So tonight's premiere was Monk-a-licious - but that's no surprise coming from me, I'm a biased fan of the defective detective.But what I want to talk about is the craft that has been applied to the Monk show site. If you haven't been there, go and play - but for observers who want to learn something about truly bringing a brand to life, pay attention to the details that make this site a benchmark for extending the experience of character and story to life online:
- Sticky games stick to the story
Bringing a character to life outside of the actual show is extremely difficult - most character/show sites succeed in having cute names that fit the show and interaction that fits the theme... but that's as far as it goes. Monk's games are not only totally addictive - every teenie tiny detail ties in with the story and celebrates the quirks of the characters.
Take, for example, Monk's Mind Game. This is a wonderfully designed flash game that uses a combination of high-quality still photography and animations to bring to life Monk's phobias - like straightening pencils so that they are all perfectly parallel or cleaning smudge marks with disenfectant all before time runs out. These games are not only incredibly fun to play, but absolutely every interaction is based on reinforcing the core elements that fans connect with in the story. - Purified promotions that pack a punch
Not only do the games bring the core themes to life, but this site also has a new contest to help fans clean up their own act offline - a total closet makeover. What better for a Monk fan? And they do a great job of encouraging viewership by asking two pretty detailed questions from the show that have to be answered to qualify to win (I thought I was pretty good at this, but I actually got one of the questions wrong - I'm so ashamed) - Germ-free Community
Community features are a key component to keep Monkaholics involved in the show, and in addition to the standard message boards and a fan of the week feature - this season they've introduced the community-based 'Monk Across America' where fans upload photos of their Monk bobblehead in different locals across the country.
Brilliant - since in order to enter you have to HAVE a Monk bobblehead, which of course was featured in the primary series campaign and also in the season premiere. Now that's integration: community + brand + commerce.
Love.
It's tough to bring characters to life and make it look & feel this easy, but hat's off to USA for creating a benchmark for how a small-ish show site can get it done. yay!
Photo Credit: USANetwork Fan-Uploaded Photo
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