Fuel Industries was a Canadian online interactive and

marketing agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

. Founded in 1999 by Mike Burns, Jeff Doiron, Dave Ozipko and Brian Nesbitt, Fuel Industries employed over 150 people and had offices in Los Angeles and Seattle. Fuel Industries won a number of awards including Digital Entertainment & Media Excellence Awards for Advergame of the year as well as numerous Digital Marketing Awards and Flash in the can awards. Fuel Entertainment was a division of Fuel Industries specializing in the development of Fuel's own entertainment properties, such as SparkCityWorld.com, a gaming portal and virtual world for preteen girls, and ''Sideway: New York'', a graffiti-themed video game released on the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

. Mike Burns had the idea for the girl-themed virtual world on his twin girls' birthday, as it said in the newspaper. Fuel Industries revenues doubled in 2006 from the previous year, and has continued to grow into a custom production shop and creative studio. Andrew Wing was appointed the Co-CEO of the company in 2011, to lead alongside Mike Burns. In 2015, Fuel announced the creation of its Playground division, an internal lab focusing on emerging technologies and innovation. In 2017 Fuel declared bankruptcy.

Recognition

Fuel Industries received numerous awards for both its work in advergaming and branded entertainment. In 2012, Fuel won best in Branded Entertainment at the Digi Awards for its work with McDonald's Europe on its virtual world Happy Studio. In 2008, Fuel won Gold at the London International Awards for its work on Sexy Subaru with

Tribal DDB Tribal Worldwide (Formerly Tribal DDB) is a global network of interactive agencies, established in 2000, when the advertising company DDB Worldwide, DDB integrated all its interactive-web properties under the ''Tribal'' brand. Tribal Worldwide is ...

, as well as several FWA awards and three shortlists for Flash in the Can Awards. In 2007, Fuel won Best Game, Best Canadian Studio and Best Convergence at Flash in the Can. The same year, Fuel became a

Webby Awards The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...

Honoree for its work on the ''American Dad Vs. Family Guy Kung Fu'' advergame. In 2006, CEO Mike Burns was a recipient of the

Ottawa Business Journal The ''Ottawa Business Journal'' (OBJ) is a regional business publication serving Canada's National Capital Region (Canada), National Capital Region. In addition to a digital website, obj.ca, Ottawa Business Journal boasts a quarterly newspaper with ...

's Forty under 40 award - recognizing him as one of silicon valley north's most noteworthy up and coming entrepreneurs. In 2012 Mike Burns and Ryan Valley (Director of Sales) re-located to the Los Angeles office. On May 28, 2013, the

Alamogordo Alamogordo () is the seat of Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains and to the west by Holloman Air Force Base. The population was ...

City Commission (in the state of

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

) granted Fuel Industries six months of access to a landfill rumored to contain Atari video games. The purpose is to film a documentary about the burial and to excavate the dump site. On April 26, 2014, hundreds of Atari E.T. The Extraterrestrial game cartridges were unearthed, mixed in with trash and dirt scooped by a backhoe. Atari: Game Over won Best Documentary at the 2015 Streamy Awards

References

External links

Official Website
(archived 2012)
Performance Marketing Agency
{{Authority control 1999 establishments in Ontario Advertising agencies of Canada Companies based in Ottawa Online companies of Canada Marketing companies established in 1999 Defunct video game companies of Canada Canadian companies established in 1999