Reaping those gaming rewards
By Hugh Jordan. The reason marketers are investing more heavily in gaming is simple – it works, says Jeff Pabst, head of international planning and product management at Microsoft.
“There is now an expectation on behalf of consumers that they will be able to input, that they can participate in and affect outcomes in campaigns,” Pabst told the audience at brand-e’s recent The Games Brands Play event. “Gaming is a natural process for marketers to be able to achieve that.”
Along with other speakers at the event, Pabst talked about ‘gamification’, putting in place some kind of ROI or reward system for the consumer where the more time or money the consumer invests, the greater the reward reaped. The recent Nike Plus campaign is an example of gamification done well, according to Pabst, but the gamification concept is not a new one.
It need not even include what we might traditionally associate with the idea of ‘gaming’, i.e. computer screens, characters, etc. And BA offering airmiles is an example of gamification, Pabst said. At its heart, it is simply about keeping the consumer engaged through ever-increasing rewards. To do this effectively, marketers need to know their target audience, and how audience interests change over time.
“Men like to blow shit up when they’re young, then they dream about becoming a rock star as they grow older,” Pabst said, unveiling a Boston Matrix graph to prove his point, though the wistful nodding by most men in the room seemed evidence enough. “Women are never interested in blowing stuff up. They like to create things. Games like The Sims are great if you are targeting a female audience.”
This tallied with what other speakers were saying. FarmVille, the Facebook game, was frequently mentioned as being predominantly played by an older female demographic. So heavy daytime TV advertising spend could be more effectively used on games such as FarmVille.
Pabst also advised advertisers to tie-in gaming initiatives with wider marketing activities, such as Flora’s in-game advertising on the Xbox being part of a broader campaign, including homepage takeovers, Facebook activity and TV ads.
