How Brands Should Use Social Gaming

8/2/2019 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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04

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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How Brands Should Use Social Gaming

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