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GE brings interactive gaming to mobile through Wonderground campaign

General Electric has launched a mobile and desktop experience that gets consumers in five cities to learn about technology, science and engineering through gaming and check-ins.

GE?s new Wonderground campaign is available across Web and mobile platforms and is positioned as a city guide to unlocking content in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. GE worked with marketing agency noise on the campaign.

"There is so much around us that we simply don't know about," said Noah Kerner, CEO/founder of noise, New York.

"In GE Wonderground, you'll get the chance to discover hidden knowledge about science and technology, to 'see what others miss' so to speak," he said.

"The mobile version of the game allows you to go out into the real world and uncover this knowledge firsthand. The Web version allows you to discover it from your couch."

Interactive engagement
Consumers can download the GE Wonderground mobile application for free download on iPhone and Android devices.

The app and site use a consumer?s location to unlock challenges in the five cities.

The app gives a list of locations that consumers can choose from, each of which is connected to an object that consumers must find at the location through solving a clue.

For example, in New York players can unlock 10 missions, including one at New York University.

The clue users are given at NYU is, ?Find the building where Socrates and Plato would teach. There you will find a 5 above an archway. Scan it.?

Once consumers find an object, they use the app to scan the object via object-recognition technology.

The app then serves up a fact about the location. Additionally, consumers can compete against their friends and family through points and achievements.

Other examples of facts include how GE was involved in the invention of Silly Putty or a research initiative from the company that cloned a woolly mammoth.

The Web version lets gamers go on 360 fact-finding missions and can be accessed at https://gewonderground.com.

Jason Silva hosts the game. 

Digital explorations
GE is not the only recent example of a company using Web and mobile to entice consumers to unlock clues and content.

Bottled water brand Perrier also recently rolled out a mobile and desktop experience to give consumers ways to unlock clues and win prizes (see story).

By extending the GE experience across Web and mobile platforms, the company is able to reach a wide group of consumers.

Although the desktop experience is interactive, it is the mobile component that makes GE?s Wonderground experience stand out because it gets consumers to interact with content in the real-world via their handsets.

The app is also set up to be used a variety of times with different locations, which could help GE retain users for a longer period of time.

"Some of the hidden knowledge we feature in the game is actually about GE," Mr. Kerner said.

"In most brand experiences, you'll see brands sort of forced into the experience," he said.

"In this game, GE is the perfect fit because it has developed some of the most important and intriguing inventions of our time."

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York