Greg Verdino

Silly games: dispelling 3 in-game marketing myths

Over the past couple of weeks I participated in two AMA webinars that aimed to help marketers come to grips with life after analog and (not coincidentally) promote the AMA's upcoming M.Planet 2009, where I'll be delivering a Digital Marketing Lab session entitled "Gaming, Virtual Worlds & Life After Second Life."

I had 10 minutes to spit the truth (as my buddy Ludacris might say) so rather than try to boil the virtual ocean, I decided to focus specifically on three gaming and virtual world myths that I still hear bandied about by marketing executives -- and sometimes by the biz dev teams at the gaming companies themselves.  If I did nothing more than help the 500 or so attendees see the realities behind the myths, then my work here is done. :-)

What myths did I tackle?  Check out my slides below - for a change, I think they're actually somewhat self-explanatory although when I delivered my presentation I also talked through plenty of actual examples.

Gaming Myths for Marketers

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: gregverdino secondlife)

[Feed and email readers should click through to view the embedded slides.]

So what gaming and virtual world marketing myths would you like to dispel?  What sage advice would you give marketers about getting in the (erm) game?

Next big thing? First, master the last big thing

It's the middle of September and we are in smack in the middle of marketing conference season.  As I write this, Advertising Week is in full swing and a number of other marketing, social media and new media events (including OMMA Global, Web 2.0 Expo, Blog World Expo, Inbound Marketing Summit and countless others, I'm sure) have all recently wrapped up.

And as is often the case with these types of events, I'm sure many of these have brought out the usual set of gurus talking about the next big thing to audiences of eager client and agency side marketers hoping to find out what it is, what it means and how to get a jump on the newest, shiniest object before it hits the Marketplace section of the Wall Street Journal.

So I figured I would write a quick blog post advising all the folks who leave these events with visions of shiny new marketing sugarplums dancing in their heads to take a deep breath, turn around and consider which of the 'last big things' they haven't yet used to the fullest of their potential.

Wait a second.  A so-called marketing futurist is telling us to back up and retread the ground we've already walked? 

In a word, 'yes.'

I've often pointed out that social media insiders need to remember that they are ahead of the curve and can't assume that the rest of world is as excited about (or even aware of) the latest, greatest presence applications, mobile social networks or any other new thing that the gods of Web 2.0 throw our way.  Outside the land of the bloggerati and Twitterati, it is still pretty progressive for the average consumer to have both a MySpace and Facebook profile, let alone an account on Flickr, delicious or StumbleUpon.  Mention ExitReality or even lifestreaming and your buddy is bound to call for back-up (ummm, pun intended.)

So I'd like to offer similar advice to marketers.  Stop fixating on the next, and start getting smart about the now -- or even the recent. Before asking what shiny objects are sparkling just around the bend, take a look at the many, many channels that are available to you today and ask yourself if you've done the best job of experimenting, optimizing, standardizing and internalizing the way you use the long list of the not-so-new to engage consumers.

For example, what does your organization do with the following channels?

• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Virtual Worlds
• Gaming
• Social Networking
• Online Community
• Mobile (think SMS, not QR Codes)
• Widgets and Applications
• Feeds (RSS)
• Search Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Behavioral Targeting
• Contextual Targeting
• Video
• Branded Content
• Word-of-Mouth Marketing

None of these things are really all that new, anymore.  At one time or another, every item on that list (and many others, of course) was buzzworthy.  They were the next big thing, or at least the new new thing.  And while most still get plenty of play in marketing circles, most don't raise nearly as many eyebrows as they once did.  Most probably wouldn't be handed off to your 'innovation' guy or gal, as they might have been even a year ago.  They're just more ways to connect with an increasingly multichannel-engaged consumer.

But be honest -- have you cracked the code on any of them yet? I don't believe many marketers have -- fewer still have mastered all of them.  But a lot of these very same marketers are already losing interest in the untried, in favor of the unknown.

What can you do better?  Which 'new to you' thing from the list above can you test (or better yet, turn into a vital element in your overall marketing mix) before you move along to whatever media or marketing innovation the so-called gurus are crowing about today?

What is your organization doing to master the Last Big Thing?

Saving humankind, MMORPG-style

Let's say, hypothetically, that this is the year 2019 and that today's big news story is that the Global Extinction Awareness System, a supercomputer devoted to forecasting precisely when any given species is likely to give up the ghost, has predicted that Homo Sapiens will go extinct by 2042.  Let's also say, hypothetically, that you and a whole bunch of 2019-ers actually give a crap, and are ready and willing to band together to make sure that humans have the opportunity to stick around a bit longer than that.

