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Social Games
Zynga, creator of FarmVille, recently valued at $4 billion dollars had become a legitimate interactive social channel for the masses.
Why Would Your Brand Consider Partnering With A Social Game?
Targeted Audience
As Irfan Kamal pointed out in a previous post, what’s intriguing about social gaming is that players are not your stereotypical, male teens in their parents’ basement. For example, 60% of FarmVille players are women (that’s 48 million female players), and many of them are in the 30-40+ age range. Whatever your audience, there’s a good chance you can find a game that fits.
As Irfan Kamal pointed out in a previous post, what’s intriguing about social gaming is that players are not your stereotypical, male teens in their parents’ basement. For example, 60% of FarmVille players are women (that’s 48 million female players), and many of them are in the 30-40+ age range. Whatever your audience, there’s a good chance you can find a game that fits.
High Engagement
Through games, consumers can interact with brands in ways that are informative, rewarding, and fun. Direct brand engagement can last 20 to 30 minutes - throughout the entire play period - multiple times a week. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for a display ad or social network fan page to offer this level of connection with the consumer.
Through games, consumers can interact with brands in ways that are informative, rewarding, and fun. Direct brand engagement can last 20 to 30 minutes - throughout the entire play period - multiple times a week. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for a display ad or social network fan page to offer this level of connection with the consumer.
Unforced Advertising
This depends on the game and campaign, but in-game brand interactions do not have to be invasive. Games provide the opportunity for brands to explain themselves in a way that’s casual or even helpful to players.
This depends on the game and campaign, but in-game brand interactions do not have to be invasive. Games provide the opportunity for brands to explain themselves in a way that’s casual or even helpful to players.
Viral Component
Whether it’s when they first sign up or at various check points, games often ask players to share information with their social network. Brands can latch on to these viral interactions to increase awareness and drive action.
Whether it’s when they first sign up or at various check points, games often ask players to share information with their social network. Brands can latch on to these viral interactions to increase awareness and drive action.
Micro-payment Success
Social games are usually free to play, but leveling up or progression can take time. In order for a player to catch up to their friends, players can essentially purchase progress in a variety of forms, spending $1 or $50 dollars at a time. As consumers open their wallets more often for these micro-payments, they become more comfortable opening up their wallets for games in general - which can only benefit the partnering brands.
Social games are usually free to play, but leveling up or progression can take time. In order for a player to catch up to their friends, players can essentially purchase progress in a variety of forms, spending $1 or $50 dollars at a time. As consumers open their wallets more often for these micro-payments, they become more comfortable opening up their wallets for games in general - which can only benefit the partnering brands.
Three Ways Your Brand Can Get Started
Lead Generation Through Rewards
A very popular tactic, this type of marketing asks users to engage the brand, such as filling out a survey or registering for membership, in order to receive in-game currency. Though this seems simple, its results are questioned as consumers may not actually be interested in the product. Many times advertisers ask consumers to sign up for a free trial, only to see the trial canceled as soon as the game currency is delivered. I should also point out, if you’ve followed the industry recently, you may have heard about TechCrunch’s articlein which it renamed FarmVille, “Scamville” as brands began tricking players into signing up for paid services without their knowledge, leading to harsh criticism of both the game and brands involved. If you decide that this quid pro quo lead generation is the route you want to go, I cannot stress enough the importance of transparency.
One way to avoid this sticky situation, is to follow the Microsoft search giant’s lead. Bing recently placed a rather creative looking display ad which offered players, without ever leaving the game, a chance to earn FarmVille cash for becoming a fan of Bing on Facebook. The low barrier to entry and minimal commitment paved they way for incredible results. In one day, Bing’s Facebook fan page increased by 425,000 fans. Though one might immediately question how committed these fans are to the brand, Microsoft continued engagement through the fan page with posts such as, “Any FarmVille fans out there? Try using Bing to get the most out of your crops and animals,” and linked to helpful search results. Microsoft reported the first update drew 585 comments in four hours and 20,000 click-throughs.
Sites like GamePoints help consolidate these lead generation offers. Users log-in to shop at retail partners, redeem coupons, complete online surveys, and engage with brands in a multitude of other ways for virtual currency in more than 1,500 games. The site has attracted many well-known brands, including Macy’s, Netflix, Disney, Fandango, and iTunes.
Branded In-Game Items/Missions
If you want to kick things up a notch in terms of creativity, you can insert your brand into an existing game. Though a common place in console games for decades, sponsored virtual products are now appearing more often in social games, especially with non-profits brands. Water.org partnered with Zynga and designed a special fish which was purchased by 70,000 FishVille players for their virtual aquariums, raising $13,000 in five days. In addition, site traffic to Water.org increased 10 times during the campaign.A great for-profit example can be seen in the partnership between the gangster movie Public Enemies and Mafia Wars. “Public Enemies Week” allowed players to complete special movie-themed missions and unlock “Loot” which included virtual items from the movie. During the campaign, movie-branded items received 55 million interactions and 7.6 million Facebook Newsfeed posts. The campaign itself received 25,000 ‘Likes’ and more than 26,000 comments on the Mafia Wars Facebook Fanpage. There’s a very detailed analysis of this successful campaign from AppsSavvy here.
