CHALLENGE

Following the success of Stewie Live!, Fox Home Entertainment asked us to use our expertise in branded entertainment to create an online viral that would create awareness of the release of the American Dad Volume One DVD, another hilarious series from the creator of Family Guy. Key to accomplishing this would be integrating the show’s humour, and ensuring that its millions of fans online would embrace the final product.

STRATEGY

Both shows share a similar audience, but Family Guy’s audience is well known for its online evangelism. We knew that in order for this to be successful, we would have to appeal to these fans and create a halo effect from the more popular of the two shows. The project had to appeal to the key audience: males, skewing towards college age, who are fanatically devoted to Family Guy.

CREATIVE & EXECUTION

Fuel Industries developed an online fighting game mash-up, pitting family members from both shows against one another in no-holds-barred combat and satirizing the style of popular console fighting games of the nineties. To heighten the experience, we worked with Capcom to include Street Fighter icon Ryu as the final boss, an element that would truly push the viral nature of the game.

The appeal of the game was that it was made as an extension of the series. We were trusted by Fox to incorporate the Family Guy and American Dad properties into the game, including all creative and character animations. Like Family Guy, the game included dozens of pop culture throwbacks and references to the show itself, including Peter’s famous ipecac vomiting episode, Chris’s complete stupidity, Stan’s undying patriotism and Lois dressed as Uma Thurman from Kill Bill.

PERFORMANCE

This game was a true viral. Without any paid media support, it managed over 7 million unique visits averaging 12.5 minutes of play. Collectively, this game utilized almost 200 years of the worlds leisure time, or almost one season of baseball. The game was also mentioned on over 200 blogs and became a minor YouTube phenomenon, with a number of videos chronicling the epic battle between Ryu and Peter Griffin.

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