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阐述在社交游戏展开营销活动的注意要点

发布时间:2012-09-06 11:51:40 Tags:,,,

作者:Jignesh Jain

社交游戏是现今发展最迅速的领域之一,并且这种发展势头也很难在短期内平缓下去。据国际市场调研公司Parks Associates最新报告显示,到2015年社交游戏市场的收益将翻五番,增至50亿美元。

social-game(from entrepreneurindia)

social-game(from entrepreneurindia)

Park的报告将这种发展归功于广告收益和虚拟产品的销售(或微交易)。单从去年来看,这两大元素便为社交游戏领域挣得超过10亿美元的收益。并大大完善了游戏公司在社交游戏的盈利方式。早前的游戏经常错失盈利机会,而如今新的游戏则通过激励玩家购买虚拟产品(游戏邦注:如购买虚拟拖拉机,种子或特殊的宝剑等去提高自己的地位),完善游戏体验或获得竞争优势而赚取收益。

除此之外,各种广告创新如品牌游戏,赞助项目,社区以及‘广告’服务等也都将起到推动作用,玩家体验也将为游戏发行商创造出新的收益来源。

社交网站上的游戏已经迅速发展成最普及的一种在线游戏类型,并逐渐追赶上智能手机游戏的脚步。

社交游戏开发者所具有的最强大的资产便是他们能从自己的游戏中获得大量行为数据。

衡量不同游戏机制,几近实时地调整游戏设计并测试新模式等都是传统游戏公司所不具备的优势。

Zynga巨大的市场份额便是其最大的竞争优势——即合理利用消费者数据。

所以衡量一款社交游戏成功的基本元素到底是什么?

选择一款合适的游戏

如果你已经建立了自己的游戏品牌并希望能够利用社交媒体,那么创造出多产的社交游戏便是你成功的关键。确保产品能够体现出游戏的复杂性这一点至关重要。设置更多能够促成品牌建设的互动情节是提取游戏最大优势的最佳手段。

明确目标用户

Amaze未来趋势及创新顾问Andrew Dean解释道:“了解你的用户并考虑他们的人口统计元素和态度。不要将时间和金钱浪费在错误的人身上,就像是你不会将汽车卖给14岁的未成年人,也不会向刚刚购买了新车的人进行推销。”

社交游戏为那些明确了特定人群的市场营销者树立了新的挑战。基于那些选择了这类型游戏的玩家来看,这的确是一个巨大的数组。

基于创造性模式设计活动

确保用户能够频繁回到游戏中非常重要。确保社交游戏中的广告不只是让玩家看广告那样简单。如果开发者能够合理放置广告,或者将其内嵌在游戏领域中,便能够引起玩家与品牌的有效互动。必须确保广告的互动性,从而让开发者明确用户对于广告的想法,并根据他们的反馈做出回应。通过这种激励机制还能够推动离线销售的发展。从而让用户愿意在现实世界中与游戏进行互动——例如通过可换成现款的消费券或获得独家报告。

确保为用户提供有价值的奖励

确保用户能够获得有价值的内容。麦当劳通过提供给用户带有麦当劳商标的农场,并且同时这一农场也具有特殊功能,即让拥有者能够获得比普通玩家多出1.5倍的奖励。所以这便是提供给玩家有意义的奖励。

但是麦当劳也未完全发挥其《FarmVille》策略,即未能给予用户足够的奖励让他们融入其中——虚拟咖啡虽然能让农民提高两倍的工作速度,但却不算多大的福利。而如果他们能够奖励用户现实世界中的咖啡券,这便能够影响到麦当劳的现实销售。

通过用户促进病毒式推广

通过提供奖励让现在的用户经由Facebook或发送电子邮件等方式邀请好友加入游戏。

采取同步发行或周期性发行方式

当你沉迷于《蝙蝠侠:黑暗骑士崛起》时,如果你的智能手机也能够换上蝙蝠侠的壁纸或者你能够玩一款蝙蝠侠游戏,并在其中扮演蝙蝠侠去拯救陷入困境的好友,这该是件多酷的事啊!如今,不管是电影,电视节目,肥皂剧还是其它媒体或公共娱乐资源都能够用于支撑你的游戏——只要它们具有相同的性质。

确保内容的简单化

简单化是任何社交媒体活动取得成功的关键,同时这也是衡量一款游戏是否成功的重要标准。直切主题并清楚地呈现出各个游戏元素将能够帮助游戏吸引各种类型玩家的注意。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Market a social game

By Jignesh Jain

Social gaming is one of the fastest growing sectors right now, and there doesn’t appear to be any slowdown in sight. According to a new report from Parks Associates, revenues in the social gaming market will increase fivefold to $5 billion by 2015.

