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Top 10: How can marketers embrace gaming?
As we all know, gaming or "gamification" is increasingly becoming a hot topic with marketers. It is seen as a new way to engage consumers. "Engage" also being the hot word coming out of every marketers' mouths...! However, despite all this excitement, there is a clear disconnect between the growth of this medium and the level of understanding about the opportunites it provides among the client and media buyer community. In fact, according to recent poll by M&M, 67% of international planners and key clients feel that their knowledge of maximising marketing opportunities within gaming is below average.
1. Why agencies aren't winning the gaming game. The meteoric rise in the last 12 months of casual games such as Angry Birds and Farmville has put brands (and their creative agencies) on alert as they consider what gaming means for their own customer outreach and engagement programmes. But as Rumbi Pfende, Country Manager for RealGames UK, explains, agencies are not always best placed to turn a good creative idea into a killer game…
2. Cereal box becomes 3D console game. Nestle is being a bit more prescriptive with children's imaginations with its augmented reality cereal box. I know AR can be rather gimmicky, but this version sees the cereal box turned into a 3D video game.
3. Doritos: putting the fun back in the dips. Everyone loves a good game and on my daily poke around cyberspace I found that Doritos is the latest brand to associate its goods with a game. Doritos Dip Desperado game [which hasn’t launched just yet] will challenge consumers to flick virtual chips into a jar of dip.
4. Gaming for marketers. Once upon a time, a stereotypical gamer was probably male, probably single and probably rarely went out in daylight. But today gaming is a lot more universal. Casual and social gaming has attracted new audiences who would never consider themselves gamers and home gaming has become a family pastime. Gaming represents an extremely flexible marketing channel, be it through in-game advertising, apps, interactive banners or advertiser-funded games.
5. Space age sneakers and retro gaming. Branded games have been about for years, but recently there have been some excellent examples of the genre. Thanks to the social network revolution that you might have heard about, online gaming is no longer the preserve of teenage boys and the IT crowd.
6. GroupM China forms gaming partnerships. GroupM China expanded its marketing opportunities within the gaming sector by forming a partnership with InGameAd, a game advertising and platform company in China.
7. Lonely gamers find love in Japan. For a generation who grew up with
Tamagotchi's and engage with programs like Foursquare, it's no surprise that the idea of having a virtual girlfriend is pretty normal for them. But this isn't Sims. This is Love Plus+.
8. Beyond the gaming experience. For all the talk about the increasing sophistication of smartphonescan be monotonous, and the experience usually falls short of that offered by gaming consoles. Sony Ericsson and Euro RSCG wanted to provoke the idea that even idle gaming on a smartphone could be a thrilling experience.
10. Germany embraces online gaming. A total 25.2 million Germans visited online gaming sites in June, according to new figures by Comscore.
9. Building to infinity. Lego reinvents the display advertising and makes banner ads exciting.
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