Q&A: Katrina Craigwell, digital marketing manager, General Electric
GE’s digital marketing manager on why they launched their game, Wonderground, and how it benefits the brand.
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Marketing Week (MW): Why did GE decide to launch its new game Wonderground?
Katrina Craigwell (KC): We’re always looking for new formats and methods of storytelling and we try to reach a breadth of audience that includes both business decision makers and younger people. We felt that a game like this, which is a kind of treasure hunt game, was a good way to get across a higher volume of content and really get people to spend some time discovering with us.
MW: What does the game involve?
KC: The treasure hunt game allows you to explore five US cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. About 75 per cent of the knowledge that appears throughout the game is about the city and 25 per cent includes GE facts and information. There’s also a user-generated component for the mobile experience that allows people to upload and create their own missions. That’s going to be interesting internally as well as externally – some of our employees are having a lot of fun with the game by taking it out with them and leaving new clues.
MW: How are you marketing the game?
KC: Over the past couple of years we’ve put a lot of work into building up our social audiences so we’ve been driving people to the game from those places. We also have a longstanding partnership with [viral content website] BuzzFeed and we’ve worked with them on a number of content posts about the game.
