Killabyte: Spark's festival becomes one co-op boss fight — Spikes Gaming Grand Prix

79% of New Zealanders game, but the country at the bottom of the world kept being skipped by global gaming event circuits. Spark, the telco that first brought mobile phones to New Zealand, wanted to build the country's first world-class gaming festival while winning over a cynical gaming audience.

Turn the whole festival into one co-op game: every attendee's RFID wristband is a weapon, and every scan deals damage to a giant digital snake boss.

At Spark Game Arena Live, attendees joined secret organisation D.A.R.T. and scanned their RFID 'EXABAND' wristbands at booths, games, talks and even food stalls, each scan dealing damage to Byte — a giant animated snake on the arena's screens — and earning XP. A mobile Mission Hub tracked progress, hidden 'scales' unlocked lore and prizes, and the day ended in a two-phase boss battle that adapted in real time.

Players spent 51,142 minutes in the game with more than 600,000 interactions, dealt over 4.5 million damage points via wrist scans, and voted Killabyte the festival's best game ahead of Fortnite. It won the Spikes Asia 2025 Gaming Grand Prix and made gamers 77% more likely to consider Spark for gaming products.

79% of New Zealanders game, but Aotearoa, at the bottom of the world, was consistently omitted from the international gaming event circuit. To create a platform for local gaming — and to show a discerning audience the strength and reliability of New Zealand's biggest telco — Spark teamed with Colenso BBDO to stage Spark Game Arena Live, the country's first dedicated gaming festival.

The creative leap was to make the festival itself a game. Attendees arrived into secret organisation D.A.R.T. (Data Anomaly Response Team) and were armed with 'EXABAND' wristbands containing RFID chips. Watching tournaments, playing games, listening to talks and even buying food all triggered scans that dealt damage to Byte, a giant 20-metre digital snake that had hacked the festival's mainframe; a mobile Mission Hub tracked XP, hidden scales unlocked lore and prizes, and gameplay adapted in real time to crowd energy.

The day ended in a climactic two-phase boss battle projected across the arena's screens. Players spent 51,142 minutes in the game with more than 600,000 interactions, dealt over 4.5 million damage points, and voted Killabyte the best game at the festival, beating Fortnite. It won the Spikes Asia 2025 Gaming Grand Prix, and gamers said they were 77% more likely to consider Spark for gaming products.

It turned the festival into the product: every attendee was already a player, so engagement was the experience, not a side activity.

Byte, a nostalgic Snake homage, connected Spark's history as the telco that brought mobile phones to New Zealand with gaming culture.

RFID wristbands made every touchpoint — food, talks, tournaments — count, so brand participation was unavoidable.

Real-time adaptive gameplay and a two-phase finale gave the crowd a shared climax, creating a story the festival would be remembered by.

Measurable outcomes — 51,142 minutes played, 600,000+ interactions, best-game vote over Fortnite — proved the idea to a sceptical audience.

Make participation the product: when every interaction counts as gameplay, an event becomes media thousands play together — and the network enabling it becomes the hero.

Killabyte crowned JOYNZ and Bravemage4676 as overall high scorers, each winning a pool of gaming gear worth NZ$1,750. The experience won the Spikes Asia 2025 Gaming Grand Prix and a Best Design Award from the Designers Institute of New Zealand, and positioned Spark as a serious name in Kiwi gaming — with attendees 77% more likely to consider Spark for gaming products.