10 lessons, from 10 games, for teens

Channel 4 Education’s PS remit

• Original target audience: UK teens aged 14-19, recently extended to 10-19

• “Soft” learning to enhance curriculum and fill gaps: sex, drugs, alcohol, relationships, citizenship, money, etc.

• Target teens in leisure time, not school.

Used to be 330 hours of TV p.a.

Essential questions:

• Who is the target?• Where are they at the time you want to reach

them?• What are their tastes?• How much do you want them to learn?• What is the definition of success?

Games are an obvious choice.

#1: Know the audience

(Socnets higher for older teens)

Where do they go for information?

Internet Friends Family Teacher TV Radio No one

27% 46% 61% 34% 7% 2% 7%

51% 51% 39% 4% 11% 1% 7%

49% 42% 47% 13% 10% 2% 7%

45% 20% 53% 18% 28% 9% 13%

41% 20% 75% 10% 10% 3% 4%

Relationships and sex, drugs and alcohol are the most difficult topics for young people to talk to family / authority figures about.

What are their tastes?

Main-strea

m

Alternative

Urban

Trend-ies

Indie Scenester

Indie Kids

Moshers

Skaters

Emos

Scene Kids

ChavsTownies

Rahs

Street RatsSports Junkies

Boy Racers

Clubbers

Smart Urban

Blingers

Trackies

Hipsters

Goths

Grungers

TrendiesCraft Kids

DIYers

Techies

Get Paid Crew

PC World

UK’s TV watching habits:

Generic TV-is-on pattern

Hours per week of trad TV:

H r s p e r w e e kA d u lt s 5 5 +

In d iv id u a ls

A d u lt s 2 5 -3 4

A d u lt s 16 -2 4

U n d e r 16 s

ONew media is additional or synch use.

Where are they?

• Facebook? – games, chat• YouTube? - video• AppStore? - games• Kongregate? - games• Miniclip? - games• Stardoll? – dressup, chat• Habbo? – dressup, games• Xbox Live / PSN? - games

#2: Identify success metrics

How did we define success?

- Did it cost less and/or reach more teens than a morning TV schedule?

- Did it innovate, and get the corporation attention in new and positive ways?

- Did teachers, parents and educators like it?- Was it useful?

The Games

• Bow Street Runner: origins of the police force• Routes: genes, genetics, DNA• Smokescreen: privacy, social networking, media

literacy• 1066: cultural history• Trafalgar Origins: cultural/racial history• 303 Squadron: cultural history• Privates: sexual health• The Curfew: civil liberties, politics• Super Me: resilience, happiness, mental health• Cover Girl: media literacy

Super Me research

Source: SuperMe research, Dubit. 494 x 14-19 year old users interviewed between 6th – 24th August 2010

62% “learned something new”

from SuperMe

“I learnt that everyone - even celebrities - have insecurities, and they're not just a fact of life that you have to put up with, there are ways you can change that.” (Female, 14-16)

“That whatever you want to do to succeed in life there will be setbacks and possible failures involved, but that's okay. The trick is to dust yourself off and say “Ok, I haven't succeeded this time but lets try again until I reach success". (Male, 17-19)

“Being happy is so much more than simply smiling - it is a whole way of life, and the good news is that you can learn techniques and ways to become more happy” (Male, 17-19)

“ I learned that it is up to me to decide how I feel and not to let other people get in the way of my own happiness” (Female, 14-16)

“I learnt a lot from SuperMe including ways that emotions and feelings actually work, and a reminder that I have the ability to change and control my path in life and my emotions too.” (Female, 17-19)

Source: SuperMe research, Dubit. 494 x 14-19 year old users interviewed between 6th – 24th August 2010

Global audience, constant flow

#3: Use the best creatives you can find

#4: Spend for quality

Smokescreen

• 2 years to develop start to finish (high)• £400,000 (upper end)• Team of ~ 8 (normal)• Multidisciplinary & mixed media, inc video,

soundtrack, voiceovers, etc.• Won Learning on Screen & SXSW awards

#5: Watch for ambition > funds/ability

#6: Use video/audio for human stories

#7: Use valued, familiar faces for attn

#8: Easy to grok = more traffic.

Data

• Average time in a Facebook game: 10m• Average time on a website: 3m• Games as a Service = Farmville was launched as

a “minimum viable product”, and is a very different beast today than it was a year ago.

• Hiccup points: is the game or learning too hard, too boring?

• Download size?

#9: Launch, watch data, improve

Comparatives

Quantifying progress

Source: SuperMe research, Dubit. 494 14-19 year old users interviewed between 6th – 24th August 2010

On the SuperMe website you could earn points for watching videos, playing games and completing quizzes. How well do you think the points system worked?

19% 54% 21% 5% 1%14-19s

Very well Quite well Neither well or badly Quite badly Very badly

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

67%

71%

16%

12%

16%

17%

The points system motivated meto keep looking at more things

on the site

I understood what I had to do toget more points

Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree

#10: Have $$/time for marketing…

alice@wonderlandblog.com

alice@makieworld.com

@wonderlandblog

(@c4education for Channel 4 Education)

Thank you!