A few hours ago we introduced Weetakid to the world, together with his arch-enemy, Evil Eater. The game is a playful execution of Weetabix’s brand strategy and a great example of an idea as a direct solution to a clear business challenge.

Weetabix’s boxes are making into families’ cupboards in great numbers, but they are just not making it out of there often enough.

If we could increase the number of times the box makes it to the breakfast table we would be able to increase consumption and sales.

So Weetakid was born to do just that. It is a game targeted at kids, especially those from 7 to 11 years old, as they are the gravitational centre of the household during the busy hours of our morning rituals.

In the game, kids take control of Weetakid, a creature who has just seen his little world robbed of all its energy by Evil Eater, the galaxy’s villain. The game involves a quest to retrieve the items stolen by the Evil Eater which can be found through playing a number of engaging mini games.

But Weetakid like any other kid, needs energy, especially if it is going to travel the galaxy to rebuild its world. So every morning kids will need to feed Weetakid to ensure that they both have a day full of fun and adventure.

To feed Weetakid, players will need a box of Weetabix. And that is what makes the idea so special.

To enable the interaction between the the product package and the game we’ve used a set of technologies more notoriously known as Augmented Reality.

That link between box and game is a special and symbiotic one. It doesn’t get in the way of the experience, but actually enhances it. And it does it in a way that not only helps us solve our business problem but also enables us to start driving consumer behaviour to a place closer to our brand messaging, Weetabix is your fuel for big days.

The pack has also become the place in which we are launching the game. With widespread distribution and wide readership (the back of pack is arguably one of the most read items in the household) it will be a perfect way to reach our audience and promote the game.

A multi layered production challenge

Weetakid, albeit a small game, was a big integrated production puzzle that involved many different disciplines. We had to create bespoke songs, write films, direct and record voice overs, create characters and animations, design a game and make a website, among other things. And we had two months to do everything.

We had two amazing integrated producers from BBH working on it and coordinating the whole joint effort.

As Dani Michelon (@danimichelon) our lead integrated producer on the project puts best:

“By the time we contacted our partners we had gone a long way into the game already, we had game flowcharts, schematics and storyboards. We had a good picture of it in our heads but there was still a lot to be done to make it reality and it was humbling to see how all the people involved collaborated so well. It was great fun to work on it and see it coming to life.”

Firstly we contacted Yum Yum London (@yumyumlondon) and worked with them to develop the characters and animations to bring our universe to life and to design the back of the Weetabix boxes.

Secondly came Radium audio (@radiumaudioltd) to create the amazing music that players will enjoy in the game and North Kingdom (@northkingdom) to actually put the game together and code all of that magic in.

We also engaged society46 (@society46) who designed our Weetakid website.

And finally The Mill (@millchannel) helped us produce our trailer.

So after many long weeks and nights we pulled the game together; an effort of epic proportions. It was a clear labour of love and the amount of fun myself and the creative team (Felipe Guimarães @think_felipe and Lambros Charalambous @creativelamb) felt borderline illegal.

We hope you and your kids can enjoy playing it as much we enjoyed making it. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Full project credits

Creative Direction: Pablo Marques (@pablo_marques) / Dominic Goldman

Art Direction: Felipe Guimarães / Pablo Marques / Yum Yum London

Writer: Lambros Charalambous

Game Design: Pablo Marques / Felipe Guimarães / Lambros Charalambous

Lead Producers: Daniela Michelon, Jo Osborne

Strategy Director: Nina Rahmatallah

Business Director: Nick Stringer

Team Manager: Luke Algar

Legal: Henry Rowan-Robinson

Character Design / Awesomeness: Yum Yum London

Music / Sound: Radium Audio

Sound Producer: Sam Brock

Game and interface programming: North Kingdom

Trailer edit: The Mill

Website design/production: Society 46