Member Article

Corporation Pop launches social media game

Corporation Pop launches game on Facebook and Weibo to engage international students with NCUK

Corporation Pop has developed a game for Facebook and Sina Weibo to engage students in South Korea, Nigeria and China with NCUK programmes as a route to a UK degree.

Success is a retro-styled match-3 game with a twist - against the clock, players match three shapes in a row to clear the path through a grid, enabling them to proceed to the next level.

Themed around the path that international students take to study at a UK university - from first becoming interested in study abroad to graduating and starting work - each level provides information on how NCUK can help them. Players can choose to play English, Korean or Chinese versions and share scores through social networks, which can also be entered on a leaderboard.

The game has been developed using HTML5 and JavaScript to ensure that it can be played across all major smartphones and modern browsers without the need to download. As ‘Success’ will be discovered through social sharing Corporation Pop has developed versions for both Facebook and China’s most popular social network, Seina Weibo. It has also integrated the Chinese version of the game with WeChat to allow sharing on the popular messaging app.

Dom Raban, managing director at Corporation Pop said: “This is a simple to play, yet addictive game that shows players how a NCUK programme can be an effective route into a leading UK university. We have taken a mobile-first approach as our research established that the target audience primarily accesses the internet through their smartphones.

“One of the most challenging aspects of the brief was working with Seina Weibo and WeChat as the development kits are in Chinese. However with the help of a native-language specialist we were able to ensure that our solution would be compatible.”

Wesley Hackett, marketing manager at NCUK said: “Over the last 25 years we have helped 23,500 students to start a programme at leading UK universities. We are now launching a scholarship scheme in Nigeria, China and South Korea, to attract the brightest students to the UK. To raise awareness of the opportunities we offer in these countries, we approached Corporation Pop to develop a game that would engage students as well as embody the idea of success.

“We’re delighted with the result. ‘Success’ highlights to prospective students the pathways necessary to go to a UK university, helping them to discover what they want to do and how NCUK can help.”

‘Success’ has launched on Facebook in Nigeria and South Korea, it launches in China on Sina Weibo in March.

To play Success visit www.ncuk.ac.uk/success/game/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Corporation Pop .