LONDON, December 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Bell Pottinger Group has launched a free mobile and web-based game to kick-off early festive celebrations with its staff and clients.

Called Festive Dash, the game has been developed in-house and sees a penguin, snowman and elf embark on a quest to save Christmas by collecting presents that fall from a hole in Santa's sleigh.

Both the iPhone app and web-based game have been developed by the group's specialist digital and social media team, Bell Pottinger Digital, which has been busy promoting it at a charity event organised by Richard House Children's Hospice.  Aptly called Penguin Dash, the event saw more than 300 people running through Spitalfields in London, all dressed as Penguins. A 10-penguin team from Bell Pottinger Digital raised £500 for Richard House Children's Hospice (http://www.richardhouse.org.uk), which cares for children with life-threatening illnesses across the capital.

Bell Pottinger is also making donations to ShelterBox (http://www.shelterbox.org), the international disaster relief charity, and The Calthorpe Project (http://www.calthorpeproject.org.uk), a community garden and centre in the heart of Kings Cross - both of which are supported by its group companies.

David Wilson, Group Managing Director of Bell Pottinger, said: "Festive Dash is a fun game we've designed to thank clients and staff for giving us another wonderful year. It will get everyone into the festive spirit, from Chief Executives to children, and having been developed in-house, demonstrates the creative talent that exists within our Bell Pottinger team. Festive Dash replaces our Christmas cards, which quickly become obsolete, enabling us to both donate and raise money for good causes, and reduce our carbon footprint."

Festive Dash is based around an addictive gameplay, where the user controls three characters at the same time, similar to the mechanic of the gaming-phenomena, Guitar Hero.

To complete the seven-level-challenge, gamers need to collect as many presents as possible, jumping obstacles including wooden hurdles, holly bushes and rocks. The more accurate the jump, the more points earned. To pass the level with three gold stars, all presents must be collected and all obstacles avoided.

The game's iPhone app version has been developed natively using Objective-C and is available to download for free in the Apple App Store. A leaderboard is powered by Apple's Game Centre and keeps a record of highest scores globally or within users' individual networks. It took just under 10 days to develop, with the design delivered by Naked Penguin Boy, an independent digital creative agency.

James Thomlinson, Head of Digital at Bell Pottinger Digital, said: "We had great fun developing Festive Dash and wanted to produce a game that uses the latest mobile technology. It is easy to pick-up but hard to master, and will appeal to the mass market. We've no expectation on the number of downloads, so spread the word and help us get as many as possible."

Festive Dash can be downloaded via iTunes: http://bit.ly/sVYTI2, or played online at http://www.festivedash.com.

Festive Dash fans can also check-out Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/festivedash) and Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/festivedash), where the penguin, snowman and elf will be answering questions about their involvement in Festive Dash and their prospects of getting picked for 2012!

Notes to editors:

ShelterBox (http://www.shelterbox.org) is an international disaster relief charity, which delivers emergency shelter, warmth and dignity to people affected by disaster worldwide. ShelterBox has been adopted for fund-raising by Bell Pottinger North during 2011.

The Calthorpe Project (http://www.calthorpeproject.org.uk) is a community garden and centre in Grays Inn Road, where people grow and learn together taking care of each other and the environment. It has been part of Chime Communications' CSR Program since 2010 and a few months ago it lost their entire funding from Camden Council.  This amounts to £80k per year, which was vital to the project and, as a result, its excellent work as a community support centre is seriously threatened. The funding ends in December 2011 and The Calthorpe Project is in the process of putting together various initiatives which it hopes will enable the project to be self-sufficient in the future.

Bell Pottinger (http://www.bell-pottinger.co.uk) is an international, full-service communications business. It works globally, advising world leaders in politics and business, supporting communications executives in every industrial and commercial sector, and managing reputations and brands in every communications medium.

Contact:

Bell Pottinger Digital: digital@bell-pottinger.co.uk / +44(0)20-7861-2439 / http://www.bellpottingerdigital.com

SOURCE Bell Pottinger Group