It turns out that the mobile defensive strategy game Antidote is just what international pharmaceutical companies need to spread awareness on the importance of vaccines.
GlaxoSmithKline is using Antidote to raise awareness about the benefits of vaccination and about the risks of hepatitis A and hepatitis B. The recently released campaign video, entitled “Defeat hepatitis!” shows Hepatitis, a character in the Antidote game, harassing a tourist who has forgotten his vaccine.
In August 2018, the pharmaceutical company started to cooperate with a game startup to test the efficiency of gamified information in spreading vaccine awareness in Finland. The game’s objective was to defend the stem cell against hordes of bacteria and viruses. GSK featured Antidote on their Finnish vaccine information website and measured the performance of Antidote-branded content against other sections of the site. With promising results, a larger scale cooperation that could create value for both companies was bound to happen.
In the spring of 2019, a further strengthened cooperation launched with the objective of measuring how gamified information can boost travel vaccine marketing. The update became part of GSK's global travel vaccine campaign. In addition to a new communication style, the game provides a new type of channel for reaching wide audiences and target groups that have been previously hard to reach. The cooperation has led to the development of the update that introduces the new disgusting virus Hepatitis, and a bunch of new levels to play.
The World Health Organization itself has referenced Antidote as a one of the new creative health communication solutions to help address the issue of vaccination. The organization cites false news and the resulting lack of trust toward vaccines as among the top 10 public health risks.
The Finnish Game Industry awarded Antidote the Game Of The Year in 2018 with recognition in the Applied Games Category. There are over 2 billion mobile game players in the world, with 193 million in the United States alone. So, with games like Antidote, there is a clear opportunity to disseminate useful and reliable information.
Antidote is a premium quality, free to download and play game for mobile phones, a fast paced, casual, strategic game, built on real science. The game is available worldwide on iOS and Android.
