how brands should use social gaming
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by adam archer, general manager of vitrue games
december 06, 2011
insight and best Practices
H o w B r a n d s s H o u l d u s e s o c i a l G a m i n Gt o d r i v e e n G a G e m e n t :
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table of contents
2
table of contents
i. introduction: Gaming is a Unique Engagement Vehicle
for Fans and Brands
ii. Best Practices: Define Your Goals
iii. Best Practices: Dont Build Games From Scratch
iv. Best Practices: Understand The Power of Viral Connections
v. Best Practices: Measure
vi. Best Practices: Simplify and Beautify
vii. Best Practices: Integrating Your Brand Within The Game
viii. Best Practices: Charitable Giving
ix. Best Practices: Market Your Game
x. vitrues oBserved social GaminG results
xi. case study: Vitrue Games and Masterlock
xii. case study: Vitrue Games and Dial
xiii. summary
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01
introduction
Beyond the visible popularity of online social games such
as Zyngas FarmVille and Mafia Wars, social gaming while
users are engaged with Facebook continues to grow as a
tremendous engagement opportunity.
According to eMarketers July 2011 study on social gaming
forecasts that there will be 73.6 million social gamers by 2013
with 44.8% of those players being social network users.
the Player audience exists
and the engagement
Potential is there, so why
arent more brands using
social gaming as a way to
engage with their fans?
Facebook estimates that active monthly
social gamers make up roughly 40%
of their overall user base; that means
approximately 320 million users are
playing social games each month on
Facebook alone. According to a study
done by IGA-Nielsen* , Interpret and
Hitwise, online gaming now surpasses
email in terms of engagement time
spent. In addition, the NPD Group hasreleased research highlighting the fact
that 53% of social gamers are women.
Sources: *IGA-Nielsen, Interpret, Hitwise:http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/84807/iga-nielsen-in-game-ads-boost-positive-product-p.html?print
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We also know that the revenue potential is there as well. Estimates are that
US social gaming revenue will hit $2.18 billion by the end of 2012, a 67%
increase from 2009. Social gaming revenue is typically divided between
advertisers and virtual currency purchases (either directly or indirectly through
deals and offers). The majority of growth will come from virtual currency and
micro-transactions, but advertising will also grow as US ad spending on social
gaming is expected to in crease to 33% by the end of the year, with non-US ad
spending on social gaming growing by 160%.
Here at Vitrue, we have recognized the potential of social games for quite
some time, and with the market-leading Vitrue Games platform, have collected
insight and best practices that every marketer should be aware of. With the
continued growth of social games and the volume of Facebook users growing,
it is time that marketers around the world build new engagement strategies toleverage this powerful medium.
Social gaming is no longer just for the hardcore
male gamer with 61% being female casual social
gamers (source: Kabam, Social Gamer Research Studyconducted by Information Solutions Group, Sep 22,
2011). Lastly, one of the biggest findings in media right
now is how engaged are social gamers compared
to traditional television viewers. Well a 2010 study
showed that on average, FarmVille had 33 million
players engaged on a weekly basis compared to prime
time television juggernauts Dancing With the Stars
and NBCs Sunday Night Football, which engage with
21 million viewers and 20 million viewers, respectively.
clearly the time for marketers to fully
understand the Power of social games is now.
Sources: **eMarketer, TV by the Numbers, App Data, Mindshare,The NPD Group:http://www.dreamgrow.com/social-media-gaming-infographic/
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Like every other social strategy that marketers
manage, success in social gaming engagement
starts with defining your goal. Knowing whatyou want the gaming experience to be will go
a long way in choosing the right game and right
engagement. You need to build the type of game
that will accomplish your goal and target your
desired audience.
best Practices:
deFine your Goals
wHen deFininG your Goals, consider tHeFollowinG oPtions:
FanGrowth
FanEnGaGEmEnt
ViralGrowth
rEVEnuEGEnEration
CouponorSalESpromotion
SiGn-upS
CampaiGnComponEntpartoFaBroadErCampaiGn
When launching a social gaming campaign, there is no right or wrong goal. You must determine what is best for your brand and your overall marketing
strategy at that time. Social games are naturally high in engagement with built-
in viral components. They are the perfect vehicle for fan growth and building
your community, but they are equally as successful at driving brand awareness,
revenue and promotions.
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best Practices:
dont Build it FromscratcH
Remember that you are building a game to engage your social
community; you are not building a game to become the next great
video game publishing company. As marketers, we should focus
on successful campaign development and in that vein rememberthat you do not need to have a team of game developers on staff
to custom build a game.
Building a game yourself, or having your agency build a game for
you can cost well over $1M, and weve seen time and time again,
these games can perform poorly because it often takes years to
understand, build, do the necessary measurement and iterates to
build a successful branded social game. It often takes a veteran
game studio solely dedicated to this effort because the topic is
quite complex.
instead, consider Partnering with a comPany
that has a library of white label social games
that your comPany can use to engage with
your fans.
