Nonprofit Operation Smile has partnered with the mobile gaming application Yahtzee With Buddies to push fundraising during October in a series of Halloween-themed challenges.

Users of the game can now do a daily challenge for a playful method of raising money for children with cleft palates and lips. Yahtzee with Buddies fans can now compete in Dice Master challenge, in which players match against various computer characters to raise money for the organization.

“Mobile is crucially important,” said Jori Pearsall, vice president of product. “Yahtzee with Buddies owes its success in large part to the deep community bonds that players from around the world foster through their game experience.

“Mobile is an incredibly powerful platform that allows us to stay connected with not only the apps, but more importantly the people we care about 24/7,” he said. “It is also the first entry point for the internet and a globally connected community for much of the developing world.

“What better way to celebrate community and leverage the connectedness provided by mobile than in support of a fantastic cause like Operation Smile?”

Mobile makes smiles
The developer behind the game, Scopely is donating a minimum of $25,000 to the charity and is contributing funds for every challenged played. Players access the Candy for Charity page on the app and engage with the Halloween-themed Dice Master challenge and collect candy while playing.

The more candy collected overall in the game, the more Scopely will donate to Operation Smile. The partnership helps Scopely promote its game, receive positive brand sentiment, while simultaneously driving fundraising for Operation Smile.

Yahtzee With Buddies is an app version of the classic Hasbro game, in which users can play friends through their mobile devices. The Dice Master challenges are another feature within the game where users can climb up towers playing against each ‘dice master’ character with rising difficulty.

Each level the user reaches is significantly harder to accomplish, and to complete the entire challenge the player must vanquish all characters through a round of the dice game. The characters in the Operation Smile challenge are all Halloween-related such as Dr. Fivenstein and Fivensetein’s Monster, a take on the classic horror film Frankenstein, while five in the name is reference to the goal of the game being to receive five of the same dice.

Users in the Dice Master challenge fight one character a day and return the following day to play against their next foe.

Gaming partnerships
Similarly, Angry Birds 2 players were able to rain Honey Nut Cheerios down on the game’s piggies for a limited time on Aug. 6 in a mobile in-game integration that leveraged ad-serving technology instead of being hard coded into the platform (see more).

Also, an executive from video game developer Electronic Arts at the Mobile Marketing Association’s SM2 Innovation Summit 2015 claimed the path to being successful with mobile advertising is to reward consumers for engaging with marketing content and viewing ads (see more).

“Yahtzee with Buddies thrives on bringing people together and building strong in-game relationships,” Mr. Pearsall said. “Our Halloween Celebration Event is inspired by these player bonds and provides, for the first time, a collaborative goal for them to achieve.

“As players play the game and challenge our Dice Monsters, they will earn candy that increases the amount of money Scopely pledges to support Operation Smile,” he said. “By playing together, our players can help heal smiles worldwide.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer