Article
Update on 'Pac-Man Fever' infecting Toronto mayoral race
A Canadian digital-out-of-home company is using digital signage to drive traffic to an online video game that also doubles as a public opinion poll in Toronto's mayoral election.
September 15, 2010
"Pac-Man Fever" has been turned into "Mayor Munch" mania in Toronto.
A Canadian digital-out-of-home company is using digital signage to drive traffic to an online game that also doubles as a public opinion poll in the Toronto mayoral election.
Toronto-based Onestop Media Group is using its DOOH networks in the city's subway system and school board and in residential high-rise buildings across the city to drive traffic to the company's online gaming and entertainment content site, where they can play "Mayor Munch."
Gamers can pick which of the five mayoral candidates — Rob Ford, Joe Pantalone, Rocco Rossi, George Smitherman or Sarah Thomson — they want to play as, in a version of the old Pac-Man game. The company says its network is promoting the game and poll to more than 2 million people.
"Because Toronto is going through a municipal election, we redesigned the ever-popular Pac-Man from back in the '80s to be Mayor Munch, which stars the five candidates who are running for mayor in Toronto to be the stand-ins for Pac-Man," Onestop president and CEO Michael Girgis said in a phone interview Wednesday night.
The game also serves as "an alternative poll," Girgis says, that gauges the candidates' popularity by how many people choose to play them in the game — and use their opponents as the "ghosts" to chase down.
"First of all, we're doing it because we wanted to have a little fun and celebrate the lighter side of the election," Girgis said. "We also wanted to engage people to make sure that voting is top-of-mind for them, especially in a younger demographic.
"And, you know, it's just another way of using digital-out-of-home in a fun way."
The game has garnered plenty of attention and coverage from bloggers and newspapers, as well as, Girgis says, some attention from the campaign offices themselves.
"I've got a sneaking suspicion that some interns and coordinators have been sat down at some laptops to play this game and make sure those percentages keep going up," he said.
The game has had "thousands of players in the last 48 hours," Girgis said Wednesday evening, and as of Thursday morning, Thomson and Ford were polling neck and neck, with both at 27 percent of players.
The game will run through Oct. 21, with the election just a few days later on the 25th.
"Part of the prizing and incentive to our commuter audience and our overall audience is that they could win a 50-inch HDTV that they can use to watch the election on October 25th," Girgis said. "We wanted to get the poll closed and put out our analysis a couple of days before the election, but most of all to get that prize out and see if there's any science between our poll and their poll."
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