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The Wit and Wisdom of Sheryl Sandberg: 10 Insights from IGNITION

Tom Johansmeyer — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:45:03 +0000

The Business Insider IGNITION conference just wrapped up this week. The height of the event, of course, came on the second morning, at 9 am, when Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, was interviewed by Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget. Here’s are the high points:

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Facebook IPO: Stop Leaving Money on the Table

Tom Johansmeyer — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:38:15 +0000

Facebook is running out of time to get its act together. The company is expected to file for its IPO by April 2012, which would mean a likely celebratory opening bell the following September (give or take). Once the company reveals its financials to the investing public, I suspect, it will have a lot of explaining to do. How will it answerthe tough questions will mean the difference between an IPO that looks like Google’s and one that looks like Groupon’s.

And, make no mistake about it: Facebook’s IPO could turn ugly.

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Social Media Adoption and Fortune 500 Companies — Have They Reached their Peak?

Azam Khan — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:35:08 +0000

Fortune Magazine annually tracks America’s largest corporations due to their influence in the business world. For this study, Academics from Center For Marketing Research Dartmouth examined the social media activity, specifically blogging, of various organizations, concluding that the biggest companies have slowed down their social media efforts and appear to be hitting a plateau. More after the jump. continued…

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CrowdStar Goes Core

Azam Khan — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:00:59 +0000

It’s no longer a mystery: CrowdStar’s entering the midcore market with a strategy game for social gamers on Facebook called Wasteland Empires. The social gaming company’s MAU count fell from 20M at the beginning of the month to 12M in mid October, with Facebook’s changes in how it counts active users accounting for a rough 3M count loss. More after the jump. continued…

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wooga Launches Magic Land Island on Mobile With Facebook Support

Azam Khan — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:55:22 +0000

Facebook’s mobile announcement is spawning an army of games with Facebook tie-ins. Social gaming company Wooga is leaping into the HTML5 frenzy by launching its first mobile game Magic Land Island that can be accessed on almost any device. More after the jump. continued…

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Storm8′s Blockbuster Titles Launch On Facebook Mobile Apps

Azam Khan — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:35:26 +0000

Storm8, one of the premier mobile game developers for iPhone and Android has just launched 3 of its popular mobile titles with Facebook connectivity. This announcement comes in lieu of Facebook’s recent announcement to support third party mobile apps with its social infrastructure from within its own mobile apps. More after the jump. continued…

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Zynga Direct Launches for Easier Access to Zynga’s Social Games

Azam Khan — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:28:03 +0000

The Facebook tidal wave seems to be unleashing across the social gaming ecosphere. The latest extension of Facebook’s social connectedness comes from none other than Zynga itself which today unveiled ‘Zynga Direct’, an extension of its ZLive platform that will serve as a new discovery and distribution channel for the social gaming powerhouse. More after the jump. continued…

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Sony Taps RockYou for Zookeeper Social Game Promotion

Azam Khan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:00:33 +0000

Social Game publisher, RockYou, has joined forces with Sony Home Entertainment to incorporatethe hit movie, Zookeeper, into the popular social game Zoo World 2. The promotion includes favorite characters from the film found in-game, Zookeeper-themed activities to complete, and special edition animals to buy. If that wasn’t enough, fans who purchase the DVD will receive 12,500 free Zoo Bucks($10 value) to spend in Zoo World 2. More after the jump.

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Volume11Media CEO Shares Secret To Monetizing Free Users

Azam Khan — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:33:36 +0000

People get nutty for virtual goods. They will solve massive puzzles, play for hours on end, come back day after day, and in many cases even pull out their credit cards. The social gaming space is now estimated at over $1B annually. There are tens to hundreds of millions of people out there who have lots of disposable income and are willing to give it to you in exchange for a sword, a fish, a barn, or any other combination of pixels on a screen.

Here’s the problem. Even tens of millions of people still make up a very small fraction of the total Internet population. The games that have done very well in this space have done so at the behest (or expense) of a very small number of extremely dedicated users who often spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on a single game. Gaming companies literally have to cap their allowed daily spend so some users don’t bankrupt themselves. Often as little as 2% of a game’s user base is providing 90% or more of its total revenue, either through direct purchase or some sort of affiliate offer like Netflix or DirecTV.

This doesn’t sound like a big issue at face value, but consider the team you need to maintain such a top-weighted system. You need a huge creative and design team to build a constant supply of new and exciting virtual goods to keep the 2% happy, an engineering support team to maintain the massive marketplace, and a team of PhD economists to balance your constantly-inflating virtual economy (no, really). To exacerbate the problem, most of these games have enormous user turnover rates, so they constantly have to shell out massive ad buys to keep the incoming users flowing. It’s exhausting and extremely expensive.

