Simeon Spearman

Social games are a big deal.  What seemed like another source of home entertainment turned into one of the biggest marketing opportunity for brands and is expected to draw in 69 million social gamers in 2012.

Currently, there are approximately 61.9 million social gamers in the United States.  Social gaming dominates the app ecosystem within Facebook and people are playing social games every month.

Women and Social Gaming

The gamer stereotype has evolved from a young teenage boy spending hours in front of a television screen to the on-the-go woman managing both work and family.

It may come as a surprise, but women are beginning to own the casual and social gaming space with 61% of women playing casual social games; 62% of those women are over the age of 40. The average gamer spends 1-4 hours per week playing social games, and 18% of gamers have paid to play or get items in a game.

Why Should Marketers Care?

Social gaming provides a way for people to develop relationships with other people and with the brands that are associated with the games.

For example, Levi’s and Mall World partnered together to promote Levi’s Curve ID that lets women find their perfect jeans by body type.  Virtual shoppers would earn rewards for engaging in the virtual Levi’s Curve ID experience when exploring the Levi’s store within the game.  There was an average interaction rating of close to 60% after 4 weeks of the campaign.

Beauty brands can utilize an existing market segment, or tap into an existing network to gain high interaction and engagement rates through their monthly active user base.  Additionally, unlike regular banner ads, in-game ad units allow brands to engage with the monthly active user base while users play the game.  About 25% of social gamers click on in-game ads units and this can be attributed to the fact that they are highly interactive and provide psychological rewards to the consumers.

Beauty marketers should care because the working mothers who play social games are probably buying beauty products as well.  Beauty related social games are a virtually untapped market, and the competitive vacuum exists because of the traditional stereotype that gamers are teenage boys.

So What’s the Bigger Picture for Beauty Brands?

Since the demographics of gamers skew towards women, beauty brands should leverage social gaming to increase brand awareness and reach influencers of all ages.  Social games could provide important information regarding a brand’s audience such as demographics and interests to help further engage the correct target audience.

Old Navy hosted the first ever virtual Black Friday shopping event via Facebook.  Players were able to go on a digital shopping spree, grabbing items similar to those offered in-store and gift items to their Facebook friends.  Players were able to experience Old Navy’s holiday promotions through the game and watch Old Navy video advertisements.

79% of gamers respond positively to in-game advertisements, so brands could find ways to incorporate product placements or interactive product videos within the games to encourage engagement with the users.  Offering discounts and deals can also be a way to incentivize game play or in-game ad engagements which in turn will help users spread branded campaigns through word-of-mouth brand advocates.

What Can Beauty Brands Expect For the Future?

Social games are not limited to in-browser experiences.  In fact, social games will increasingly focus on mobile alongside improvements in the quality of games played within a browser.

Getting people involved and aware of a brand with a gaming element can be as simple as tapping into gamification elements that add game mechanics to mundane actions to drive engagement; however, the key to success is providing a challenge that keeps people engaged while also providing feedback and rewards that will ultimately drive them to play over and over again.

Awarding badges and points for check-ins at specific venues, like Foursquare, is an example of how brands can leverage game mechanics to increase traffic to a location that sells a specific product they want to highlight.

Utilizing entertainment check-in services such as GetGlue and Miso, with the same gaming mechanics, will begin to play a large role in how people will interact with brands while watching television as well.

2012 is going to be the year of interactive TVs, so beauty brands should be prepared to get involved within this space.

Ivy Chang, 01.25.12

Over 7 million gamers play Call of Duty online every day and Amnesty International is tapping into this base with seamless in-game advertising to gain supporters. Players can buy an additional game map called Amnesty Rescue MOD for $1. This $1 is donated to Amnesty and players then can rescue people suffering from human rights violations.

Implications: Amnesty International created a value exchange with the gamers to boost donations while also effectively communicating their message through the gamers’ involvement with the real world issue. You can raise brand awareness among an atypical audience when providing the correct incentives for engagement.

Cultural Macrotrend: Legacy

via BrandFlakesForBreakfast

When Google+ beta first launched in July, everyone was excited about all the cool new features within the site.  The Google+ Hangouts function, in particular, garnered a lot of the attention, and we were excited about the potential for the video chat  platform ourselves.

Google+ has been expanding and refining the Hangouts function and has now rolled out a new TV broadcasting feature.

The Google+ Hangouts On Air allows public figures, celebrities, and users with a large fan base to broadcast a live video within a Hangout while also allowing those beyond the Hangout to watch via a YouTube live stream.  The White House has already jumped on the opportunity to host a 45-minute live segment with President Obama to answer pre-selected questions regarding his State of the Union address.

Implications: Broadcasting content within a single social network can make it easy for brands to interact with their viewers while also allowing people to engage in conversations with each other all within the same channel.

