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Gamification & Digital Communities

Michel Vaillant Project

How PiNGs transformed a historic comic book brand into an interactive and modern community, generating new sources of engagement and revenue.

Vaillante Superpass
Client Media Participations
Industry Culture & Comic Books
Expertise Gamification, Engagement, Community
Launch 2023
+500%
Qualified Fan Base
+257%
Ulule Crowdfunding Goal Reached
72K+
Quest Participations
1000+
Engaged Discord Members

Context & Challenges: Brand gamification strategy

Michel Vaillant is an iconic figure in French comics, active and beloved by motorsport enthusiasts since 1957. As part of this brand gamification strategy, publisher Media Participations commissioned PiNGs, an agency specializing in community engagement in France, to rejuvenate its qualified fan base, centralize scattered communities, and strengthen fan engagement around new immersive, interactive, and participatory experiences.

Key project objectives:

  • Directly connect the brand with historic fans and younger generations.
  • Federate existing communities around a common, animated platform.
  • Boost customer engagement through innovative interactive systems.
  • Highlight fan participation through exclusive activations, products, and content.
  • Generate new revenue streams by monetizing community engagement.

Brand co-creation & Launch of the Team Vaillante

To unite comic book and motorsport enthusiasts, PiNGs designed the concept of Team Vaillante, an active community with a visual identity co-created hand-in-hand with the audience. This brand co-creation allowed fans to be directly involved from the start, transforming them into key players in the renewal of the franchise.

Team Vaillante Logos — Options A and B
Team Vaillante Logos — Options C and D

Discord Platform & Community Gamification Campaign

The core of the system lies in an enterprise Discord server developed by PiNGs, an expert agency in gamification. Welcoming over 1,000 qualified members (including 15% of first-time digital users), we structured a gamified interactive engagement journey:

Game Mechanics

Implementation of themed quests with varying durations, allocation of exclusive badges, and accumulation of experience points (XP) to reward loyalty.

Shared Governance

Fans participate collectively in brand decisions, particularly by voting in real time to choose the next album cover.

These mechanics generated massive excitement, totaling over 72,000 quest participations, with an average of 50 completed quests per fan per month.

Physical meetings were also organized to materialize this community link, including karting events bringing together fans, comic book authors, and brand representatives.

Team Vaillante Physical Event — Karting Group
Team Vaillante Physical Event — Race and Live

Monetization, eShop & Phygital Experiences

To ensure the economic viability of the project and value engagement, we structured innovative monetization streams linking physical products (eShop merchandising) and digital assets (phygital items with digital twins):

  • eShop & Merchandising: Dedicated shop to order exclusive Team Vaillante branded products.
  • Hybrid Objects (Phygital): Physical products associated with a certified digital twin.
  • Community Treasury: 10% of all merchandise sales are paid into a treasury managed by the community, funding future fan events.
  • Artistic Collaborations: Launch of limited and exclusive art collections in partnership with renowned artists (e.g., collaboration with 8th Project).
Exclusive artistic collaboration 8th Project

Digital museum & Soapbox race: Immersive experiences

To bring the adventurous spirit of Michel Vaillant to life, we combined digital and physical elements. We designed and launched an interactive digital museum to trace the brand's history, and built a real soapbox car competing in actual physical races under the Team Vaillante banner.

Michel Vaillant Digital Museum — View 1
Michel Vaillant Digital Museum — View 2
Soapbox Car — Construction
Soapbox Car — Real Test
Soapbox Car — Comic Version
Soapbox Car — Racing

Key Success Factors

Active co-creation

Fans are not mere spectators. They co-design the visual identity and have direct influence on the major artistic directions of the license.

Continuous engagement

A daily living connection structured through automated Discord quests, regular fan-fiction contests, and monthly raffles.

Super Fans Involvement

A community governance structure that values brand ambassadors to moderate and stimulate exchanges on a daily basis.

"Successful challenge: the transformation of a historic heritage brand into a modern, participatory, and engaging community experience."