience. Players use their mouse or
keyboard to tackle interactive challenges and
help the Adachis overcome physical handicaps
caused by their lack of milk. Master Mind
trivia-based challenges that appear on playing
cards also test players with milk-related
questions they must answer to advance.
Goodby had a lot of fun creating interactive
challenges for the Adachi family that directly
relate to their milk deprivation. “Adobe Flash
Professional helped us create a visually
immersive and truly engaging interactive 3D
experience,” comments Charney.
GetTheGlass.com combines familiar board game
conventions with a 3D movie-like feel. North Kingdom
used the flexible Flash development environment to
efficiently manage download time, making the game
smooth and easy to play.
Companies
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
San Francisco, California
www.gspsf.com
North Kingdom
Skellefteå, Sweden
www.northkingdom.com
Building a virtual 3D environment
To create something that looks realistic but
exists in a digital world, North Kingdom first
built a virtual 3D model of the game in 3ds
Max and Autodesk Combustion and then
built a physical 3D model of the game board.
“The model was huge—three meters by two
meters—but it was the key element in creating
the detailed and unique user experience we
knew we were after,” explains David Eriksson,
creative director for North Kingdom.
Once the model was built, North Kingdom
filmed the virtual world using a special HD
camera. All post production was done in
Adobe After Effects, which designers used to
add layers and movement. Designers used the
powerful motion controls in After Effects to
produce more realistic animations. These
controls included Timewarp to slow down and
speed up footage, Motion Tracker to precisely
match the motion of source footage, and
Motion Stabilizer to give hand-held video
shots the look of a locked-off shot.
The finished interactive experience is a mix
of the physical model enhanced with 3D and
motion graphics. The perspective of the video
makes players feel like they are really in the
Adachi world, fighting to get the last glass
of milk, and enables them to experience the
different textures and environments.
Artistic details bring it all together
Adobe products were used throughout the
design and creation of GetTheGlass.com.
Goodby used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
to create all of the game cards and North
Kingdom used After Effects to make the cards
fly on and off the screen when players land
on different spaces. Goodby designers also
built the CMPB logo featured in the game
in Illustrator. “Using Adobe Illustrator and
Photoshop, our amazing designers created
all of the textual design elements, making
everything look really in sync and beautiful,”
remarks Charney.
To give the game cards a nostalgic feel to
match the design, Goodby started with bits
and pieces of old typography from magazines,
game boards, and other sources. After scanning
the artwork into Illustrator, the designer used
Live Trace to quickly and efficiently create
rough vector outlines, which he then modified,
redrew, and adjusted until he achieved a
unique look and feel. The vector foundations
for the cards were then handed off to another
designer, who applied distressed paper
textures and shading in Photoshop to bring
the graphics to life.
Creating a smooth, seamless experience
For North Kingdom, Flash Professional was
the enabling development tool. Designers used
the Image API in Flash to create and add
texture to the dice to give them a realistic look
California Milk Processor Board
San Clemente, California
www.gotmilk.com
www.GetTheGlass.com
Challenges
•Extend brand awareness and positive
brand perception
•More deeply engage consumers online
•Efficiently manage game download time
•Make players feel like they’re part of
the game
Solution
•Design initial game board comps in
Adobe Photoshop
•Create all textual design elements in
Adobe Illustrator
•Use Adobe After Effects to add layers
and movement
•Bring the game to life using Adobe Flash
Professional
Benefits
•Attracted global audience, with over
one million visits in the first six weeks
•Created immersive and fun experience,
with players spending an average of
10 minutes on the site
•Positively impacted and broadened
perception of CMPB brand
•Pushed the limits of creative design
and development
Toolkit
•Adobe Flash Professional
•Adobe Photoshop
•Adobe Illustrator
•Adobe After Effects Goodby, Silverstein & Partners used Adobe Illustrator
and Photoshop to create the game cards and North
Kingdom used After Effects to make the cards fly on
and off the screen. Adobe Flash Professional makes
it possible to transport players to “jail” on Milkatraz
Island, where they must serve their sentence, post
bail, or attempt escape.
“Interactive has become a proven model for extending
the reach of brands and consumers’ relationships to
those brands.”
Paul Charney, senior copywriter, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
and feel and to manipulate the 32-bit images
at runtime using ActionScript. North Kingdom
also used the flexible Flash development
environment to sort through the challenges
of making the game smooth and easy to play.
The FLVPlayback component in Flash enabled
North Kingdom to play progressively
downloaded FLV files over HTTP. Developers
applied Prebuilt ActionScript code snippets
called Behaviors to objects in Flash, enabling
them to save an inordinate amount of time.
They could load multiple videos into a single
FLVPlayback component, change which video
is currently displaying, start and stop the
currently playing video, and seek to cue
points and times and synchronize the video
with animation, text, and graphics. The
FLVPlayback component also helped North
Kingdom maintain a reasonably sized .swf
file for easy download.
Adobe Systems Incorporated
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
USA
www.adobe.com
After the first region of the game preloads,
players begin viewing the introduction and
start rolling the dice and moving forward
while the other regions are still loading in the
background. “Efficiently managing download
time is a critical part of the process for our
Adobe Flash developers,” states Eriksson.
“Adobe Flash Professional enabled us to
compress the huge 3D video files and put
the load time up front, so when people are
playing GetTheGlass.com it is very fluid and
they don’t have to wait for sections to load.”
Everyone is a winner
The CMPB loves the way the different elements
of the integrated GET THE GLASS advertising
campaign help extend awareness of the benefits
of drinking milk and play off one another while
connecting people to the CMPB brand. For
Goodby and North Kingdom, the interactive
GetTheGlass.com branding experience
represents a new frontier in advertising
campaign design and production. Goodby
now plans to regularly propose interactive
components as part of clients’ advertising
campaigns. “Interactive has become a proven
model for extending the reach of brands and
consumers’ relationships to those brands,”
says Charney.
Adobe, the Adobe logo, After Effects, Flash, Illustrator, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated
in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
© 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.
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