Case Study

Au Bureau – B2C marketing campaign for Customer Retention & Engagement

Solution:
Project 1, 2 and 3: Marketing – Customer acquisition & retention
Project 4: Marketing – Brand Activation

Game format:
Cluedo – Digital Interactive mobile mini-game
Arcade games
Interactive webpage

Target:
Au Bureau’s clients

Client:
Au bureau, Subsidiary of Groupe Bertrand, Biggest Restaurant Chain in France

About Au Bureau

“Au Bureau” is a restaurant chain inspired by the British pubs, a subsidiary of Groupe Bertrand, the French-owned biggest restaurant group, founded in 1989.

Targeting B2C customers through HTML5 mobile games

Au Bureau is always innovative with their marketing campaigns and is never afraid of testing unconventional marketing materials to bring in more customers to their pubs/restaurants.

This is why Au Bureau asked Emeraude Escape to create:

‘Back to the 20s’: a Digital Investigation Game inspired by 1920s Prohibition era in February 2022
‘Au Bureau Circus’: 3 mini HTML games using Three.JS technology for Christmas in December 2022

Both games have a live leaderboard with rewards and scores:

A weekend in London for ‘Back to the 20s’
A Trip to Las Vegas for ‘Au Bureau Circus’

Check out the video of Lola, Project Manager, Digital Marketing and Social Media – Au Bureau and Florian, Chief Creative Officer – Emeraude Escape discussed their experience working together to create two interactive digital games for customer-experience-focused marketing campaigns:

Game 1 – Au Bureau Cludeo / Investigation mobile Game (feb 2022)

Played by more than 70,000 players during 3 weeks, the game is set in 1920s London Prohibition era. Au Bureau launched a gamified marketing campaign to increase customer retention & engagement. The brand chose the game format of ‘Cluedo/Digital Investigation Game’, named ‘Back to the 20s’.

Every week a new episode was launched for three consecutive weeks for customers to come back to the restaurant to play the next episode and ultimately to win the grand prize at the end of the campaign.

Campaign: Customer engagement game to improve customer experience through positive customer interactions

Mode: Solo & Multiplayer

Benefits:

To create a friendly atmosphere at the restaurant tables
To create increased brand visibility through UGC on social media platforms
To keep customers entertained during the waiting time before the food arrives
To keep customers coming back to the restaurants by offering multiple episodes and a reward for best player

Reward: A weekend in London for two

Game Scenarios: Back to the 20s

Week 1

Investigation 1: Original Burger Murder

On the pavement at the entrance of Au Bureau Pub, the signature burger of Au Bureau was found dead. At the crime scene, the red onions, the cheddar and the burger sauce are all scattered around the burger bun which was still warm. But who could have killed a burger in such a barbaric manner? An investigation was opened to catch the murderer.

The customers have 15 minutes to solve the mystery.

Level: Easy

Week 2

Investigation 2: The Whiskey has disappeared

A few days have passed since the murder of burger committed by a member of the Pickles Gang. One morning the barman was taken aback. All the bottles from the bar were stolen and the whiskey crate was broken. It is highly possible that the Pickles Gang got involved again just days before ‘the prohibition party’ at Au Bureau where some new cocktails will be introduced. Another investigation was opened to catch the culprit.

Another week, another episode of 15-min digital investigation was launched.

Level: Medium

Week 3

Investigation 3: The Prohibition Party

A few days after the mystery of burger murder, Maddie Manhattan, a member of the Pickles Gang was suspected to have stolen the Whiskeys that were reserved for the exclusive party. Access to the exclusive party was strictly by invitation only and it got the whole town speaking. The evening of the party had finally arrived and all the biggest names in town were expected to present at the party. It was a perfect occasion for the Pickles Gang to commit a crime. Customers were tasked with on the lookout for the most notorious crime suspects of England. Au Bureau put its trust on their customers to stop the Pickles Gang at all cost once and for all.

The last episode was launched and all three episodes were available to the customers whether to perfect their scores or play all three at one go for the grand finale.

Level : Difficult

Game 2 – Au Bureau Circus – 3 casual Three.JS games (dec 2022)

For Christmas and holidays season of 2022, Au Bureau went along with the circus theme for their 3 mini-games, aimed to increase customer retention and engagement, to boost sales in all pubs, and to reward the loyal customers who would keep coming back to the restaurants during the campaign.

Players must activate geolocation on their smartphone and be located in one of Au Bureau’s restaurants to play the game. For this, we developed a solution to locate through GPS coordinates if the player is onsite. The winner will be chosen from the top 100 scorers through lucky draw by the end of the campaign.

Campaign: Competitions and giveaways to boost revenue through seasonal marketing strategy

Mode: Solo

Benefits:

To create a friendly atmosphere at the restaurant tables
To profile customers via dedicated platform for a better understanding and bonding between the brand and its customers
To keep customers entertained during the waiting time before the food arrives
To keep customers coming back to the restaurants by offering multiple episodes and a reward for best player

Reward: A $15,000 trip in Las Vegas

Game Scenarios: Christmas Circus

For Christmas, Au Bureau troupe set up their marquee in the restaurant! They have an announcement to make: Au Bureau Circus is looking for a new artist to join their team!