Build Your Own Game
Now if you have an established fan base and time on your side, building your own game might be something to consider. When executed correctly, brand engagement is practically limitless as you control all aspects of player interaction. However, a big drawback can be brand fatigue, as users don’t want to feel like they’re interacting with a commercial. One of the earliest success stories was Parking Wars, a game built for A&E’s television show of the same name. A relatively simple concept, players earned virtual money by parking on each others’ streets. When parking meters ran out of time, players would issue tickets to their friends and this back-and-forth, kept players coming back over and over again. In two months, the game had more than 400,000 players, yielded 250 million page views, and assisted in a successful first season of the show.
The game creation process has been simplified by the emergence of template-based games. For example,Hive Media’s “Collaborative Content Delivery Platform” allows brands to simply upload videos, images, and text to create a role-playing, location-based, or avatar-based game. Through this platform, brands are also able to add their own virtual goods and in-game advertising. Creating your own game offers a vast amount of engagement opportunities and big brands you wouldn’t expect, like the United States Government, are eventesting the waters.
CHANG SODA: FIZZY BILLBOARD
Client: Thai Beverage Public Company Limited
Agency: JEH United, Bangkok
Creatives:
Jureeporn Thaidumrong (Executive Creative Director)
Komsan Wattanawanitchakorn (Creative Director)
Nittha Pruksacholvit (Art Director)
Thanachai Shavitranuruk (Copywriter)
Country: Thailand
KLM Airlines| Suitcase Art Project
IDEA/Challenge: How to communicate the most attractive prices of KLM when people are bored from tactical campaigns and they are ignoring price communication. Instead of an AD let’s give people ART!
Strategy/execution: Hungary’s most talented young artists created several artworks inspired by our destinations, and we turned the whole city into an urban gallery. This is how a tactical campaign turned into a cultural event.
Results:
• More than 500.000 people visited the exhibition during the campaign.
• More than 80.000 Euro free PR was produced
• And we almost doubled the sales requirements.
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Budapest, Hungary
Creative Director: Vilmos Farkas
Art Director: Peter Vagvolgyi
Copywriter: Gergely Horvath
Account dir: Krisztina Szabo
Account executive: Dora Horvath
Account assistant: Kata Filep
PR manager: Emese Juhasz
Print prod manager: Katalin Dengelegi
Web developer: Roland Izso
Published: September 2009
Lugarcerto| Hooooooooomes
Many, many offers in real estate.Advertising Agency: Filadelfia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Creative Director: Dan Zecchinelli
Art Director: Ricardo Matos
Copywriter: Leandro Neves
Published: February 2010
Lugarcerto| Scroll bars
The real estate you're looking for is at lugarcerto.comAdvertising Agency: Filadelfia, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Creative Director: Dan Zecchinelli
Art Director: Ricardo Matos
Copywriter: Leandro Neves
Published: February 2010
Auckland Zoo| Birth Notice
Rukiya & Zabulu, are proud to announce the arrival of their beautiful baby boy, Jelani, born 6.00am Friday, March 5th at their home. Mum and baby are doing well.Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Auckland, New Zealand
Come see our new baby giraffe. Auckland Zoo.
Executive Creative Director: Damon O'Leary, Basil Christensen
Art Director: Freddie Coltart
Copywriter: Matt Williams
Account Manager: Hannah Downes
Published: April 2010
Waste Management| Shrinking Ad
Announcing the West Carleton Environmental Centre. It's all about reducing things.To same ad was reproduced on consecutive newspaper pages, getting smaller each time, to dramatize how the Environmental Centre would reduce waste.
Advertising Agency: Agency59, Toronto, Canada
Creative Director: Brian Howlett
Art Director: Chad Burnie
Copywriter: Brian Howlett
Photography: Stock
Additional credits: Jared Smith
Published: April 2010
Audi A1: The next big thing
"The next big thing" is a fast-paced action-thriller starring Justin Timberlake, Dania Ramirez ( Heroes, X-men ) and the much anticipated Audi A1. A story in 6 Epsiodes - every Tuesday from 04.05.2010. View the film atwww.audi.com/a1 for the full interactive movie experience.
Trailer: http://microsites.audi.com/a1onlinespecial/html/popup.html#/episode/
Advertising Agency: Heimat & Neue Digitale / Razorfish, Berlin, Germany
Executive Creative Directors: Guido Heffels, Jürgen Vossen, Sven Küster
Creative Director: Myles Lord, Fabian Roser
Art Directors: Stefan Schuster, Christian Mies, Kathrin Laser, Florian Uihlein,
Carsten Schubert, Michael Dunlap, Jue Alt, Bartek Elsner
Motion Design: Jörg Lemme, Florian Stumpe
Copywriters: Nikolai Diepenbrock, Stephen Quell, Carsten Fillinger, Daniel Klipfel, Mascha Andexer, Christoph Beringer,
Production Company: ACNE Film
Director: Henrik Sundgren
Additional credits: Benjamin Mohr, Eric Prautsch
Published:April 2010
Climax-delay condom
Zensex condoms
Olla Prolong condoms
With retardantAdvertising Agency: Mayo DraftFCB, Lima, Peru
Creative Directors: Germán Garrido, Ricardo Ortiz
Art Directors: Mariano Escobal, Camilo Astorga
Copywriter: Camilo Astorga
Illustrator: Zeppelin
Additional credits: David Vega
Published: November 2009
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