Learn more about the many marketing options that games have. Learn about Game Mechanics and in-game advertising from Evan Fishkin of Portent Interactive.
Hi, my name is Evan Fishkin. I’m an SEO at Portent Interactive in Seattle, WA. I’m talking today about Games and Marketing.
Utilizing a construct of rules intended to produce an enjoyable experience
Let’s look at some basic game mechanics
Points track progress
Increased levels = better experiences, attributes, and gear
It’s about increased social status.
School is a game Take tests Pass classes Get promoted Graduate Accumulate degrees …for increased salary and social status
Loyalty Programs Employ Game Mechanics
Airline points, get enough points, get a free trip. Or upgrade your seat to First Class and improve your social status.
Online retailers – discounts, special deals, and gift certificates – the more cool stuff you have the higher your social status
Credit card perks – spend cash: get points. Spend points on a boombox, PlayStation 3, a trip to Hawaii! Go hog wild… get a black AMEX card: giving you…. Increased social status.
Major retailers are becoming involved, too. Starbucks has a 3-level program. Welcome level, 5-star level, and… a GOLD level… free drinks, free syrups and… flash your gold card for… you guessed it: increased social status.
Gillian here has thousands of McCormick and Schmick’s points. Now, let’s talk about....
I’m going to cover 3 elements of marketing and games…. First is In Game Advertising. Let’s start with some stats.
More than >465 million gaming consoles have been sold to date. (Total: 465,377,250) http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly.php
In-game advertising is highly successful and video games are the fastest growing global entertainment form Reaches prime markets: male 18-34 Videogame console usage is up 21% from 2008-09 Gamers spend an average of 12.8 hrs month playing Time spent playing games – and seeing dynamically inserted ads - continues to increase
In 2008, Nielsen ratings created a baseline of in-game advertising norms on brand recommendations. In 2009, brand recommendation increased 29%.
You can target regions, games, and specific timeframes (dayparting)
Remember this slide? This wasn’t a joke. The Obama campaign actually spent $44,500 US dollars running this in game ad across 10 battleground states.
In-game Sears truck – I think this image is from SIMS http://www.massiveincorporated.com/adtypesandspecs.html
World Food Program – Interactive SecondLife island
300 Movie – In game trailer advertisement http://www.massiveincorporated.com/adtypesandspecs.html
http://www.theesa.com/
. It’s a question of brand association. There’s a variance in the market: game styles range from “Dora the Explorerer” to “Leisure Suite Larry”. Make sure you differentiate between where your customers are comfortable visiting/playing and where your brand should be seen.
There’s a variance in the market
On October 8 th , 2008 Google made the announcement they were launching AdSense for Games in an effort to fuel the growth of online gaming.
http://www.google.com/ads/games/publishers.html
Facebook games are a leading source of lead generation advertising
Lead generation in facebook is pretty straightforward. Here you see how emails are collected. They are sold to interested parties for marketing purposes.
On March 3 rd Bing advertised on FarmVille offering free Farm Cash to all users who became a fan of Bing on Facebook. The result was over 400,000 new fans in one day. They followed up by crafting a Facebook update designed to cater to FarmVille users. On March 4 th Bing sent out an update reading, “Any FarmVille fans out there? Try using Bing to get the most out of your crops and animals.” And linked to a Bing search result for “FarmVille animals.” The update drew 585 comments in four hours and is currently at 2,010. The link received over 20,000 click-throughs in it’s first day.