They say never work with children or animals, but this advice was quickly forgotten when Dusted was appointed to design and develop the website for the new kids collectables, Top Dogs – the first in a series of Ani-mates from partworks publisher, Mini-Mix.
Anyone with younger kids will appreciate the collectable craze that can sweep a school playground and Ani-mates are specifically priced at ‘pocket money’ levels for this reason. Each randomly sorted and sealed pack contains a head nodding, rock ‘n’ rolling, tail wagging pooch with paw shape stand and game card.
Codes printed on the packs allow access to the competition area of the new website which Dusted designed and developed after winning a credentials pitch in January. Developed entirely in Flash, the site uses an illustrated menu, based around a street metaphor to allow the main character – top dog himself, ‘Beefy’ – to explore various buildings and view the whole collection, vote for a favourite, play games and buy packs online.
TV advertising supported the Top Dogs launch and we are already planning for the next collection (Dancin’ Dinos) to go online and join Beefy and co. in the summer.
Ani-mates are in stores now!