Cultural Macrotrend: Technomorphing

via Social Times

Over the past 20 years broadband internet has fundamentally changed the world and the way we live within it. How we work, buy things, communicate with our friends and more is drastically different than it was before this technological shift.

Mobile devices will drive similarly significant change over the next decade

How, you ask?

Four words: Location, gaming, payment and search.

Location-aware Applications

The ability of mobile devices to detect location provides the opportunity to customize experiences for users in a number of helpful ways.

The most popular functions are navigation, weather alerts, traffic updates and pinpointing nearby businesses.

For example, the Google Maps mobile application automatically detects location and displays search results in order of proximity.

Location information can additionally be used to target ads to consumers that are physically close to a certain store or purchase opportunity. This reduces waste and increases the chances of driving the consumer to purchase.

Location data can also be used to automate loyalty programs by tracking where the user is at all times.  Shopkick is a service that does just this.  When consumers enter a store, the application registers their presence and awards points.  Shopkick uses propriety devices that are installed in stores to accomplish this, but as GPS technology becomes more accurate marketers will become more comfortable with the prospect of distributing rewards based on the information it provides.

Mobile Gaming

35 million U.S. smartphone owners downloaded mobile games in Q3 of 2011. Central to this trend are casual games, which are much simpler than their traditional cousins and have opened gaming up to a much larger, more mainstream audience in recent years.

The next big thing in mobile gaming will be mobile-social games, such as Zynga’s FarmVille Mobile, an adaptation of the popular Facebook game to mobile devices.

As gaming continues to move into the mainstream, it will become a powerful way to connect with many desirable audiences.  The average age of mobile gamers is 28 and 53% of them are female; this makes mobile gamers a more attractive demographic than the traditional gaming audience, which skews male and has an average age of 34.

Contactless Payment

Contactless payment systems allow the user to make payments at retail locations by waving a credit card, mobile phone, key fob, or other device over a scanner at the point of sale.  Integration with mobile devices is generally considered the best application of this technology in the long term.

The key to growth in this area is infrastructure.  Currently the NFC platforms of Visa (PayWave), Mastercard (PayPass), and American Express (Express Pay) are available in approximately 10-15% of retail locations, with penetration being deeper in urban areas and lighter in other areas.

These platforms are used via contactless debit/credit cards, but device manufacturers such as Apple, Motorola, HTC, and Nokia have integrated NFC chips into their latest device models, which will allow them to be used in place of credit cards. After-market solutions such as Device Fidelity are already on sale as well. These developments may enable the U.S. market to catch up with Japan and South Korea, where contactless payment via smartphones is commonplace.

Visual Search

Visual search allows consumers to access additional information on something by taking a photo of it with their mobile device.  Mobile barcode reading is a cousin of this concept, made more practical through the creation of barcodes that are simpler for a device to recognize.

Google’s Goggles application is currently the predominate example of visual search.  It is far from comprehensive, but demonstrates the potential of visual search quite well.  Goggles can accurately identify text, logos, and some landmarks and paintings.  In December the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that Goggles will be set up to provide information about the artworks in the museum when visitors snap photos of the exhibits.

As Google continues to refine and expand the functionality of Goggles, we will move ever-closer to a point where the application is capable of replacing text input in most search scenarios.

Now is Your Chance

Get ahead of these trends by experimenting with services in these areas in order to identify the best opportunities for brands. Marketers that experiment early and often will have the best chance of successfully using these features to enhance consumer experiences and more effectively communicate with their audiences. So as you follow through on 2012 planning, keep these opportunities in mind and stay on the look-out for further innovations in mobile, the next big shift in marketing and communications.

Greg Steen, 01.24.2012

Tablets and e-book readers were hot gifts in 2011, with nationwide ownership nearly doubling following the holiday season.

Ownership of tablets grew from 10% to 19%, while the number of Americans owning either a tablet or an e-book reader jumped from 18% in December 2011 to 29% in January 2012.

This spike is being attributed to the widespread appeal of Apple’s iPad 2 and the declining cost of tablets as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color sell for $200 while e-book readers now start at under $100.

Implications: Tablets and e-book readers are poised to have a big impact on the media and advertising landscape of 2012. Publishers facing declining print ad sales are turning to these devices to distribute their content, creating new opportunities for brands to reach digital audiences moving forward.

Cultural Macrotrend: Technomorphing

via Pew Internet

McDonald’s attempted to encourage customers to share their good brand experiences on Twitter with the #McDStories hashtag. Instead, the campaign went in a different direction when the consumers took control. It became a trending topic as people shared sarcastic and mocking comments about food quality and service.

Volkswagen recently received criticism with a similar problem after asking consumers for input on Facebook.

Implications: When utilizing social media, it is important to expect to receive both positive and negative feedback. You should be realistic in how your brand is perceived by people and what they will be willing to do for your brand.  Be prepared to properly react to a bad situation so your brand image does not suffer.

