Gaming and Marketing
Gaming has an important role in the market place for brands and companies. A branded game provides in-depth engagement and can be leveraged across platforms. Gamification also increases brand adoption, brand loyalty, sharing and the most important bottom line to marketers: sales.
Online gaming is a great way to expand marketing strategies. Online games build interest and have the power to fully engage the audience. First, it is essential to understand the gamers to correctly place a game in the marketing mix. According to Forrester, 84% of marketers do not use games in their marketing efforts. In my opinion brands and companies are missing opportunities.
Strategy
First, like any marketing campaign, an objective is needed. Stating the business goal and what the game should achieve is key. Then, choose the behaviors the games should display. For example: brand awareness, interest or purchases. Then choose the tactics to achieve these through a branded game experience. Lastly, there needs to be incentive for the customer. Look at the game from the customers’ point of view and always remember to ask the question, “What’s in it for me?”
Gamers
Next, lets look at the target audience: gamers. The audience is more broad than people tend to assume. The average gamer is 37 years old and skewed female across all games including smart and feature phones, casual games, online games and console games. 65% of Xbox gamers are male while 59% of social gamers are women, where as mobile gamers are divided equally amongst genders. Generations are also spread equally. Gamers tend to be more motivated and interested in social activity compared to others. They also have a higher than average disposition to interact with brands on social networks. Today, across the globe, people invest 3 billion hours a week playing online games according to Dr. McGonigal’s research and development.
Why?
Gamification is defined as the application of gaming concepts to non-game experiences to drive desired behavior from an audience. In an article for Harvard Business Review, Dr. McGonigal found that gaming provides a sense of progress, which is the same that keeps people motivated at their jobs. Extensive research also found that games give people urgent optimism, social fabric, blissful productivity and epic meaning. Social network sites such as Facebook allow users to compete and compare game progress with friends and the Facebook community. Also, 55% of gamers play games on their phones or handheld device, which displays that having games cross platformed on mobile technology is a key factor.
After discovering the power of games by understanding the strategy and the gamer and watching Dr. McGonigal’s video presentation, I hope marketers will stop underestimating gamers and games and use online and social network games to grow business.
Marketing