Digital special projects: interactive campaigns for brands
A digital special project is a campaign in which a brand doesn’t just show an ad but gives people something to do: play, build, scan, enter a contest. We come up with the mechanic, build the website, app or game, and promote the project through creators and advertising.
What a digital special project is
Ordinary advertising says: “we have a product”. A special project builds an action around the product that brings people to the brand of their own accord and gets them telling their friends about it. For KFC we ran a contest in Minecraft: players built their own restaurants on a dedicated server, and the project drew 2,000 contest entries.
Mechanics vary: a quiz or calculator on a promo site, an image generator, a game, AR content on the packaging, a user-generated content contest, a creator trip to the production site. A good mechanic is tied to the product — as in the VTB24 project, where a bank card number turned into a point on a globe and converted 47% of visitors into participants.
Without promotion, almost nobody will see a special project, so we plan the media mix together with the mechanic: creators, paid social, seeding in communities. The placement budget and the prize fund are calculated separately from development.
When you need it
- The brand needs people to talk about it, and ordinary ads have become wallpaper.
- You need to engage an audience that is hard to reach with a banner: schoolchildren, gamers, young people.
- The product is hard to explain in an ad — people need to try it or get a feel for it.
- A new product or promotion is launching, and you need a story for creators and the media.
- You need to change how the category or the brand is seen, not just remind people you exist.
What’s included
- Several mechanic ideas, with an explanation of how each one ties in with the product and the goal.
- A participation scenario: what a person does, what they get and what they share.
- Design and development: a promo site, game, app, AR or an interactive piece inside social media.
- Promotion rules and moderation of user-generated content, if the project includes a contest.
- A promotion media plan: creators, paid social, seeding.
- Participation analytics and a final report on the agreed metrics.
Pricing
- Quick launch$1,500–3,000
One mechanic: a quiz, a calculator, a generator or a small interactive piece.
- Business growth$5,000–10,000
A more complex mechanic or a promo site with participation, registration and links to promotion. We fix the scope after a brief.
- Custom project$15,000–40,000+
Several mechanics, integrations, a dedicated team and load testing.
The price covers the concept and its delivery. Media placement, creator fees and the prize fund are paid separately, and we name them before we start. Complex projects start with a design phase — user flows, a prototype and a detailed estimate — for $500–1,500. We give an exact quote after a brief.
How we work
01. Brief
We go through the goal, audience, product and campaign timing, and agree on metrics.
02. Concept and mechanic
We propose several ideas, choose one, and describe the participation scenario and the media plan.
03. Development and production
We build the site, game or app, prepare the content and the rules, and test everything before launch.
04. Launch and results
We start promotion, moderate participation, sum up the results and put together a report.
What we’ve done
All work-
Build a KFC in Minecraft
We created a contest where players built their own KFC restaurant on a dedicated Minecraft server.
View case: KFC -
AR on the pack
We built a mobile app with AR content that came to life when the camera was pointed at the pack.
View case: Chudo Detki -
“Where will your card take you?”
A promo site where users entered their bank card number and saw a point on the globe with coordinates matching the number.
View case: VTB24 -
Cognac is not just for men
An Instagram special project: creators visited Château de Chanteloup in France and learned the secrets of Martell cognac production.
View case: Martell
Frequently asked questions
What is a digital special project, in simple terms?
It is a campaign with a participation mechanic: a game, a contest, an interactive site, AR. People don’t just see an ad but do something together with the brand — and often tell others about it on social media themselves.
How is a special project different from a regular ad campaign?
A regular campaign buys ad impressions. A special project creates a reason and an experience, and advertising and creators bring people to it. So it takes longer to prepare, but it gives people a reason to take part and talk about the brand.
How much does a digital special project cost?
With us — from $1,500–3,000 for a single mechanic such as a quiz or a calculator to $15,000–40,000 and more for a project with several mechanics and integrations. Promotion and the prize fund are separate.
Which mechanics work best?
Those that are tied to the product and give people a result they want to share. In the Chudo Detki project, AR content came to life on the packaging, and 2.8 million packs were scanned during the promotion.
Do you create sponsored special projects with media outlets?
A special project in the media is usually produced by the publication’s editorial team on its own platform. We make digital special projects for brands — promo sites, games, apps, interactive pieces — and promote them; a partnership with a publication can go into the media plan as a separate budget.
Does a special project need separate promotion?
Yes. Even a strong mechanic will reach only a handful of people without promotion. We prepare the media plan — creators, paid social, seeding — together with the concept, and calculate the placement budget separately.
More in Content and communications
-
Social media management with AI content
Social media management (SMM) is a brand’s regular work on social platforms: strategy, recurring formats, posts, video and conversations with followers.
-
AI video ads for brands, made with generative AI
An AI video ad is a commercial whose scenes are generated by AI models rather than filmed on set.
What shall we build together?
Tell us what you want to launch or improve. We’ll discuss the task and suggest the next step.