For those of you who have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you will no doubt remember that before me and before Sean, there was a much more regular author on the site.  Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to re-introduce to you the Sultan of Shockwave, the the Admiral of Advergames - your friend and mine… Mr. Brian Robbins.

Brian has just returned home to the Fuel team to represent our New York clients as Executive Producer and Gaming Evangelist.  He’ll be speaking at a number of game-related events in the upcoming months, as well as posting his thoughts here. 

So, please help me in welcoming Brian back to the team - and what better way to make him feel welcome than through song?

Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back to that same old place that you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.

Who’d have thought they’d lead ya  (Who’d have thought they’d lead ya)
Back here where we need ya  (Here where we need ya)

Yeah we tease him a lot cause we’ve got him on the spot, 
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

Welcome Back by John Sebastian

In the past year, we’ve more than doubled the number of staff within the hallowed halls of Fuel, which means two things. First, it means that business is booming, the phone is ringing off the hook, and that we’ve got some of the most creative people in the world all under one roof. Second, it means that it’s starting to get a wee bit cramped in the ol’ Internet factory. If you’ve ever taken a psychology class, you know what happens when you increase the population density in lab rats. If you haven’t, let’s just suffice it to say that our head writer has already bitten me twice.

So, rather than implement a futuristic multi-level hive-type seating solution, we’ve decided to move to bigger, fancier digs. We’re staying in Ottawa, of course, but we’ll be moving to a new space in the fall that is roughly three times the size of our current studio.

It’s not much to look at right now, but even now, our construction company is transforming an old bra factory into what will soon be one of the most technologically advanced offices in the city. We’re going to be making more room for sound recording and for Karbon Arc, our sister production company. We’re also going to be implementing some amazing interactive technology, which I will tell you more about later on.Â

But, more impressive than any of these things is the fact that this new space comes equipped with the greatest luxury of all: windows. Our days of rickets are finally behind us.

I’ll keep you posted on the move as it progresses. One thing’s for certain - it’s going to take a lot of beer and pizza to make this move.

Even when deadlines are coming at you faster than a herd of rampaging zombies, you still need to take a little time to let off some steam. Yesterday, a group of sandal-sporting Fuellians took to the sand to compete in a Fuel-sponsored day-long beach volleyball tournament for the Canadian Diabetes Association along with teams from PriceWaterhouseCooper and Innovapost.

I’m sorry to report that my team came in dead last, losing the styrofoam medal round to the Smashers (another Fuel team), thanks to the unprecedented cheating of Brian Nesbitt. Though some may say being six-foot-three is not technically cheating, I’m still requesting an asterisk beside that match for the record books. I’ve also contacted the commissioner of charity beach volleyball to report possible blood doping.

At the end of the day, we raised almost $3500 for a really worthwhile cause, and nobody got sun stroke in the process. All in all, a successful day.

If you were to stop by our studio right now, one thing would be very obvious - things are changing very quickly. We’re hiring like crazy, starting new projects every day and thinking constantly about how we can take our games and interactive experiences to the next level.

If you’ve read this blog with any regularity, you will be used to Sean’s reviews and rants on advergaming and the world of interactive marketing. Sean will still be lending his insight to this forum, but there will also be a new addition to the blogging team - me.

About two months ago, I started at Fuel as manager of public relations, and was tasked with promoting the projects we’ve launched and telling people the Fuel story. I can tell you first hand that that story is an incredible one.

As part of that story-telling experience, I’ll be posting regularly to this blog, talking about the projects we’ve launched, the people that make up our team and a little bit of the true Fuel experience - or at least as much as decency allows.

If you haven’t already done this, I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog so that you’ll always be up to date on what’s happening here at Fuel. I also encourage you not only to read the posts, but to comment as well. As this blog evolves we want to start a more active conversation on advergaming and the future of online marketing - and that can only happen with your input.

In the next few months, we’ll be announcing a number of major changes - and I hope that you can be a part of them.

I’ve been picking up (and putting down) a book called The Experience Economy for about 8 months now. It’s pure genius - and that’s probably one of the reasons that it’s taking me so long to soak through it compared to most of the fluffy opinion books out there. They build a solid argument for the evolution of the economy from product-service-experience, using research, of all silly things. It’s absolutely true, and our success is evidence of that, but we’re not the only ones.

As I browsed over at Influx Insights, I found www.ScentAir.com a company that builds custom scents for brands, events, you name it. Any location or event that could benefit from the added dimension of smell to help carry a moment in someone’s day from just another slice in time to a delectable experience that will reside deep in their memory, to be summoned once and a while in the future, particularly when that person is exposed to the same smell.

Other companies are making ends, as we say in the barrio’s of Ottawa, by creating sonic tags for brands - more than little dings and jingles, they’re as definitive and memorable as the lines in any logo. Why doesn’t the Nike Swoosh, you know - SWOOSH!!!!!!

Brands are seeping out of the traditional constraints of media all over the place. It has nothing to do with some mystical fragmentation of media (people are moving from print and TV to the web, not very hard to understand that). What everyone is moving towards is the experience economy. Fill my time! Entertain me, give me memories.

We’ve all been raised to think that the world is ours, that we can do anything. Viagra’s cured our sex problems. Nordstrom Rack makes even the less affluent LOOK affluent. You can live on $30 a week now that dollar stores are turning into grocers. There aren’t specific problems to solve anymore. Solving literal thirst isn’t enough.

Brands need to solve our boredom with life. Don’t tell me that Axe will help me pick up chicks. Give me the product and help me experience it in context, at some party where the drinks are free and the girls are numerous. Don’t tell me that your car drives faster than the other one. Put me in the seat digitally and give me a side by side comparison so intense that my chair gets wet.
From sweat, I mean.

Then I’ll remember you, believe you - and buy you.