Hackathons have long been a core element of Meta’s DNA, a tradition going all the way back to the when the word ‘Facebook’ was still preceded by a definite article. Formerly an in-person competition to move the best and brightest coders to the top of the company’s recruitment funnel, Covid took the tradition online to great success, and Meta wanted expand the program globally. We were tasked with coming up with an entirely new method of engaging a tech-saavy global audience, and importantly, doing so in a way that felt inclusive, supportive, and in a departure from Hackathons in the past, non-combative.
Considering the audience demographic and the strategic imperative of striking a friendly, unifying tone, my mind immediately went to reimagining the Hackathon as a gamified narrative experience.
Global Hackathon 2022
Client: Meta
Role: Creative Director
Associate Creative Director: Luke Page
Animator/Motion Designer: Lucas Garcia
Lead Designer: Jose Quintana
Programmer: Propeller
Players would be told they were getting ready for their first day of work at Meta, and asked to create an avatar to represent themselves. After arriving at the Meta offices and taking a look at the computer of real-life Meta executive Ime Archibong, the player would be sucked into their bosses’ computer, in the vein of innumerable terrible movies from the 90s. From there, they’d journey on an epic quest to free Ime, venturing from the lush surrounds of Input Fields, to the firey heights of Mount Processor, and finally a live broadcast award ceremony at Floating Point.
From the first email to the final farewell, every touchpoint was crafted to be both gamified and convey an inclusive, welcoming, and adventurous tone. The event ran, with live support, 24 hours a day, across two weeks. The results? A response rate 523% above our target goals, and 551% increase on total participants.