Start out using game styles or concepts that your fans already
know and love. Once you gain traction with your fans, then start to
look at expanding your social gaming strategy into original gaming
concepts.
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best Practices:
understand tHe PoweroF viral connections
As it related to gaming, and still staying technical, the formula from kSuite
Social Metrics tells us the 1-Day Virality on Monday is the number of users
that Monday-installers influenced to install the application within one day,divided by the total number of Monday-installers.
However, for a layman, the calculation can be much easier. Using a
simplified example. If you drive 100 fans to your game on Monday, and
those 100 fans bring in 10 additional fans through viral channels, your
virality for Monday is 10%.
Why is this important? Because it helps you achieve your marketing goals.
As an example, if your goal is in-game sales, attain 20% virality in your
game, and youve probably achieved 20% increase in your in-game sales
numbers because of the additional visitors.
In addition, Facebooks new Open Graph capabilities now allow the sharing
of the fact you are playing a game to be automatic and frictionless (meaning
there are few to no hoops a player has to go through to communicate to
their friends that they are playing the game).
Technically speaking, viral is an object or pattern that is able to induce
some agents to replicate it, resulting in many copies being produced and
spread around.
Social games provide a terrific platform for the
members of your social community to connect
with their own friends through their word ofmouth efforts..
viral connections are imPortant, Primarily
because they helP you achieve your goals,
as well as make the game more social and
therefore, more fun.
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metrics to monitor include:
best Practices:
measure
Knowing how your game is
performing on any number of
criteria will help you evolve a
more precise social gaming
strategy. As you learn what
does and does not appeal to
your brands fans, you can
make adjustments until you
see the needle moving on
the goal or metric you haveset out to improve.
Even if youve obtained your measurement goals, continue tracking metrics throughout
the life of the game. In particular, you may start to notice different trends in engagement
that you can turn into a learning for your next social game.
continuously track PerFormance
tiP
visi
ts
fans acQuired
breakdown of your Goals
virality(SharinG%)
totalnumber
in-GamE
clicks
couPon
downloads
co
nversions
an
dSiGn-upS
levels
c
omPlete
uniQuevisits averaGe PlaytimePer visit
+
1 2 3 4 5
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best Practices:
simPliFy and BeautiFy
If a game is confusing to understand, difficult to maneuver or just simply boring,
players are likely to move on to other activities. The rule of thumb at Vitrue Games
is that the first five seconds of the players gaming experience are the most crucial
in keeping the player engaged. A player will be more drawn to a game and spend
more time engaging with the game (and your brand), if you keep in the mind the
following elements during development:
Though fan-gating is a proven way to increase fan growth, make
sure your game does not require any sort of Facebook install beyond
Liking the page. In order to maximize the number of fans playing
the game, try to minimize the number of barriers to getting started
with the game as possible.
minimize Barriers
tiP
thEinVitationtoplayiSClEar
thEGamEiSEaSytoStartplayinG
thErEarEnorulESorhEaVyinstructions to read
thEGamEiSViSuallyappEalinG
anyaudiointhEGamEiSEnjoyaBlEand not annoying
oFFErinCEntiVEStoplaythEGamE
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Think beyond just branding a game with a logo
and colors, and keep in mind how you can achieve
the goals you have developed, be it increasing
fan growth, revenue generation or otherwise.
Be creative and strategic with brand integration
into your social game through branded in-game
elements.
best Practices:
inteGrate your BrandwitHin tHe Game
FunFaCtS
rEtailCallS-to-aCtion
addEd-ValuE -ExiStinGCouponS -SwEEpStakESorGiVEawayS
EVEnttraCkinG
Fan-GatE(rEquirESomEonEtolikE
yourBrandSpaGEBEForEthEyCanplay)
Sweepstakes and giveaways have long been a marketing staple, so it
should come as no surprise they work just as well when incorporated
into social gaming. Give your players something tangible to strive foror achieve. Or let them know that just playing the game gives them
the chance to win something great. It will make the experience more
fun and exciting for them, expose them to your brand on a more
interactive level, and youll have helped them justify the time they
spend playing.
Branded incentives
tiP
Note: In order to stay within Facebook Guidelines on sweepstakes and giveaways, it
is necessary to request sweepstakes entrants information via a popup window versusFacebooks own app install info.
Social games experience over 100x more clicks on buttons integrated into the
game than do media posts, indicating that this is a great opportunity to organically
connect your brand with your fans. Incorporate your brand into the game through
elements such as:
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best Practices:
inteGratecHaritaBle GivinG
Incorporating charitable giving within a branded social game has the dual benefit
of providing engagement and high profile exposure for a brands charitable giving
foundation with a low cost game on Facebook.
