Half A Million Trades In First 14 Days For Gimme-5

Half A Million Trades In First 14 Days For Gimme-5 Trading-Card Game By Gladeye

Gimme-5, the online card trading game created by digital agency Gladeye for daily deals site GrabOne, has made its 500-thousandth trade just two weeks after launching on Facebook. The game boasts an average time per session of over 20 minutes. “It's like Gimme on crack” commented one Facebook user. Other players comment: “This game is my new addiction”; “Oh so addicted”; “I’ve been playing every day” and “It’s better than the stock market.” Gladeye was behind House of Travel’s phenomenally popular “mixandmatcher” Facebook app which was installed by 80,000 New Zealand Facebook users, winning Yahoo!Xtra's Digital Strategy Award as well as a Nexus and RSVP.

Tarver Graham, Gladeye ECD: “We knew we’d hit a vein with Gimme-5 the night after our first test run. All the testers were still online playing.”

Virtual trading cards featuring GrabOne’s Gimme character can be bought from an online store for points and traded between players in the in-app marketplace. There are six card sets to collect, each set representing an entry into a prize draw. Players are motivated to engage with the game in a variety of ways to win trophies and points.

“We worked hard on card illustrations so they’re genuinely desirable and collectable. And we tried to make winning trophies entertaining as well as rewarding. ‘Happy Hour’ and ‘Shopaholic’ are popular, but only a dedicated few have scored the coveted ‘Tripple Ripple’ or our Facebook tribute trophy ‘The Zuckerberg’.”

The game is a multi-player marketplace driven by a custom back-office system. “It's a controlled virtual economy and we’re the central bank. We can tinker with the money supply (points) and the supply of cards to the market in real time. We can even introduce new trophies. It was important to have as much control as possible so we could react to how the game evolved as the market got larger.”

“Games offer unbeatable brand engagement and this one is particularly sticky. GrabOne’s Gimme is the star. Every player knows and loves him in all his different costumes, and of course Gimme loves them back.”

Gladeye launched a Facebook app for Tourism New Zealand's global market this month, in partnership with mobile photo-sharing service Snapr.

“Facebook’s a great platform but you can’t expect people to share your experience just because they can. And Facebook’s announced some changes recently that mean only the most interesting and relevant messages will cut through the chatter. That's how it should be. There’s no place for advertising that’s not relevant or doesn’t add value to people’s lives.” GIMME-5 will run for 2 more weeks in New Zealand and Australia, and may relaunch with new prizes soon.

ENDS

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