What if there were a way to hit the other 98% of the users that aren’t willing to spend anything? These users don’t want to pay by cash, they don’t want to sign up for a Discover Card, they already have Netflix (or they did before the price increase), and they don’t want to supply their contact information to a lead-gen or survey company. They just want to play the game.

Enter in-game branded engagement. Advertisers are increasingly interested in being in some type of social environment. And they should be – social users are one of the most engaged groups around, and they are readily willing to share content that they find funny, interesting, or just plain entertaining. In addition, a successful social ad campaign can cost the advertisers a small fraction of what they would pay for a TV or print spot. The Internet is naturally viral, and people will spread good content even if it’s an ad. See the SmartWater campaign with Jennifer Aniston or the Mr. W campaign from an Australian company called Epuron for evidence of this. Both are great ad campaigns and extremely viral.

What does this mean for gaming? We know that users are interested in earning virtual currency. Advertisers are discovering that they can engage these users with entertaining in-game branded content, throw a few shells or gems or coins the user’s way for good measure, and those users will readily consume the content and even ‘Like’ the brand on Facebook and share with their friends…for free. Ads disguised as viral video, advertiser-sponsored mini-games, virtual good sponsorship and branding… users will happily consume and spread (as long as the content is good and non-invasive). It’s like having a small fire that will spread naturally by itself, and then adding a bucket of gasoline to it.

The users that are willing to engage with in-game branded content are part of that other 98% of elusive non-payers. This means publishers are able to earn more money from the same set of users they already have. Also, branded engagements are far less invasive and time consuming than offer walls, lead-gen offers, surveys, credit card forms, and any other form of cost-per-action type of transaction. Users engage, share if they want, and go back to their game.

It really is a win-win-win.

This trend has literally taken 3 years to come around. Facebook is the dominant force in social networking. Social games and MMOs are played by 65% of gamers and advertisers are now spending hundreds of millions on in-game branded engagements. Publishers should be looking to develop their games in a way that will capitalize on this trend. The top 2% will be there, and they should be treated like the billionaire whale on the Baccarat table. But the other 98% are the slot machines. They will make for a far more steady and predictable source of revenue, which makes it much easier to grow the platform. Find ways to monetize that group, and you’re on your way to a successful game. In-game engagement is a proven way to do that.

Publishers, please don’t tell anyone that I referred to your users as slot machines.

Andrew Hunter is the CEO of Volume11 Media, and a veteran of the gaming and advertising industries. Volume11 Media is the maker of the AMPlify platform, which brings targeted video advertiser dollars directly to your game without altering your carefully-crafted user experience. Visit v11media.com to learn more.

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Social Gamers Spend 75 Percent Of Social Networking Time Playing Games

Azam Khan — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:00:03 +0000

Social game developer, RockYou, and the marketing research firm, Interpret, announced the latest findings of their ‘Social Gamer Thought Leadership Study’. The study is the first-of-its-kind as it analyzes behaviors, motivations, and purchase intent among the US social gaming demographic. The results both reaffirm existing assumptions and provide some insightful information about social gamers. More after the jump. continued…

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RockYou Launches Space Combat Themed RTS Game

Azam Khan — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:30:37 +0000

Social gaming development studio RockYou recently announced its release of Galactic Allies, an RTS game for Facebook. Galactic Allies was developed by 3 Blokes, an Australian-based team owned by RockYou. Can RockYou’s game hit a trajectory? More after the jump. continued…

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Kabam Appoints New CFO To Oversee Expansion

Azam Khan — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:00:52 +0000

Companies progress forward by maintaining stability yet occasionally instituting dynamic change in leadership. Kabam, a major player in the social gaming space, announced Steve Klei will be assuming the role of Chief Financial Officer. At a time when social innovation is gripping tightly on the gaming industry, Kabam is making big plays in their growth as a company. More after the jump. continued…

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King.com Prepares To Launch Bubble Witch Saga for Facebook

Azam Khan — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:40:43 +0000

Competitive social gaming giant King.com announced today the launch of Bubble Witch Saga, a game available on Facebook. While the initial launch is only available on Facebook, King.com intends cross-platform portability on mobile devices later this year. More after the jump. continued…

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Why did Facebook push back its IPO?

Tom Johansmeyer — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:11:54 +0000

It didn’t take long for the news to spread across the internet: Facebook isn’t going public as soon as the world expected. The white-hot social media company, which could be worth close to $90 billion (depending on who you ask), was originally expected to file its IPO paperwork with the SEC in the fourth quarter of 2011 and make the big move by April 2012.

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StumbleUpon Logs 1 Billion Stumbles a Month

ilanaarazie — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:54:45 +0000

Facebook might seem like a social media behemoth, but according to StatCounter StumbleUpon made up 47.11 percent of all social traffic in the U.S. as of July 2011.
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