©2011 d2dfund, inc. financial entertainment september 27, 2011 engaging and empowering youth...

©2011 D2DFund, Inc.

Financial EntertainmentSeptember 27, 2011

Engaging and Empowering Youth

Financial Education Innovation:

©2010 D2DFund, Inc.© 2011 D2D Fund, Inc.

• Founded in 2000 by Harvard Business School Professor Peter Tufano

• Non-profit 501(c)3 headquartered in Roxbury, Massachusetts

• Mission: increase access to financial services, especially asset-building tools, for working-poor Americans

• Focus on innovation, scale, and real-world testing

Doorways to Dreams (D2D) Fund


Agenda

• Video Games and Financial Education

• Financial Entertainment: D2D’s Innovation

• Game Walk-Through: Farm Blitz

• Distribution Partnerships

• Summary and Next Steps


Financial Education Poses Challenges

Supply• Limited availability• Expensive to deliver

Demand

• Not Engaging• Consumers may not know they need it• Facing finances produces anxiety

Impact• Does it work? (change behavior?)• Does impact last?


• Popular– 72% of Americans play video games– A copy of Bejeweled is sold every 4.3

seconds– FarmVille has over 69 million active users

• Accessible– Casual games can be learned quickly,

played for minutes or hours– Inexpensive form of entertainment– Play on mobile devices growing fast

Sources: NPD Group, August, 2008; ESA, 2009; Tech-Crunch

Video Games


Video Games are…

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU

– Addicting….

– So might as well make it good for you..


Agenda







• Working with and for lower-income Americans, D2D’s vision includes: – Engaging new media – Leading with fun to reduce anxiety– Building financial capability

• To achieve this vision, D2D is currently working on:– Development – developing new financial entertainment

– Distribution – testing channels to deliver financial

entertainment to millions in a sustainable fashion

– Evaluation – identifying research opportunities to measure

impact, especially behavior change

– Innovation – continuous R&D

D2D’s Vision: Financial Entertainment


Making games for and with youth

• At each development milestone, we probe for:

– Fun. Are players enjoying the game? What components of play are most enjoyable?

– Learning Needs. What do players know about the teaching topics? What aspects of the game connect with real life?

– Assessment. Are players engaged? Do we observe increases in self-confidence?

First Playable

Alpha Beta Final

Test Test Test

Codman House, Boston, MA (2011)


www.financialentertainment.org

• Library of award-winning games:–Celebrity Calamity: Manage credit & debt

–Groove Nation: Dance budget game

–Bite Club: Vampire retirement savings

–FarmBlitz: Manage resources to build savings

–Refund Rush: Make the most of a tax refund


Disability Inclusive Gaming


Refund Rush- Jada


Agenda







Today, We Will Focus on Farm Blitz


What Do Players Do in Farm Blitz? (1)

• Players take on farmer role

– Lining up a row of three identical crops causes the crops to be "harvested,” resulting in earnings/income

• “Rabbit loans” are how players can borrow money

– Rabbits live in onscreen pen, multiply at high, compounded rate, and can escape and destroy crops


What Do Players Do in Farm Blitz? (2)

• Game goal—accrue as much money in cash account and as many trees (long-term savings) as possible without being overrun by rabbits (debt)

• Once harvest season is over, players can pay down debt and contribute to savings

– Paying off debt reduces number of rabbits in the pen

– Players may also buy trees for their farm—like compound interest on savings, trees grow slowly

– Players can chop down trees to gain cash to pay down debt


Farm Blitz Has Three Core Learning Objectives

• High-Interest, Short-Term Debt

– Like short-term debt products for low-income adults, interest rate for the rabbits is high

– More rabbits living on farm, more quickly more rabbits will accrue

– Just as high interest debt destroys financial reserves, rabbits destroy earnings by eating crops before harvest

• Low-Interest, Long-Term Savings

– Like savings account, trees grow in value through compound interest with a relatively low rate

– Like US Savings Bond, trees bought in dollar denominations and redeemed at their value plus interest earned

• Compounding Interest, Negative and Positive


Agenda







– Channels & Partners (examples)+ Financial institutions (banks, credit unions, investment firms)

+ Private Employers (retailers, hotels, fast food)

+ Schools / Universities (e.g., community colleges)

+ Government: (e.g. Massachusetts state-wide tournament)

+ NGOs (e.g. youth, asset building programs, VITA)

+ Military (e.g. Fort Hood tournament for troops & their families)

Reaching Consumers via Channels & Partners


Distribution

• D2D’s approach– Financial Entertainment “portal” – Distribution in schools– Different social marketing and

outreach strategies

• Results – 185,000 visits in testing pilots– Average time on Celebrity Calamity

game page: over 26 minutes– Many schools across the US using

the content regularly– Organic play in middle and high

schools


Save Up Tournament 2011- City of Boston

• Objectives– Introduce youth to important financial concepts

– Open to all youth but particularly through Mayor Menino’s Boston Summer Jobs program

• How– www.saveup.financialentertainment.org– In partnership with City of Boston– Play at home, library, or local community

center or club!– 1,500 visits in the first week of the tournament

• Tournament– Ran August 1st through August 22nd – Winners received certificates and trophies


– "The goal of the Save Up initiative and Farm Blitz is to help all of the students employed this summer to learn some basic personal finance skills to better manage and save their own money," Mayor Menino said. "This is just the first step in promoting financial literacy through new, innovative means. If kids are motivated to play, they will be motivated to learn too.“


Agenda







Summary and Conclusions

• Americans face basic financial challenges, like establishing emergency savings and saving for retirement

– Financial education is a difficult subject with which to engage

• D2D is working on financial entertainment as a remedy to this situation

– Video games have positive impacts on learning

– Video games create demand for financial education

– Build financial capability through player action-taking


OR..

Know the audience

Show the method

Teach the material


Next Steps

• D2D would like your help to promote the Financial Entertainment tournament:

‒ Visit www.financialentertainment.org and share the site broadly;

‒ Leverage the game(s) in your current work and share best practices and feedback;

‒ Encourage your constituents to check out the site and play


For More Information

Denisse Dubrovsky

Financial Innovation Project Coordinator

Doorways to Dreams Fund (D2D)

[email protected]

www.d2dfund.org

617.541.9066

©2011 d2dfund, inc. financial entertainment september 27, 2011 engaging and empowering youth...

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