Episode 1: Catch the popcorn

Catch the popcorn! The rule is simple. You have to catch the raining popcorn with a bucket as many as possible in limited amount of time. There’s a catch. If the burnt ones fall into your bucket, you’ll lose points.

Accumulate your score:

1 popcorn = +1 point
1 burnt popcorn = -1 point
1 golden popcorn = +5 points

Level: Medium

Duration: 1 min

Episode 2: Walk the line

Balance is the key! You bring the tightrope walker as far as possible by keeping his balance while collecting presents on each side of the line. The tricky part is to avoid the rocket man because he will shoot you down from your line.

Collect your point:

Keep moving on the line while maintaining balance to stay in the game
Collect the presents on the side without falling down: 1 present = 2 points
Touched by the canon ball from the rocket man, game over and restart

Level: Difficult

Duration: 1 min

Episode 3: Santa Says?

Can you memorise them all?

Inspired by the famous Simon Says, you have to memorize the different sequences and repeat them without making mistakes. The further you go in the game, the more complex the sequences are to memorize, but the more points you get. Be careful, if you make a mistake, you lose the game.

Level: Difficult

Duration: 2

Game 3 – Oburo and The Lost Costume (March 2023)

Following the success of the previous two mobile games, our third tailor-made game for Au Bureau took place in the very beginning of 2023. This time Emeraude Escape perfectly crafted again visually stunning B2C carnival themed marketing game where Au Bureau’s customers can win a trip to Rio de Janeiro.

Campaign: Event marketing to raise brand awareness and to help boost the sales

Mode: Solo

Benefits:

To boost customer engagement
To drive traffic to the customer relationship management website aubureau-lovers.fr
To increase UGC on social media platforms by offering 360° experience with in-store event and digital mobile game
To keep customer loyalty with familiar marketing campaign

Reward: A trip to Rio de Janeiro

Game Scenario

Oburo and The Lost Costume

Catástrofe! The carnival at ‘Au Bureau’ is in danger! Oburo, the carnival mascot, has lost his costume in the middle of his favourite pub and can’t get his hands on it for the big parade! His beautiful costume, made especially for the occasion… You must find it! We have an idea how we can help you out – the accessories to make a costume, let’s say they can be found within close proximity. Oburo is counting on you to find his costume in your favourite pub!

Apparently he’s offering people who help him find his costume a chance to win an incredible trip to Rio de Janeiro!

Play at the Carnivals

The game is divided into three universes corresponding to three carnivals: Venice Carnival, Dunkirk Carnival and Rio Carnival. For each carnival, the goal is to find the elements of Oburo’s costume.There are three levels of difficulty in no particular order. Players can start from any level they want.

Venice Carnival
Level: Easy
Players simply have to find the costume items displayed in the inventory as they walk through the scene.

Dunkirk Carnival
Level: Intermediate
In the inventory, players only have the silhouettes of the costume elements to find. In addition, they have to interact with certain elements from the scene to reveal missing parts of the costume. For example: press the switch to turn on the lights and see what’s inside.

Rio Carnival
Level: Difficult
In the inventory, players have small riddles. Each riddle corresponds to an element of the costume to find. Players will also find other interactions on the scene.

Points system:
10 points collected for good item found
5 points taken from wrong item found

Bonus on duration:
The faster the players find correct missing items, the more bonus points they get.

How Digital Interactive Games Help Drive Customer Retention

The collaborations between Au Bureau and Emeraude Escape have recurred within a year. While providing a service with unparalleled gamified experience, Au Bureau has found an excellent way to launch their marketing campaigns and the interactive games have helped the brand to hold the attention of their customers. At the same time, the brand fully understands how to keep their customers happy by giving the amazing prizes and the chosen material to deliver the reward is none other than Digital Interactive Games.

Au Bureau Brand Activation for Rugby World Cup 2023

Au Bureau has entrusted Emeraude Escape not only with gamification but also with the digital activation that offers interactive experiences for their marketing campaigns. For our fourth collaboration, we worked on a brand activation campaign together for the occasion of Rugby World Cup 2023; an interactive webpage where Au Bureau’s customers can access via Au Bureau Lovers platform. The page represents as Au Bureau virtual pub/restaurant where customers will find three clickable areas.

Three prompts with three purposes to feel the Rugby World Cup spirit:

A TV screen that prompts to Red Bull challenge page to play the game and get the highest score to win a chance to meet a famous Rugby player
A laptop screen that prompts to L’équipe prognosis page
A newspaper that prompts to follow the latest Rugby World Cup news on L’équipe or Midi Olympique

Our collaborations with Au Bureau are always created with the objective of capturing customers’ attention, increasing customer retention and understanding customers’ behavior so that the brand can constantly improve their brand and marketing strategy. The campaign is set to run from the 8th of September to the 28th of October, 2023.

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