75% of consumers say they would try a brand they normally would not if it supports
a cause they care about.*** Based on Vitrues client data, social games that integrate
charitable giving have also been proven to increase engagement and virality with
your branded game by up-to 10x compared to games that have no charitable giving
component.****
Social games with charitable giving are also an excellent way to introduce your
brand to potential new customers and an efficient way to get those potential new
customers to feel positive about your company, willing to be associated with it, and
build a relationship with your brand.
Set up charitable giving within your social game such that frequency
of play and length of time played by your fans, the more money will
be contributed to the charity. You can also give players an incentive
to play to a certain point in the game, for example, get to level 3 and
youll help to provide a meal for a hungry child.
If there is one thing that might serve as even more of an incentive
to play a social game than winning a prize, it is the feeling of being a
do-gooder just by playing.
Play lonGer. do more Good!
tiP
Sources:
***Cone Cause Evolution: http://www.coneinc.com/2010-cone-cause-evolution-study
****Metrics pulled from Vitrue client data, indicate that time on a Facebook page varies. Vitrue clients have experienced thatcharitable game applications exceed 30 minutes of time-on-page, and in-page charitable games exceed 17 minutes ofgameplay per visit.
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Your social game might be the little engine that could, but to have it operating at
peak efficiency, you have to add a little fuel to that engine. That fuel is paid media
in the form of Facebook Ads, which can expose users to the game, whether theyre
already fans of your brand or not, and provide them an easy link to immediately
start playing and engaging.
Beyond that, you can rest in the knowledge that if youve done your job right, fans
who are playing the game will be doing a lot of your marketing for you, as their
engagement with the game get sent out to friends News Feeds and placed on their
own Timeline
best Practices:
market your Game
Facebook Ads can drive targeted traffic to your game, if done right.Remember, you dont have a lot of room for copy in a Facebook ad, so
youll have to fire up your creative powers to come up with text that
will entice them to play in a simple way.
keeP it BrieF
tiP
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vitrues oBservedsocial GaminG results
Companies specializing in social community management tools, such as Vitrue, are all
too aware of the growing demand for branded social games, and have made it relatively
quick and easy to choose a game, skin it for the brand, and launch it on Facebook.
As mentioned earlier, provided the task is not to craft a completely original game from
scratch, skinnable, traditional games are a very cost-effective way to offer this fun and
interactive content to your fans.
The analytics tools, such as the Vitrue Games metrics available via Vitrue Analytics, are
readily available to chart the engagement your new social game is getting. With this
data, you can make adjustments to make the game even more engaging, or you can
quickly determine whether or not the strategy is meeting the goals you set out for it.
Here are top line results that Vitrue has observedthrough our customers social gaming efforts:
sHarinG
acQuisition
enGaGement
Per the Vitrue Games and Masterlock case study,
Vitrue has seen up to 50-100% of social game
players sharing the brand through a combination
of in-game sharing and Like-gating. (Please see
full Vitrue Games and Masterlock case study onthe following pages).
Per overall data Vitrue pulled from clients using
Vitrue Games, we have determined that when
it comes to a brands average cost per Like, the
investment of launching a branded social game
represents up to a 60% savings.
Vitrue has observed up to 10x more active
engagement (time on page) with brands upon
the launch of a social game. Weve also seen
game revisit rates of 75%.
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case study:vitrue Gamesand masterlock
Masterlock was interested in not only acquiring and engaging
fans on their Facebook page, but also in promoting their newproduct, an innovative, touch-style combination lock, with a
branded game.
Vitrue Games recommended and executed a Facebook fan
acquisition and engagement campaign with a custom branded
and really fun, slick game based upon the Simon Says game
engine for Masterlocks Facebook page.
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case study:vitrue Games and masterlock
At 155 days live, Masterlock saw 28,599 absolute unique visitors
and 18,260 new fans acquired post-launch, with 100% of players
sharing with their friends. That is, for every 1000 people driven to
the game, those 1000 brought in an additional 650 through viral
channels.
In addition, players spent an average of 2.5 minutes playing
the game, deeply engaged with the brand, with more than 8%
returning to the page again to play the game.
Masterlock donated $25,000 to The Breast Cancer Research
Foundation through the game, during October 2011s National
Breast Cancer Awareness month, with motivated players donating
$1 per level.
28,599absolute
uniquEViSitors
18,260 new fanSaCquirEd
Post-launch
2:47
2 minute 47 secondaverage time Pergame engaged with
masterlock brand
65%virality
in thefirst 10days
$25,000masterlock donated$25,000 to the breastcancer researchfoundation throughthe game $
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case study:vitrue Gamesand dial
Dial was interested in not only acquiring and engaging fans on
their Facebook page, but also in promoting their new product,their NutriSkin Lotions, with a branded game.
