If This Doesn’t Convince You of Social Gaming’s Power, Nothing Will

Posted by: Neil James // December 21st, 2011

It’s a powerful concept, and one explored by Jane McGonigal in her book Reality is Broken: the positive stimuli resulting from the game construct has the power to significantly impact behavior. Such is the power possessed by social gaming, power that is being tapped to help people manage their diabetes and reduce their household energy consumption.

Now, there’s an interactive game for marketers. Abraham Harrison LLC released a browser-based Reputation Disaster Training Simulation. The game is designed to introduce individuals to the basic concepts of digital PR, online reputation management and blogger outreach!

We dare you to resist clicking!

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73 Million to be Social Gamers in Two Years

Posted by: Neil James // September 28th, 2011

Any time you have a congregation of eyeballs, you’ve got a marketing opportunity. And the more eyeballs, the better. Online games, whether they are played on social media sites or mobile phones, are accumulating those eyeballs in greater and greater numbers. Just how many eyeballs are we talking? According to a new eMarketer article, Online Gaming Audience Defies Stereotypes, social gaming will reach nearly 62 million US internet users – more than one-quarter of the online population – by the end of this year. By 2013, eMarketer predicts this figure will top 73 million! The outlook is even stronger for mobile gaming. Thanks to popular games such as Angry Birds, the number of US mobile gamers is expected to grow from 74 million in 2011 to 105 million in 2015 – a rise of 43 percent!

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How Five Brands Are Integrating Social Gaming Into Their Marketing

Posted by: Neil James // May 19th, 2011

How Five Brands Are Integrating Social Gaming Into Their Marketing

How can you tell an executive that’s committed to truly innovative marketing from one who isn’t? The latter sees a family member playing a social game like Farmville and thinks “what a waste of time” while the former thinks “how can I make money on this?” In a new article for Mashable, Brian Hernandez discusses how five brands, including a few not necessarily known for pushing the envelope like Century 21 and the New York Public Library, are integrating social gaming into their marketing efforts. According to Hernandez, the decision to enter the social gaming space is one made based not on capriciousness but on time-honored marketing traditions – understanding where your audience is spending their time and meeting them there.

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5 Ways Brands Can Monetize Social Gaming

Posted by: Neil James // January 26th, 2011

If you’re an executive, chances are you’ve had a conversation at some point with IT about keeping employees from playing online games on the clock. Of course, it’s entirely possible you yourself have snuck in a few moments of Farmville in lieu of analyzing revenue projections! Already an $835 million industry, social gaming is set to reach even greater heights in 2011. Aliva Zaidi analyzes where social gaming is going and how brands can capitalize on its growth in her new article for Econsultancy, Social Gaming Trends For 2011. Zaidi identifies five options brands have for leveraging social gaming in their marketing programs: branded content, virtual goods, in-game advertising, display ads and lead generation offers. Brands should be careful not to subscribe to the notion that social gamers are predominantly young and male. Zaidi reports on a recent study that found that not only does social gaming span all age brackets, it also skews slightly female!

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