Tang Online World empowers kids

MANILA, Philippines - Changing the world one avatar at a time, Tang Philippines has activated its first-ever branded virtual world that allows Filipino kids to embark on various missions that promote social responsibility and awareness through a “gamified” experience, aiming to inspire them to translate their virtual learnings to real life.

“Most children learn best from first-hand experience and practical application. With this online world, Tang offers interactive activities that are fun and educational. We hope that through them, we can empower Filipino kids to be active members of the society, working toward the goal of making a difference,” said Alex Tacderas, category marketing manager for Powdered Beverages of Mondelez Philippines.

The “Tang World,” which now has over 2,800 participants and counting, is a vibrant interactive virtual space where it provides the members of Tang Galing Club — an online community that promotes kid empowerment — with a venue to play mini-games, chat with other members, complete missions, and customize their own avatars.

Missions are simple goals and activities that the players may accomplish to get rewards, such as coins and experience points. Missions could range from a simple exploration task, to finding a missing object, to challenging expeditions that would require a player to achieve a high score in a certain mini-game.

For Tang, the “gamification” concept or the use of a platform similar to gaming, teaches kid empowerment in a manner that would be most understandable and interesting to children, since the missions in the various mini-games are centered at inspiring and motivating Filipino children to go and contribute positive change for the betterment of the society.

“But what makes this ‘gamified’ experience all the more relevant is the fact that we aim to unleash the hero inside every child through the lessons that they will learn from the activities, such as taking care of the environment through recycling,” said Tacderas.

Explaining further the mission, Michelle Santillan, senior brand manager for Tang Philippines, said, “One example of this is the task that will require the players to collect a certain number of Tang foil packs scattered around the virtual world. Upon completion of the task, the player will be rewarded with regular Tang points and experience points so that they can level up.”

Santillan added: “After collecting a specified amount of foil packs, a congratulatory display pop-up appears saying ‘Great Job!, the foil you collected was used to build something useful.’ Then visuals of objects that may be made out of recycled foil packs will appear to make the young kids aware of the useful things that can be produced out of recycling.”

But she clarified that before kids can enter this online world, guest players first have to register at www.tanggalingclub.com if they don’t have an existing account yet, guided by their parents. 

“They will be asked to enter their preferred username and password, their e-mail, then their parent’s e-mail. Once completed, they can now activate their account through e-mail,” Santillan said.

Once inside the game, the player will be prompted with a short tutorial to familiarize themselves with the online world activities,” Santillan added.

This innovative “gamified” experience is one of the many efforts where Tang aims to push for the concept of “kid empowerment” as promoted by its Tang Galing Club online movement. 

Of this, Tacderas said, “Parents know that it is not always easy to make our kids fully understand each and every lesson we are trying to teach them, all the more the idea of ‘kid empowerment.’ But with the missions inside the Tang Online World, we hope to instill among our children through fun and stimulating activities that they can contribute good things to their communities if they start moving and inspiring other kids to do the same.” 

For more information on the Tang Online World, visit www.tanggalingclub.com and its Facebook account, www.facebook.com/TangPhilippines.