Vitrue Games recommended and executed a Facebook fan
acquisition and engagement campaign with a custom branded
and really fun, slick game based upon the Memory Card game
engine for Dials Facebook page.
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case study:vitrue Games and dial
At 197 days live, Dial saw 161,415 new fans acquired post-launch
(up 301% from the prior period) thanks in large part due to sharing
from the game. For example, 7% of players shared the game with
their friends, and every post from the game saw 1.3 feedbacks (a
like or comment from a friend).
In addition, players spent an average of 6.26 minutes playing
the game, deeply engaged with the brand, with more than
16% of visits from returning players
The demographic breakdown of those playing the game was
heavily Female with 65% of those on the leaderboard being
Female 25 44.
Dial donated up to $500 per month to The Endometriosis
Foundation for America through the game, motivating players
by donating up to 10 cents for every minute they played.
6:266 minute 26 secondaverage time Per gameengaged with dial brand
$$500 dial donated uP to $500 Per month
to the endometriosis foundation
for america through the game
161,415
1.3
nEwFanSaCquirEdpoSt-launCh
FEEdBaCk(likEorCommEnt)Per share
16%
16%of visits fromreturningvisitors
7%
7%of PlayersPosted totheir stream
15
Female 91%1.4%
13-17 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+
1.4% 2.9%0.72% 0.72%
2.2%
12%
31%34%
9.4%
male 5.8%
Gender and aGe
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Given that recent Facebook changes have increased the overall importance of engagement in showing upin fans News Feeds, addictive, easy, interactive content such as social gaming may be a valuable part of a
comprehensive strategy for securing that engagement.
tHe key takeaways on How your BrandsHould use social GaminG to drive enGaGement are:
Develop your social gaming strategy around what is best for your brand and your overall marketing
strategy at that time Analyze the performance of your social game throughout its run and evolve a more precise social gaming
strategy accordingly to get the best results
There is no need to spend the time or money building a game from scratch as there are companies who
have white-labeled games available for you to brand quickly and easily
Understand the power of viral connections and develop a branded social game with elements that
encourage social users to share your game via their News Feeds
A player will be more drawn to a game and spend more time engaging with the game (and your brand), ifyou keep it simple and pleasant to view and listen to
Organically connect your brand with your fans by integrating branded added-value or other engaging
elements within the game
Quickly increase engagement and provide high profile exposure for your brands charitable giving platform
by Incorporating charitable giving within a branded social game
Market your branded social game to fans and other Facebook users via Facebook Adsthis will provide
them an easy link to immediately start playing and engaging
summary
the verdict is in; social games are one of the most engaging
forms of content with which a brand can be involved.
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about vitrue
Vitrue (www.vitrue.com) is the leading social marketing platform, offering
software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to help brands and agencies harness the
marketing potential of social and manage their expanding and sophisticated
social communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and emerging platforms.
Anchored by its industry-leading Vitrue Social Relationship Management
(SRM) platform, Vitrue is collectively managing its clients more than 935
million social relationships in 47 countries across 4,000 Facebook and Twitter
accounts. Vitrues stable of clients include many of the worlds leading globalbrands and agencies.
Vitrue has been at the forefront of social media in terms of innovating,
developing and intellectually leading the way. We want to use our platform
knowledge and best practices to aggressively drive social media forward and
continually strive for ways to help shape this ever-changing, ever-growing
medium. We are committed to moving the industry forward and will continue
to provide our findings to help shape discourse and debate.
Headquartered in Atlanta with offices in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas,
San Francisco and an international office in London, Vitrue is a Facebook
Preferred Developer Consultant and has received numerous industry
accolades including the Red Herring Global 100 and OnMedia 100. For more
information, visit www.vitrue.com.
vitrue
@vitrue facebook.com/vitrue [email protected]
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i. introductiona. Methodology
ii. understandinG sPam
iii. identiFyinG sPam
iv. does unwanted user Generatedcontent eFFect every PaGe?
v. summary
vi. Best Practices: moderation
a. Defining Your Brands Social Identity andEngagement Approach
b. Establishing the Rules of Engagement
c. Blocking and Tackling with Facebook Filters
d. Facebook Filters Options
e. Monitor Your Spam Activity
f. Consider a Moderation Tool
g. Understanding the Power of Word Lists
h. Tips for Creating Word Lists/Blocklists
contents table of
adam archerGeneral Manager, Vitrue Games
CEO and Co-Founder of GamesThatGive (Acquired by Vitrue), Adam Archer
is now the General Manager of Vitrue Games. Previously, Adam served as
a senior software engineer at Apple, working on many aspects of Mac OS X,
and as a software engineer for Microsoft MSN. Adam is an experienced
organic farmer and has backpacked extensively around the world. Adam
holds a B.S.E. in Computer Engineering from Arizona State University.
@vitrue
adam@
vitrue.com
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