An audience of approximately 100 attending Venture Connect were presented to Simbound, the newest e-Marketing game phenomenon. Presentation by Louis Havriliuc, Bucharest November 2013. Thank you all for attending ! Visit http://simbound.com for the best in social marketing games
1. L O U I S H AV R I L I U C
V E N T U R E C O N N E C T 9 TH E D I T I O N
B U C H A R E S T, 5 TH N O V E M B E R
2. ABOUT ME
35 Simulation Game Courses
with 1400 Students from +25 countries
Founded Simbound in late 2011
‘09 MSc International Business
(Leeds Univ. Business School, UK)
I believe Edtech can change the world
10. MARKET 1 – UNIVERSITIES
20.000 Masters Students
studying Economics,
Business, Marketing
(+ 110.000 at Undergrads)
Fundatia Dinu Patriciu, INS, 2011
ONLY IN ROMANIA
11. MARKET 2 – AGENCIES
Training Tool
Content Creation
Competitions
A new way to stand out
14. RECOGNITION
s
“Our team's excited with our
performance thus far. The
game is running very well”
Sean Quadlin
Hanapin Marketing (PPC Hero)
Winning The PPC Hero
Challenge Feb 2013
15. AMOUNT OF CAPITAL SOUGHT
275k EUR in exchange for 33% Equity
Will be Used for:
•
New Capability Development (R&D, Sales,
Development)
•
New Content Modules (Mobile Advertising, Big
Data)
•
New Range of Services (Certifications, Authorship)
•
Testing out new concepts (The Simbound Social
Network, An Integrated eMarketing System)
•
Raising Further Rounds of Capital
Hi Everyone, my name is Louis Havriliuc and I’m here to introduce you to Simbound. Our mission is to empower the aspiring digital marketer through simulation games. Our long termvision is to change how e-Marketing is carried out by using simple to use, yet powerful technology and cutting-edge education to support that. Most organisations, regardless of size or industry are looking to expand into digital. As a result, Online Marketing and e-Commerce are becoming the most important business study subjects of this decade. As a novelty, leaders of future digital transformations are already using games as learning resources. There is a series of articles written by Jason Yang, an intern with Canadian Inbound Marketing Agency "Powered By Search". He is using Simbound to navigate the world of e-Marketing tactics and strategy while also sharing the experience with his readers.
I believe Edtech can change the world. More specifically I believe Simulation Games can change the world, the can make it a better place. Why Simulation Games ? They started out being used in the military as training simulators used by jet pilots. University Professors started using them back in the 80’s with the advent of readily available computing power. I’ve played almost any kind of simulation game out there – strategy, business, city builder. I’ve even played dating sims which if you do well in those you know how you will end up
So if you do well in most games you win something. But there’s a universal rule in game design: all games must come to an end at some point
Ok so what do games have to do with learning ? Well it turns out education is moving online. There are a two main trends which I want to talk to you about: 1 The first one has become ubiquitous. People are searching for very specific content. How to change my oil filter on my car. How to assign a certain property to an array object in Javascript ? What is the optimum temperature for baby milk ? And for that there is Google, not much you can do to compete with that. However, there is another online learning behavior which is fascinating and which creates the need for simulation games. It often involves oversimplification of complex issues. Let me give you an example: try inputting something like: What is the best way to market my small edtech business ? There you go, you just rendered a multi-billion technology useless. The world is getting more complex, more interdependent. Those who can make the connections will stand out. And most of the times the connections are too many to include in a Search Results Page.
There is another large scale change happening. After print publishing, video & music rental, retail, I think it is now time for education to be forever changed by the internet. And once more, I think simulation games will have a prevalent role. There is a widening mismatch between what is taught in university programs and the realities of the job marketplace even more so in operational e-Marketing. The body of knowledge is focusing more on research rather than applicative learning which will need to be addressed by institutions to meet students expectations. Some people are saying that Universities will be gone in a few years. I don’t believe that will necessarily be the case but it is an interesting hypothesis nonetheless and as a company we are taking this scenario into consideration. In the meantime we will be working with universities so that they can offer their students an up to date education which is aligned to today’s digital reality. The main takeaway is that more people are learning online today than at any other point in time. This creates massive opportunities for those in edtech leadership positions.
