When we design something, we design it perfectly and this ping-pong game (the second game we did for Susan Sarandon – yes, the movie star) was hailed as “pretty much the only ping-pong game you’ll need”.

The players certainly agree.

The game takes ping-pong into a world of power ups and frantic arcade action to create THE most exciting game you’ve EVER played. Yes.

We were asked, by ace movie star Susan Sarandon, to create a ping-pong game which would get her clubs noticed. Swing Pong was a game that played by its own rules.

Swing Pong was a game which required NO visual interface, requiring only that you listened to the audio cues and swung your iPhone at the right time to return serve.

It was new, innovate and highly playable and we were honoured to discover it was taken up and enjoyed by many members of the Blind community.

Remember: It’s Ping-Pong For Your Ears!

A fully featured Twitter App with a difference, Super Twario played out with a nod to our gaming heritage but spoke to the fast moving world of Social Media. Our character and approach caught the imagination of the public and the video went viral, reaching tens of thousands of people within two days and was talked about on every major news site.

The call from Apple asking to feature it on the App Store wasn’t a complete shock.

Space is awesome and yet there are very few ways for young children to discover just this in a way that suits the way they learn.

So we built Jetpack Journeys. It’s a digital toy which provides a safe environment for children to explore our Solar System in a way that suits them.

The idea is strong enough to support Teacher packs, a magazine and a series of 3D printed toys.

Discover more over at www.jetpackjourneys.com.

Each year, the event has sites buzzing with talk about who won in the advertising. This year was almost no exception.

Almost.

The key difference is that everybody is looking for the social media “win”. And it appears to have come in the form of the Oreo ad which jumped on the blackout with an athleticism to rival that in the game.

The praise was as reactionary as the ad itself with the agency (360i) quickly explaining the genius behind the ad. Quick thinking and social media are a dangerous mix at the best of time but when it comes to judging advertising effectiveness (and reach) it seems outright absurd.

Sure, it set Twitter alight. 15.5k retweets is impressive and it was certainly impressive enough for many to crow about how it triumphed over “old media” but in all the back-slapping there is, as is often the case, a large blind spot when it comes to those numbers.

And it is a blind spot that pushes all those TV commercials, seen by many millions more than the Oreo ad. Despite how commentators will judge those ads from a creative point of view, it’s unlikely the investment will have been wasted. The Super Bowl has an estimated (global) viewing audience of over a billion people. As much as Twitter attracts the talking heads and gurus out there, statistically it is still a cheerleader to the main event.

When I see, and I often do, headlines such as ‘…game sales drop by 20%’ or ‘Game sales up by….’ then I click through only to be disappointed to see the article is about ‘traditional’ game sales. And traditional always means boxed product.

It’s unfortunate that so many of us still think in this way.

A game is a game is a game and the people who make games are all game developers. Likewise… people who play games are all gamers. We’re all parts and players in this, frankly, wonderful industry.

Sitting on public transport looking around you’ll likely see people playing games. Sitting in a café you’ll likely see people playing games. Why aren’t these games counted as equal, why are they not welcomed as part of the ecosystem?

The same goes for the people playing the games. They’re not commonly considered ‘gamers’. Why?

I hope it’s not snobbery. Perhaps it’s fear.

Go have a read, if you’d like.

Here, however, I wanted to tell you why I wrote it.

When a copywriter writes, the words should feel good in the mouth and the mind.

When one word doesn’t. When it kicks against the copy-flow, well, that matters.

When I hand copy over to client I say this: hate it all you like but let me kill it.

That’s because I know how to put it down gently, painlessly.

It’s also because whilst the client will probably be right about why it doesn’t work, I’m probably the best person to fix it.

Each word matters.

Change one, take one away, and the whole things falls apart.

That’s why I think the word “but” in the Achica ads is a big deal. Every word matters. No matter how small.

That was the easy bit.

Things got really tough when we also had just over a week to deliver the entire campaign globally. Localisations, territory-specific requirements and video, all provided with a touch of a smile and some good old down-to-earth YES WE CAN.

I’m surprised we haven’t seen video games with lolcat references yet.

But every now and again we see an agency break from the pack and lead the way.

Points a-plenty for those of you can see where I’m going with this.

Yes, Head First produced this incredibly VISIBLE range of marketing materials based on a strategy we devised. And yes, it rocked.

But that’s because we believe the biggest risk in marketing is taking no risk at all.

I love it.

I think there’s a lot to be proud of in this, not least how the idea was copied several times by other video games. They may have had the exposure, but we had the idea.