Above, watch a video case study submitted to the Cannes Lions for Jeep-In, a mobile interactive game created for Chrysler's Jeep brand in Poland by Leo Burnett's Warsaw office. The mobile marketing promotion targeted young car-buyers by inviting them to hit the off-road and check-in along a virtual treasure map and collect awards along the way, with the player collecting the most awards winning a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Elsewhere in Europe last year, Leo Burnett Brussels tested a different spin on treasure hunts for a different Jeep model (the Compass) with a different interactive game challenge: to find Belgium's most deserted mailbox.

“The virtual cow is the new cash cow of Wall Street,” writes the New York Times of Zynga's blockbuster IPO today.

Even as its first-day performance is closely watched, Zynga's public debut is being seen as a coming of age for the gaming industry; the largest tech IPO since Google in 2004 and the biggest in gaming history, and an exoneration of sorts for CEO Mark Pincus, who persisted in his vision of the ‘freemium’ model (free basic play with incentives to pay for upgrades) despite derision from investors and critics of his company’s relentlessly hard-driving corporate culture.

Founded in 2007, Zynga now has 230 million monthly active users on Facebook and is a lead player in an explosive virtual goods market worth $9 billion last year.

“Zynga embodies a confluence of trends in the gaming industry. Its whimsical games cater to casual users, who may not own a console like a PlayStation 3. Its games, which are available on Facebook and mobile devices, also use social networks to allow players to share activity with their friends,” summarizes the Times.Continue reading...

“If you’re going to waste your time playing games on Facebook, you might as well do it and help build a better world while you’re at it,” writes Techcrunch.com about Sojo Studios’ WeTopia, an online game launching today that’s designed to have fun while raising money for children’s charities.

It’s a free-to-play Facebook game where players build villages and help their neighbors – all for ‘joy’ currency, in-game coins for real charitable works. They're convertible to real-world non-profit donations to promote healthcare and education. WeTopia is advancing the collective notion of gaming rewards beyond points, discounts and coupon redemption.

“Each purchase results in a direct donation to a real world cause. Buying an in-game fountain, for instance, leads to the contribution of a donation of clean water,” notes Venturebeat.

WeTopia heralds the next iteration of combining social games with non-profit beneficiaries. It's backed by former Facebook employee, Path CEO Dave Morin, with digital doyenne Esther Dyson on the advisory board and an exclusive partnership with Ellen DeGeneres.Continue reading...

To promote the  Disney Universe game for Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PCs this holiday season, Disney marketers are grabbing the British public's attention with a different kind of mobile experience: Digital ad vans that are touring the U.K. (from London to Edinburgh) through Christmas. The giant game console lets passersby experience the multiplayer action-adventure game and play to win special Disney Universe merchandise.

CastleVille, the latest bullet in Zynga’s arsenal, may help keep its anticipated post-Thanksgiving IPO squarely on track. The new Facebook game reached five million daily active users in its first six days, conquering CityVille's record, the most successful Zynga game to date, of 3.2 million daily active users six days after its launch, according to AppData. 

CastleVille, set as a medieval fantasy, gives players a chance to build and manage the Kingdom of their dreams. Launched in 17 languages, it poses serious competition for Electronic Arts’ The Sims Social with 6.1 million daily active users – and is growing faster than any other Zynga game at this early stage.Continue reading...

You just know they wanted to call this one Pizza Ninja. Domino's mobile game for the iPad, Pizza Hero, lets players rise through the cheesier pizza making ranks and become a Pizza Hero.

The challenge: "Make top quality pizzas by kneading dough, spreading sauce, sprinkling cheese, placing toppings and more as you race against the clock. Compete against other pizza makers on the Game Center Leaderboards. Share your achievements, scores, and pizza maker profile on Facebook and Twitter. Even make a pizza and order it from Domino's," as pizza-lovers have been doing in the U.K. since August.

Download Domino's new U.S. iPad app here and let us know what you think.

Proof that video game trailers are as big a deal as a new movie opening? The trailer above, promoting EA's Need for Speed game (in stores Nov. 15), is seen "through the eyes of Michael Bay." EA tapped the Hollywood action director's special way with SFX to amp up the buzz for the new game, and — from the sound effects, to the cinematography to the close-ups to the visual effects — Bay delivers everything an action fan, movie or gaming, would want in a movie trailer.

But even bigger is the video game launching at midnight tonight, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which brings out some other entertainment big guns: Avatar star Sam Worthington, comedy actor Jonah Hill, and even the Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard. The trailer, which you can watch below, features Jonah and Sam in a live action version of the game.Continue reading...

Angry Birds has just hit a milestone no other tablet/mobile game has hit before - 500 million downloads. That's right.

Since its debut in December 2009, in the nearly 3 years the game has been around, over 200,000 years of gameplay has been played by fans worldwide. To put it in a different perspective, as the video page points out, the game has more than 300 million minutes of daily playing time, 266 billion levels played, 400 billion birds launched, and over 44 billion Stars collected in the process. Compared to a classic like Super Mario? Super Mario doesn't stand a chance with only 160 million versions of the game bought globally. Maybe Nintendo could learn a thing or two from mobile gaming (Mobile Mario perhaps?).

It's safe to say this game isn't going away any time soon, and will probably be expanding even more. It is already available on almost every single mobile platform, including 3 different versions, on the iPhone, Nokia devices, Palm OS devices, Android devices, and Sumbian^3 devices as well as a PC version.