One of them is MOOCs. Mooc stands for Massive Open Online Course. Now you might have heard about the Coursera’s and the Udacitys which are raising tens of millions of dollars for developing the platforms. Some initiatives in Europe as well.Which is great. It means people are becoming aware that in order to deliver quality, research-informed online education huge investments are needed. And there have been some aspects I’ve been particularly fond of with MOOCs, one of which is bringing on star instructors or really famous people to teach classes. If anyone of you knows Larry Page or Sergey Brin, drop them a line. Now here is an interesting statistic
COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOTS USE SIMULATORS FOR HUNDREDS OF HOURS BEFORE BEING ALLOWED TO FLY A REAL PLANE.I BELIEVE WE CAN MAKE AN ANALOGY WITH ONLINE MARKETING.BEFORE SIMBOUND THERE WAS NO EASY METHOD TO EMPLOY BY WHICH YOU COULD TEST OUT TACTICS AND STRATEGY WITHOUT THE RISK OF CRASHING THE PLANE. WE THINK THIS FOUNDATION SHOULD START WHILE STILL IN COLLEGE BUT IT CAN BE USED ANYTIME AFTERWARDSA GOOGLE EMPLOYEE RECENTLY CONFESSED THAT THEY HAVE A HIGH CHURN RATE FOR SMB’s WHICH SIGN UP FOR THEIR ADVERTISING SERVICE ADWORDS. I CAN’T REMEMBER THE EXACT FIGURE BUT SHE MENTIONED A FIGURE IN EXCESS OF 60%. SO THAT MEANS 60% OF THOSE COMING ON TO PAY-PER-CLICK ARE CRASHING THE PLANE.
THIS IS THE “WHY ARE WE IN BUSINESS” SLIDE. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ANYONE HAS DONE THIS. The feedback that we’re getting is amazing. Students don’t just want to play the simulation game for a week or two but for the entire semester or year ! And make no mistake, they are our customers !
Jason is a recent graduate who just got hired by a leading Inbound Marketing Agency and he is now looking to acquire the skills needed to perform in his recent job role. His Manager probably won’t hand him access to a real client account – because the client is important and there’s real money at stake. By working with software systems that are similar to those used by real professionals the transition from study to work is intended to be seamless. Btw this is a real example and you can visit the Powered By Search Blog to get to know a real, unbiased opinion from somebody just starting out with the exciting world of marketing.
There are over 20.000 students who could benefit from Simbound. I am highlighting Masters Students because the need for applied knowledge is more prevalent than with Undergraduate courses. Now keep in mind that we are not looking to serve just Romanian Universities and their students but I am using this to give you an estimate of the market size. We will continue serving edtech clientsand continue to bring innovation through a range of new content and creative services. Revenues for game-based learning in 2012 was $1.5 billion, in U.S. dollars, and will grow to $2.3 billion by 2017, an 8 percent increase based on the five-year compound annual growth rate. This is driven in part by the booming use of mobile technologies. Reaching the mobile phone dependent audience with simulation games is easy because this is content which does not require high bandwidth or sizeable downloads. Also it should not be taken for granted that we will only serve Business & Economics Students. We can extend the content to new areas such as health, engineering & pedagogical programs.
They can use this for training and assessment for interns. You set up a course, you enroll 10 interns, top 3 get a position.Building content assets, and scenarios for clients Competitions amongst agencies, it’s a crowded market out there, the fight for clients is big so they will need extra ways to stand out.
This is the market we’re actually pursuing. There are millions upon millions of marketing enthusiasts out there. And for strategic vision this is important as well.
We understand that marketing courses need to provide students with skills that improve employability, entrepreneurship and technology awareness. We acknowledge that forward-thinking instructors need a diverse range of creative & technology services and we are looking to make that selection a little easier. Also, International Content partners who explore the forefront of industries such as e-learning and training services are in need of solutions that allow value creation at multiple touch points.
