Destination DC, the official tourism agency for the District of Columbia, hired Bravery Corporation to create a mobile experience for La Dolce DC. This three month, city-wide festival coincided with the 150th anniversary of Italian unification and was sponsored by the Italian Embassy, National Gallery of Art, and a host of other museums, restaurants, and theaters across the District. Bravery's challenge was to create a mobile experience that would both engage residents and tourists, and create additional incentives for local businesses to participate in the campaign.
Bravery decided to create a location-based game for La Dolce DC, in which users could view nearby participating "Places" and "check in" to earn points, badges at the "apprentice" and "maestro" levels, and reach "milestones" named for Italian masters from Brumidi to Da Vinci. Rather than building separate native apps for each mobile operating system, Bravery constructed the game as a mobile web app using Drupal. This methodology meant both that La Dolce DC Mobile worked on any smart phone, regardless of platform, and that the client could add new participants and promotions without needing specialized training. Moreover, we tied the in-game rewards to real-world prizes—from restaurant gift certificates and museum discounts to the grand prize, a trip for two to Italy—deepening user engagement and offering brand exposure to partnering businesses, museums, and venues.
We ensured accountability by creating new Drupal modules to facilitate check-ins verified by GPS location, accurately link points to rewards, and allow users to redeem real-world prizes within the game interface.
Finally, Bravery leveraged its cross-functional talents to create promotional posters and dynamic display advertisements featuring quick response codes for immediate access to the mobile web app. After launch, we pitched the campaign and the app to local and national publications to secure earned media visibility for our client.
La Dolce DC Mobile launched on May 5, 2011 with an event at the Philips Collection, one of Washington's premiere art galleries. Results measurement is ongoing.
ROLE - UX Design, Wireframes, Sitemap, Art Direction,Web Design,Web Development
TOOLS - HTML, CSS, Javascript, Photoshop
