The landing page of Doritos advergame iD3, designed by digital prodco rehabstudio.

A new digital campaign for a mystery flavor of Doritos is using data extracted from Facebook to personalize gritty interactive game about gangsters and identity theft.

Produced by London-and-Belfast-based digital prodco rehabstudio, the advergame uses Facebook Connect to keep the narrative alive when players aren't logged into the site.

Facebook Connect is a platform that allows developers to integrate a user's personal information, such as their name, location, photo and friends' data, into a third party application or website. When rehabstudio co-founder and creative director Tim Rodgers got the script for iD3, he saw the application as an opportunity to tailor a gaming experience to individual users.

"Our goal moving forward is to really get shit-hot Hollywood post-production quality video content but generated dynamically," says Rodgers. "I want to have Pulp Fiction on a website which is totally personalized - not only just putting your face on it, but having the entire plot molded around your life."

Conceived by communications agency Initials and written and directed by Lucas Howe of London-based digital prodco Upset, iD3 is about a police narc who must infiltrate an identity theft ring in London's criminal underworld. The game combines live action production with interactive 3D elements and sound recognition software. To win, players must solve a series of puzzles and uncover the identity of the gang leader - and the name of Doritos' new mystery flavor.

The first episode premiered on July 21 and two more episodes will launch over the next five weeks. In order to access iD3, players enter codes found on special black packages of Doritos "mystery flavor" chips. Each pack is worth six lives, thus the more chips you eat, the longer your lifespan. The ultimate winner will receive £20,000 (or $33,000) in prize money.

"The brief was to make the site work," explains Rodgers. "We weren't going to be happy having a bunch of buttons on a screen. What we really did was look at the script to see how we could weave a bit more interactivity into it and make it a bit more personal."

Doritos' iD3 campaign mixes live action and 3D-animated elements.

Rodgers says iD3 is different from previous campaigns based on Facebook Connect because it incorporates users' data into the narrative rather than merely populating profile pages with branded messaging.

For example, when a player chooses to log-in via Facebook Connect, the game will pull their profile photo and insert it into an identity card. As the story progresses, references to their sex and location will appear and their friends' photos will pop up in the background. Characters in the game will also send messages to users' Facebook email and post notes on their walls.

Rehabstudio designed the website using the open-source Away3D Flash 3D engine. To ensure the dynamically-inserted photos and content look on par with the production values, the company developed a method of extracting data from After Effects and importing it into Flash.

"One of your best friend's photos will be on a wall in the baddy's office," explains Rodgers. "He sits down and over his shoulder is your best friend's photo."

Though he calls iD3 a great showcase for Facebook Connect, the social networking site has been known to change the format of third-party applications as well as privacy rules. As Facebook continues to evolve, so to will the extent with which brands such as Doritos are able to integrate with users' personal data. "This campaign will last for three to four months," says Rodgers. "It's a great service while it lasts at the minute."

www.doritos.co.uk/id3
www.rehabstudio.com