Case study · Agency years
Nickelodeon
A secret-agent app for the Kids' Choice Awards, with slime.
Nickelodeon asked Fi to conceive, design, build and deliver the official iOS app for the 25th anniversary of the Kids' Choice Awards. The gamified, secret-agent experience earned Featured App status in the App Store and lifted in-app engagement and voting more than 20% year over year. Chris Rubin ran the project as senior producer, from his first day at Fi.
- Client
- Nickelodeon
- Sector
- Entertainment, kids' media
- Work
- Official iOS app for the Kids' Choice Awards 25th anniversary: concept, design, build and delivery
- Role
- Senior producer, Fantasy Interactive; conceived and designed the points and scoring system; case study written and produced
The brief
Nickelodeon, the number-one entertainment brand for kids, was turning its annual Kids' Choice Awards twenty-five. Will Smith was lined up to host. Nick wanted a cross-platform concept built around a secret-agent theme, and the official iOS app to carry it.
The app had to do two jobs at once: get kids voting, and keep them coming back in the weeks before the show. A voting form does the first. Only a game does the second.
What we built
A gamified experience with a mission structure, digital slime, and a points and scoring system I conceived and designed to sit under the UX team's concept. Every action a kid took, every vote, every mission completed, fed the score and the sense of being an agent on assignment.
It was handed to me on my first day at Fi, with full accountability for delivery, and I personally conceived and designed the gamified slime-gathering element, as well as the scoring mechanism. Many of the copy suggestions made it into the shipped app. I also wrote, edited and produced the case study afterward, which is where the narrative structure Fi used for years first took shape.
The case study, as published.
Fi's case-study page for the app, in slices: the opening, the paper-to-pixels sketches, strategy and UX, the app screens, the icon, the takeaway.
Scroll →
What changed
The app was named a Featured App in the App Store. In-app engagement and voting rose more than 20% year over year, backed by usage data, glowing reviews and five-star ratings.
The project also came with a walk down the orange carpet in Los Angeles. And yes, I got slimed.
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