That's the premise of a new online role playing game called Superstruct, slated to launch on September 22, in which players will be tasked with solving a series of super-threats that threaten the longevity of the human race.  The threats may sound familiar to those of us living in 2008 - disease, global warming, IT espionage, scarcity of resources and more -- but come 2019 they are amped up to near cataclysmic proportions.

Coming on the heels of the highly anticipated Spore, Superstruct seems like nothing more than a sinister twist.  Rather than creating novel lifeforms from scratch, you're trying to prevent the extinction of a lifeform you already know all to well (people.)

But here's the rub. This game doesn't come from EA or any of the other usual suspects.  It's being released by the Institute for the Future, a think tank of visionaries and smarties that earn their dough by helping members and clients understand what's coming next and what to do about it.

Superstruct is the first in a series of "Massively Multi-Player Forecasting Games," through which IFTF hopes to tap into the wisdom of crowds for some creative ideas about how to solve some of the biggest challenges facing our planet.  Here's how IFTF describes the program:

"Superstruct is about building a better, stronger future. It’s about inventing new ways to organize the human race and augment our collective human potential.

With Superstruct IFTF introduces a revolutionary new forecasting tool: Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Games (MMFGs). MMFGs are collaborative, open source simulations of a possible future. Each MMFG focuses on a unique set of “future parameters,” which we cull from IFTF’s forecast research. These parameters define a future scenario: a specific combination of transformative events, technologies, discoveries and social phenomenon that are likely to develop in the next 10 to 25 years. We then open up the future to the public, so that players can document their personal reactions to the scenario. Players are encouraged to “imagine out loud” how their families, their local communities, their professions, or their extended social networks might respond to the game scenarios. They build websites from the future, keep blogs from the future, upload podcasts from the future, make videos from the future, develop research wikis from the future, and host discussion forums from the future. In short, they persuasively record, discuss, and debate the details of how they imagine their own personal futures might play out within the game parameters. In Superstruct, we’ll show you the world as it might look in 2019—and you’ll show us what it’s like to live there."

Pretty noble goals, if you ask me.  But this is also an impressive attempt to crowdsource futurism, turn to the masses for creative and compelling solutions to far-reaching issues, and get lots of web citizens thinking about how they can take personal responsibility for making the world a better place to live. 

Or come 2042, just a place to live at all...

If Superstruct sounds interesting to you, you can learn more, try your hand at a trial mission, see how others have responded to the trial mission, or get an alert when gameplay begins on the 22nd.

(Triple tip to PSFK, O'Reilly Radar and Discover.)

An interactive history of the world, avatar-style

Alternate universes.  Virtual reality.  Virtual worlds.  Role playing (not the dirty kind, although maybe that too.)  These have been figurative and -- increasingly -- literal playgrounds for geeks and nerds throughout the ages. 

I grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons in my parents' basement, thought Tron was the coolest movie evah, went crazy over Myst despite the fact that I couldn't play worth a damn, and devoured books that introduced sci fi nerds everywhere to (at the time) forward-looking concepts like the Web and the Metaverse; books like Neuromancer and Snow Crash. Today, of course, I do a fair bit of thinking about what the advent and evolution of 3D online virtual environments mean for media, marketing and business in general. 

Yet, in the age of short attention spans it is easy to forget that the concept of virtual worlds has a long, rich history that goes back a hundred years or more.  And that some of us have always been virtual residents of one kind or another.

NYC multimedia artist and metaverse consultant to the stars Annie Ok has created a very cool timeline that aims to document the history of all things virtual and may even help us remember that humankind's fascination with second lives is more far-reaching that the recent trend that brought us Second Life.  Not limited to the concept of virtual worlds as we currently define them, Annie's timeline takes into consideration everything from literature, film and art to hardware, software and Interrnet-based platforms.

Built with a sweet Web 2.0 service called Dipity, the timeline is interactive and editable by anyone -- just like a wiki but much cooler to look at. 

If you're a metaverse drifter and want to add your two Lindens (or two Kinz Cash, as the case may be) sign up as an editor and give it a go.  If you're just an interested bystander, Dipity lets you browse the timeline in a number of different formats, ranging from a simple list to an iTunes-style 'flipbook.'

Crayon physics

This has nothing to do with marketing (and certainly nothing to do with crayon, LLC) and I'm not a gamer (I'm addicted to enough time wasters, thank you very much) but I really like this video demo of a new game called Crayon Physics Deluxe.  As a game, it appears to be the antidote to the graphics overload of the latest first person shooters and I actually find the video mesmerizing.

