Announcing Think Breakfast! 2010

Think Breakfast! is a New York State Education Department campaign to teach kids the importance of eating breakfast and making good food choices. Each year, FutureMedia teams up with Imagine That Marketing & Communications to develop an educational CD-ROM game that teachers use in the classroom or send home with students.

The games have always been a hit with teachers and students, not to mention our colleagues. At this year's Albany Ad Club Nori Awards, Think Breakfast! 2009 was the first interactive project ever to win the award for Best in Show!

Because of our previous successes, this year's project was expanded to include both CD-ROM and Web-based games, plus a special game for iOS devices.

Millions of school children have iPod Touches, so its a crucial device in any mobile campaign that targets students. In light of these demographics, this year's Think Breakfast! campaign includes the first ever game for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Breakfast Bash! is modeled after an old fashioned carnival arcade, a mix between whack-a-mole and target practice. Players must throw balls at the good food choices, and should avoid hitting junk foods or silly items like shoes and toy cars. Hitting good food choices adds points, while hitting bad choices wastes time — and that clock is ticking!

Players can submit their name and score to a leaderboard, so they can see how their score ranks compared with other players. This fosters friendly competition and helps with viral impact.

Get Breakfast Bash! for free at the iTunes App Store.

The need for smartphone marketing is growing. According to IDC, shipments of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) will outnumber shipments of PCs within the next 18 months. And according to CNET and other sources:

• More than 120 million iPhone OS devices have been sold as of August 2010.
• There have been 7 billion iPhone iOS apps downloaded to date.
• IDC predicts there will be more than 25 billion mobile apps downloaded in 2011.
• Gartner estimates that by the end of 2010, 1.2 billion people will be carrying smartphones, tablets, and similar mobile devices.
• Gartner also projects that tablet sales (led by Apple's iPad) will top 55 million units next year — triple the 2010 numbers.

It is quickly becoming essential to have a high quality, mobile component in all marketing, communications, training and educational initiatives.

Contact FutureMedia today for more information about custom application development for iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices!

This year's feature game was Join the Breakfast Club: Contraptions. Players must somehow get a complete and healthy breakfast from the kitchen to the hungry kids waiting in the Breakfast Club's treehouse. But to do this, players must first assemble a Rube Goldberg-style contraption to transport the food.

Players build their machines with buckets, pulleys, conveyors, springs, and launchers. When the machine runs, the food bounces and swings along until it reaches the clubhouse. If its a healthy food all the children cheer and the player earns points! And the player earns even more points each time they create a complete, well-rounded breakfast.

There are opportunities throughout the game for direct educational messages. For example, each food item that pops up has an accompanying description, which explains what makes that food a healthy — or less than healthy — choice.

Check out Contraptions for yourself!