The Parks report attributes this growth to advertising revenues and sales of virtual items or micro-transactions. These two elements were mostly responsible for the over $1 billion in revenues seen last year. There have been big improvements in the way companies are monetizing these social games. While early entrants often missed revenue opportunities, new game play innovations incentivize players to buy virtual items such as virtual tractors, seeds, or rare swords to build status, improve the gaming experience, or gain a competitive edge.

Furthermore, advertising innovations such as branded games, sponsored items, communities, and ‘advertainment’ that enhance, rather than interrupt, a gamers’ experience will also generate new sources of revenues for game publishers.

Gaming on social networks has quickly become the most visible category of online games and is slowly catching up on smartphones as well. Right now, more than 2.5 lakh monthly active users can be found playing top-rated games from Zynga online or Draw Something on their smartphones.

The most powerful asset of social game developers is the quantity of behavioral data that they can obtain from their games.

The ability to measure the efficacy of different gameplay mechanisms, to tweak game design in near-real time, and to test new models are advantages that traditional gaming companies will never have.

Zynga’s huge market share is the best proof of the competitive advantage made possible by properly leveraging consumer data.

So what are the essential factors that would measure the success of a social game?

Choose the right game

If you are a brand and want to leverage social media, building a prolific social game will be the key. Ensuring that the product matches the intricacy of the game is of utmost importance. More interactive scenarios which lead to brand building at each step are the most ideal ways to extract the maximum out of a game.

Identify the target audience

Andrew Dean, Future Trends and Innovation Consultant at Amaze, explains: “Think about your audience and take their demographics and attitudes into consideration. Do not waste your time and money talking to the wrong people at the wrong time, for example, if you were selling cars you would not be talking to 14-year-olds, nor should you be talking to only people who have just purchased a new car.”

Social gaming does open up new challenges for marketers who are keen to target specific demographics. In terms of the people that are playing these games, it is a vast array.

Design the campaign in an innovative pattern

Making users frequently return to play is the key. There should be more to advertising in a social game than just getting gamers to watch an ad. A good campaign could drive interaction with the brand through creative placement, or a built-in area of the game. It should be social, so the brand can see what consumers think of the ad, and act on feedback. And it could drive offline sales through incentives. Then give them a reason to interact with you in the real world—redeemable coupons, or access to exclusive events, for example.

Ensure the reward for the user has value

There needs to be value to the player. McDonald’s rewarded users with a farm that had the McDonald’s logo on it but that also opened up special powers in the game play so that they got 1.5 times the reward as a normal player. So it has to be meaningful to the player.

McDonald’s got a bit of stick for its Farmville strategy, for not giving users enough incentive to take part—a virtual coffee made farmers work at twice the speed, which wasn’t seen as a great benefit. If the users had been rewarded with a coupon for a real coffee, on the other hand, the project might have led to real sales, with McDonald’s able to track the impact of its social gaming through consumer visits.

Encourage viral promotion through the audience

The best way is to get existing users to invite their friends via Facebook or e-mail or any other provision within the game. Encourage this by rewarding the activity.

Utilize synonymous or seasonal releases to compliment the game or product

How cool is it when you are going to watch The Dark Knight Rises and your smartphone is thrilled to have the Batman live wallpaper or even the Batman game where you become the Batman and you save your social friends from evils in the crime-plagued Gotham city!

Today even movies, TV shows, daily soaps or any other media or public entertainment resources can be used to complement your game if it’s similar in nature.

Keep it simple

Simplicity is the key to any successful social media campaign, which in turn measures the success of the game. Straight to the point and noticeable elements at various intervals will drive the most prospected audience of all kinds.(source:entrepreneurindia)


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