Think of web engagement and birds, and you're usually talking about firing them at shaky towers of pigs. But the National Audubon Society looked at two factors — the immense popularity of “Angry Birds” and the launch of the bird-watching-themed movie “The Big Year” from 20th Century Fox — and saw recruitment potential.
That potential took concrete form in October as “Birding the Net,” a Facebook-based game that challenged players to spot dozens of different bird species that appeared at various sites around the Internet.
Players were asked to like Audubon's Facebook page and then head out to the Internet to “spot” some 30 varieties of birds as they flitted across or perched inside some 100 sites, including those for AOL, Slate and The Discovery Channel. Clicking on those birds took users back to the Audubon Facebook page, where they could view the card for that species, including video and sound clips of its songs, and add the card to their collection. The game's rules were also explained on NAS's YouTube channel, which also featured bird-related interviews with the stars of “The Big Year,” Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black.
The game's birds were released to the Web on a rolling schedule so that no one would collect all 30 species until Nov. 7, a few weeks after the movie's release. The first player to collect all 30 cards would win a trip for two to the Galapagos Islands; another 200 would win prizes ranging from Canon cameras and Nikon binoculars to Woolrich gift cards and free downloads of the Society's “North American Field Guide” smartphone app.
“We figured this was an opportunity to get people interested in our organization who are substantially younger than our current demographic,” says Jessica Green, vice president of engagement for the NAS.
All winners also won a year's membership in the society, and a link on the game's Facebook page allowed players to learn more about Audubon's preservation activities.
For deeper integration, the game allowed players to pick up hints about which websites to visit when by following two “spokesbird” Twitter accounts, @FloridaScrubJay and @RufHummingbird. They could also invite their Facebook social graph to join the game and trade cards with them, speeding the process of collecting all 30 cards.
And true to the Society's protective mission, participants could also sign up for code that would automatically place a virtual birdhouse on their own website or blog page.
Now that's a lot more feather-friendly than firing them from a slingshot.
Got a Web tip to share? Contact Brian Quinton at [email protected]
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