Games for Health Conference -- May 8, 2008

Change the Course of HIV Challenge mtvU and the Kaiser Family Foundation launched the Change the Course of HIV Challenge in 2007. The Contest: Called on college students to propose a viral, Web-based game concept about HIV/AIDS The Goals: General: Reach our audience, young people in the US, where they spend time to battle complacency and to reignite a national conversation on HIV/AIDS that will help stop the spread of the disease Messaging: Challenge HIV/AIDS stereotypes to encourage HIV testing, the use of protection, and an open dialogue – while also fighting the stigma that leads to discrimination Concept: Develop a format that is simple, addictive and viral The Winning Concept: “The Faces of AIDS” – submitted by a team of students from Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy

mtvU and the Kaiser Family Foundation launched the Change the Course of HIV Challenge in 2007.

The Contest: Called on college students to propose a viral, Web-based game concept about HIV/AIDS

The Goals:

General: Reach our audience, young people in the US, where they spend time to battle complacency and to reignite a national conversation on HIV/AIDS that will help stop the spread of the disease

Messaging: Challenge HIV/AIDS stereotypes to encourage HIV testing, the use of protection, and an open dialogue – while also fighting the stigma that leads to discrimination

Concept: Develop a format that is simple, addictive and viral

The Winning Concept: “The Faces of AIDS” – submitted by a team of students from Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy

Developing Pos or Not The winning concept served as the inspiration for Pos or Not – an analogue to the highly popular and addictive online site HotorNot.com. POZ magazine was brought in as a partner to bring life to the concept. The Concept: Users are asked to guess the HIV status of individuals based only on their photo and select personal info – goal is to show that you cannot tell who has HIV just by looking at them. Recruiting Participants: Recruited 50 HIV positive and 50 HIV negative volunteers from across the country to be featured in the “game” Relied on POZ /Kaiser contacts within the HIV positive community as well as on outreach to local and national HIV/AIDS organizations to generate a diverse set of participants Promotion: Utilizing eight original on-air ads featuring game volunteers, various online tools, on-campus events and celebrity involvement to help support the viral spread of Pos or Not

The winning concept served as the inspiration for Pos or Not – an analogue to the highly popular and addictive online site HotorNot.com. POZ magazine was brought in as a partner to bring life to the concept.

The Concept: Users are asked to guess the HIV status of individuals based only on their photo and select personal info – goal is to show that you cannot tell who has HIV just by looking at them.

Recruiting Participants:

Recruited 50 HIV positive and 50 HIV negative volunteers from across the country to be featured in the “game”

Relied on POZ /Kaiser contacts within the HIV positive community as well as on outreach to local and national HIV/AIDS organizations to generate a diverse set of participants

Promotion: Utilizing eight original on-air ads featuring game volunteers, various online tools, on-campus events and celebrity involvement to help support the viral spread of Pos or Not

Pos or Not Demo www.POSorNOT.com

Early Statistics and Press Usage statistics Press Almost 300,000 unique visitors Over 2.5MM page views From April 30 to May 6 EntertainmentWeekly.com “… pray that, for some ungodly reason, this total downer of a game catches on with the youth of America, so that they might learn something today before they resume their usual busy schedules…” LA Times Online Reuters

Almost 300,000 unique visitors

Over 2.5MM page views

EntertainmentWeekly.com

“… pray that, for some ungodly reason, this total downer of a game catches on with the youth of America, so that they might learn something today before they resume their usual busy schedules…”

LA Times Online

Reuters

Initial User Feedback “ I have enjoyed the game and the lessons very much! Really well done and thought-provoking to examine how we determine who is positive and negative in our minds. Challenges conceptions well.” “ Weirdly addictive !” “ It really makes you think outside the box when it comes to HIV.” “ I have heard about HIV/AIDS in middle and high school, but in truth, I haven't learned anything about it firsthand. I feel like your website is the closest thing to firsthand knowledge about HIV/AIDS that I have experienced and it has encouraged me to get tested , even though I had always thought that HIV/AIDS was restricted to homosexuals and I am heterosexual.” “ This is a great site. Way to bring a reality and face to the disease .” “ Some of the stories from these participants really touched me deeply as I've been poz for 7 years myself. This is a great tool to help people realize their own stigma , with one of them being the false belief that you can tell by someone's face if they're poz or negative.”

“ I have enjoyed the game and the lessons very much! Really well done and thought-provoking to examine how we determine who is positive and negative in our minds. Challenges conceptions well.”

“ Weirdly addictive !”

“ It really makes you think outside the box when it comes to HIV.”

“ I have heard about HIV/AIDS in middle and high school, but in truth, I haven't learned anything about it firsthand. I feel like your website is the closest thing to firsthand knowledge about HIV/AIDS that I have experienced and it has encouraged me to get tested , even though I had always thought that HIV/AIDS was restricted to homosexuals and I am heterosexual.”

“ This is a great site. Way to bring a reality and face to the disease .”

“ Some of the stories from these participants really touched me deeply as I've been poz for 7 years myself. This is a great tool to help people realize their own stigma , with one of them being the false belief that you can tell by someone's face if they're poz or negative.”

Looking Ahead… We hope to maintain an ongoing dialogue with our audience and have them take ownership of this student-generated idea: We have set up an inbox for user feedback on how to improve the game, bring it to new platforms or make its message even more effective – MyIdeas@posornot.com A “Join the Game” tab was created where users can register themselves to be added to future versions of the game All users are encouraged to become evangelists of the game and are given the tools (Facebook app, MySpace page, banner ads, online widget, videos, etc) to help it spread virally More broadly, we (mtvU) are excited to continue working alongside Kaiser and POZ who have been tremendous partners in this endeavor, particularly for their: Willingness to push the boundaries of how foundations engage in awareness and education around social causes, especially on the digital frontier Deep expertise on HIV/AIDS Understanding of and connection to the HIV positive community

We hope to maintain an ongoing dialogue with our audience and have them take ownership of this student-generated idea:

We have set up an inbox for user feedback on how to improve the game, bring it to new platforms or make its message even more effective – MyIdeas@posornot.com

A “Join the Game” tab was created where users can register themselves to be added to future versions of the game

All users are encouraged to become evangelists of the game and are given the tools (Facebook app, MySpace page, banner ads, online widget, videos, etc) to help it spread virally

More broadly, we (mtvU) are excited to continue working alongside Kaiser and POZ who have been tremendous partners in this endeavor, particularly for their:

Willingness to push the boundaries of how foundations engage in awareness and education around social causes, especially on the digital frontier

Deep expertise on HIV/AIDS

Understanding of and connection to the HIV positive community