Bravo! Development

Top Chef Fan Favorite Game and “Micro Sites”

Request

Implemented the BunchBall API to produce an interactive leaderboard for the duration of the season.

Solution

For the Fall 2011 season of Top Chef, Bravo! hosted a “Fan Favorite” game, integrating a new angle into their programming. “Trans-media,” the incorporation of multiple avenues of user interactivity tied together through a delivery system, created an online and broadcasting experience that was active (incorporating digital media into the programming strategy) rather than passive (like normal TV viewing).

My contribution was to

• leverage the BunchBall API to create a Drupal-hosted game that allowed end-users to join a virtual team
• tally user votes in real time based on site activity (e.g., blog posts read, pages visited)
• and broadcast changes to the online leaderboard throughout the season

The result turned sections of Bravo’s site into a fully interactive game.

Every Wednesday night, we stayed late on the 42nd floor of 30 Rock to wait for the 8:57 PM Call to Action, often praying that the user response wouldn’t crash the servers—which, of course, happened on the first night of the Fan Favorite game.