Cultural Macrotrend: Control Freak

via PSFK

If you ask most people to describe the future of TV they witnessed at CES, the most likely response is going to be, “You have to see it to believe it.”

The trade show tempts people into describing the new innovations in television in as few characters as possible referring to hardware improvements in areas like OLEDs, 3D, or 4K.

Marketers should focus less on surface-level hardware improvements and more on the new software side of television. Television apps, natural user interfaces, and two-way television will have the greatest influence on how brands leverage the future of television.

Apps for Television

Over the past few years, app development has focused on smartphones and then tablets. Television is the next frontier for apps.

The current app experience of TV falls short, but companies ranging from Samsung to Boxee are demonstrating the new potential of TV apps.

Samsung’s SmartTV platform is not only demonstrating a way for entertainment companies to distribute their content, they are also partnering with connected TV ad networks Rovi and YuMe to bring brands into the SmartTV ecosystem through interactive advertising. Samsung’s AdHub will bring advertising to connected TVs, and State Farm is now testing the platform with its latest campaign.

Copying the Innovators

Meanwhile every company is finding a way to integrate voice or motion controls into their new systems.

Sony’s Google TVs now feature a sleek remote with a touchscreen and a microphone, so you can speak to search for online video.

Samsung also hinted at a new interface for SmartTVs that would integrate Kinect-like gesture controls and voice search through a system built into the television.

With both Microsoft and Samsung attempting to court advertisers, the spread of Kinect-like interfaces will make motion capture a great tool for building interactive ads for the TV.

Two-way Television: Xbox’s New Killer App

Microsoft also unveiled what it calls “two-way television” by demoing Sesame Street Kinect at CES. Ever notice the call-and-response aspect of Sesame Street? Kids will shout back at the TV whatever the characters want them to. Now, with the speech recognition and motion capture of Kinect, kids can interact with their favorite characters directly on the TV. If they are prompted to call out a letter or number, the television can wait until the kid has interacted to continue the show.

Kids can also be put into the show using the Kinect’s camera, making it possible to interact with the program in whole new ways.

While interactive TV has been restricted to accessing the Web or viewing online video in the past, the advent of two-way TV demonstrates a new direction for interactive media that marries the best of television, video games, and emerging interfaces to deliver a new vision for what interactive TV can pull off.

Simeon Spearman, 1.22.2012

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More brands are using Facebook to increase their online presence and connect with people.  For brands just starting to use social as a marketing tool, there are a several ways to gain followers on your page.

Do Background Research

Tons of fans don’t magically appear just because you’ve posted some content.  It’s more than just the brand name, tools you use, or content you post.

First, understand your audience and know what they care about.  Social media is about conversations with real people and engaging people that know how to connect and inspire others.  If your own audience is not inspired to share your content, that means you are not connecting with them.

Look at the types of posts that receive the most likes and comments to get an idea of what is working or not.  Not all posts are received the same way.  For some brands, it may be beneficial to post a photo to spark conversation and engagement while others simply need to post a question to garner conversations around a topic.

Posting Strategies

Once you’ve done the basics of researching your audience, then you should begin considering the best tools to use to get people to follow your brand.

When posting content to the page, make your call to action simple and clear to drive more engagement.  Tell people why they should like or comment on your page.  Ask questions, or tell people to comment with any feedback regarding your posts.  Conversations will usually build on their own amongst fans.

Like-gating has become a popular way to generate new fans on brand pages.  Like-gating is a method that incentivizes people to “like” a page to gain access to exclusive content only for fans.  Incentivizing shows a clear benefit of joining the community and will likely increase fans.

Sephora, for instance, created two sidebar tabs just for exclusive deals and features.  In order to access the content, users must “like” the page to be able to receive the exclusive updates.

MINI took a different approach and is offering a chance to win a brand new MINI Countryman.  The car is placed on an incline and held back by a thick rope with a Bunsen burner below it.  Every “like” received on the page will generate a burst of flame on the rope in real-time; if your like generates the flame that breaks the rope, you will win the car.

Interacting with Fans

The key to successful brand pages is interacting with fans.  You can gain followers by using the strategies listed in this post; however, if there is no interaction from the brand side, then all the efforts would not produce meaningful consumer relationships.

Driving people back to your Facebook page through conversation and brand presence provides an opportunity for fans to interact and engage with each other and with your brand.  It’s brand awareness that will drive traffic and ultimately lead consumers on a path to purchase.

Make sure people find use in returning to your page by keeping them informed with the latest products, campaigns, or business updates while also addressing any concerns your followers have.

What to Keep in Mind

Looking at the bigger picture, keep in mind how your Facebook presence will complement your overall marketing strategies.  Every company is different and not all strategies will work the same for every brand.

It all comes down to understanding who you are targeting, developing strategies based on your audience, then maintaining your presence to really earn the trust of your fans.

Ivy Chang, 01.19.12