What Roger Caillois Knew About Brand Activations
In 1958 Roger Caillois sorted all play into four kinds, and each suits a different product and asks for a different space.
In 1958 Roger Caillois sorted play into four kinds. This essay matches competition, chance, make-believe and vertigo to what a product has to prove. It shows how each kind changes layout, dwell time and throughput, and gives a four-point test for whether a game shows the product or hides it.
Brand activations are turning into games. Pop-ups now hold hedge mazes, lawn games and branded tournaments. A game can show a product or hide it. In 1958 Roger Caillois sorted all play into four types of play. Each one suits a different product, and each one asks for a different space.
Four types of play
Caillois was a French writer and sociologist. His book Les jeux et les hommes came out in 1958. It appeared in English in 1961 as Man, Play and Games. It built on Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens of 1938, which opened with the claim that play is older than culture.
Caillois named four kinds of play. Agon is competition, where skill decides who wins. Alea is chance, where the player hands control to luck. Mimicry is make-believe, where the player becomes someone else. Ilinx is vertigo, the pleasure of losing balance and order for a moment. He also set play on a scale, from free improvising, which he called paidia, to games with strict rules, which he called ludus.
He described play as free, separate from daily life, uncertain and unproductive. That last word is the problem for a brand. A game that produces nothing for the product is just a game.
Competition proves performance
Agon suits products that must prove they perform. A racquet, a running shoe, a phone camera or a game controller can be the tool of the contest. The player learns the product by trying to win with it.
Take a made-up example. A shoe brand builds a short sprint lane. Players race once in their own shoes and once in the new pair, and a big clock shows the gap. The product wins the argument while the player tries to win the race.
Competition changes the floor plan. A contest draws a crowd, so it needs room to watch as well as room to play. It needs a short round that repeats, a score people can see and an exit for the loser that passes the product. The length of one round sets the throughput.
Chance spreads discovery
Alea proves nothing about a product. The wheel decides, not the player's skill. That is why prize wheels and claw machines so often hide what is being sold.
Chance has one honest use. It can choose which product a visitor tries. A range of shades, flavors or scents suits it, because luck sends each visitor to an item they might not have picked. The game then ends in a trial, not a prize.
Chance games move fast. They need little space and short queues, so they suit a busy aisle. Their risk is the crowd that came for the spin and leaves without the product.
Make-believe proves fit
Mimicry suits products that sell a way of life. The visitor tries on a role and sees if it fits. Burberry's summer takeover at Plaza 66 in Shanghai built an English country garden, with topiary knights and hares around a fountain. Visitors stepped into the brand's idea of English country life.
Make-believe needs sets. It asks for rooms, props and a story the visitor steps into. Dwell time is long, and throughput is low. It also makes photos, because people like to be pictured in the role. Plan the photo spot so it shows the product, not just the set.
Vertigo proves sensation
Ilinx suits products that sell a feeling in the body. Speed, height, motion and comfort are hard to describe and easy to feel. A test drive, a slide, a simulator or a soft surface to fall into can prove them.
A hedge maze sits at the gentle end of ilinx, because getting a little lost is the pleasure. The Burberry garden had one, so that finding your way became part of the visit.
Vertigo needs the most planning. It brings safety checks, staff, waivers and often structures with their own rules. Throughput is low and fixed by the ride. Put the waiting area where people can watch others, because watching sells the feeling before their own turn.
How each type of play changes the plan
- Competition. What the product proves: Performance. Layout: A play area, room for an audience, a visible score. Dwell: Short rounds, repeated. Throughput: Set by round length.
- Chance. What the product proves: Range. Layout: A small spot in the flow. Dwell: Seconds. Throughput: High.
- Make-believe. What the product proves: Fit with a way of life. Layout: Sets and rooms, a photo spot. Dwell: Long. Throughput: Low.
- Vertigo. What the product proves: Sensation. Layout: A ride or structure, a safe place to wait and watch. Dwell: A short turn after a long wait. Throughput: Low and fixed.
Choose the kind of play from what the product must prove. Then size the space with a throughput calculation. Picking a trend first and a product second works the wrong way round.
The test of a game
Beatrice Warde's crystal goblet asks whether a stand shows its contents or hides them, and why booths fail when they entertain applies it to the show floor. Play needs a sharper test, because a game can be honest and still be about something else. Run these four checks on any concept.
- The product is in the player's hands during the game.
- Winning, or enjoying it, depends on what the product does.
- A player can say afterward what the product does better.
- With a rival's product swapped in, the game no longer works.
The fourth check is the hardest. If the game works just as well with any brand, it is a game with a logo on it.
Play with a purpose
Caillois said play produces nothing. A brand's game has to produce one thing, a player who now understands the product. Pick the kind of play that proves it.
Each kind of play asks for a different footprint. Monet generates a booth from a prompt and renders it in the real room, so a team can compare a tournament court, a set and a maze on the same plan before choosing.