It makes for a nice, relaxing few minutes of quiet time on a Saturday afternoon.

[Feedies and emailies - click through for the video.]

Thanks to Chel Pixie for tweeting the link @crayon last week.  If you're so inclined, you can learn more about the game here.

Virtual Wii-ality

What do you get when you take one Carnegie Mellon student, a Wii remote, head-mounted infrared sensors and a television? Quite possibly a peek at the future of gaming and virtual worlds -- coming soon in three-dimensions, right in your living room.  Genius...

[Feed and email readers click through to watch the video.  Definitely worth the click and a few minutes of your time.]

Hat tip to Doug Meacham and the eightbar blog. 

Old media flashback

Thanks to my colleague Jonathan Burg for sending along this screenshot of this week's BusinessWeek e-newsletter, featuring fascinating technology articles about green computing (ok), the promise of a 3D internet (ok), the coming Semantic Web (ok), and of course the upcoming launches of the Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii gaming consoles (what?!?! -- see portion of image boxed in red.) 

Ah, the good ol' days...

Blogger outreach round-up

I've been receiving quite a few pitches lately and, frankly, I haven't had the time to follow up on any of them.  So if for no other reason than clearing my in-box (and my conscience) I present to you the first "Blogger Outreach Round-Up."  Take a gander at four very different new media and marketing offerings, ranging from the bizarre to the commonsensical (you decide which are which.)  Maybe you'll see something you like.

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Gottabet.com, a new niche market social network organized around dares and challenges is looking to attract 1 million members through a promotion that promises to give users $1 for every new member they get to join, with a maximum $1 million payout for the entire promotion.  To participate in the Gottabet Million Dollar Challenge, members create a bet/challenge/dare on the site and then build a campaign around it that makes other people join Gottabet to participate in that bet.  Pretty simple idea -- members reap the rewards for evangelizing the property and at $1 for each new member acquired, this sounds more efficient than more traditional advertising programs.  Watch this video for more information about how it works [feed and email readers click through for the video.]

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ZSlide wote to let me know about Pictogame, an easy-to-use tool that lets web users turn any picture into a simple casual game widget and distribute it through blogs and social network profiles.   Here's just one example. (Note to Firefox users -- the game doesn't seem to embed properly in Firefox and I can't figure out why - so until I do, just click through to check out Pictogame's gallery.)

Put this game on your blog   Create your own   More games

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MonetizeMedia offers a turnkey platform that allows any publisher to create fully interactive, branded broadband TV channels, easily and seamlessly monetize media assets through downloads, subscriptions, advertising and syndication and appeal to advertisers with contextually relevant, rich media video ads designed to maximize ROI.  The broadband video landscape is already pretty cluttered -- but with all the attention being paid to contextual video advertising, if their solution is as drag-and-drop as they say it is, it could be an interesting one to watch.  They're offering free trials.

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And finally, we have Balihoo, an advertising search engine geared toward media planners and buyers who are looking for new media advertising opportiunities.   Users can search Balihoo using a variety of variables -- demographics, geography, behavioral, media or channel specific -- and the application returns advertising opportunities that meet their needs.  Balihoo doesn't get involved with the sale of inventory (so it's not an exchange or marketplace) -- they are simply focused on helping buyers find the right media opportunities and connect with qualified sellers.  Balihoo is in a private beta now, with an anticipated September-October public launch.

Rockstar CMO

Here are a few mobile phone snaps of Pontiac marketing director Mark-Hans Richer, taken during a meeting at Digitas last week.  Why?  Because how often do you get to see the marketing head from a major consumer brand jump up on a conference room table and shred a few tunes in Guitar Hero II?

Kaneva news flash

See those clocks at the top of the fountain?  They're Flash widgets, just like the clocks that everyone seems to embed into their personal start pages.

COO Rob Frasca tells me that Kaneva 3D world members will ultimately have hundreds of different Flash widgets to choose from when pimping out their virtual apartments (which are equal parts hang out space and three-dimensional social network profile page.)

He also confirmed that some of these widgets will make it possible for users to bring in social media directly from other sharing sites -- most notably YouTube videos (I asked Rob about YouTube specifically), but I would imagine that over time we will see widgets that allow users to import things like photos, animations, games, feeds and audio, all from existing third party social media platforms.

No word on timing or range of options that will be available, but given Kaneva's emphasis on sharing photos and videos within the virtual world, letting users pull in content from third party social media services (not just from the Kaneva 2D social network) could make this metaverse really cool for lots of avid social media fiends. 

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Related: Just discovered that Kaneva features my March 11 post in their marketing channel (scroll down).  That's cool too.