Dec

10

Online fun: better include my friends

Filed Under Gaming, Mobile, Social Media, Web 

The obvious: there’s a rapid rise in social gaming along with social network integration within almost anything fun we’re doing online. When we play offline, it usually involves our closest friends so it’s not surprising the same is becoming true online.

What surprises me is the fact that major brands haven’t really been too aggressive in experimenting with social games and simple, fun apps. Of course that will change soon, but hopefully only if it makes sense for the brand. If they aim to target a younger audience, I think a branded social game can be a very powerful marketing effort based on the success stories we’ve seen so far.

This quote from a recent article in Ad Age sums it up nicely:

While the heavy gamers remain highly serious and addicted to games, we’ve begun to see another emerging, and even larger, market — casual gamers who are into social networking. They visit gaming sites during their lunch break for a shoot-out, for instance, or for a fun break at night or on weekends. This changing demographic is opening a wider opportunity for marketers who should definitely look into gaming as an area of growth potential for communicating their brands.

And two more quote’s from the Three Minds blog:

If customer engagement and social relevance are the new holy grails of marketing then designing for play should be put on the agenda of all marketers.

The fact that gaming is still unexpected is an opportunity to surprise and delight your audience.

Below, I wanted to highlight some of the examples that came to mind since social games/apps and other miscellaneous fun social sites started gaining traction. I’ve included some general usage stats and pointed out what made them social.

OMGPOP

For those unfamiliar with OMGPOP (formally called iminlikewithyou), it has been around for a couple years now and growth isn’t slowing. It can be highly addictive and judging by the chat rooms, it seems to be most popular among teens. Teen or not, I think some of their most popular games such as Draw My Thing and Balloono can appeal to anyone. They’ve made it extremely easy to invite friends to instant matches which is one of my favorite features (no sign-up required).

omgpop

The stats:

  • Balloono has been played over 106 million times which amounts to nearly 3 million hours
  • Blockes has been played over over 52 million times which amounts to nearly 2 million hours

What makes it social:

  • Private games w/ unique invitation links to invite friends through AIM, Facebook, and Twitter
  • Quickly join live multiplayer games, make friends by randomly challenging them
  • See which friends are playing after logging in & join their games

JibJab

You’ve probably seen these videos or eCards pop up in your Facebook news feed or at least read about JibJab on TechCrunch. Sure they’re a bit cheesy but there’s no denying people love to create and share these with their closest friends.

jibjab

The stats:

  • 6 million registered users, over 100 million visits/yr (source)
  • Gained 1.5 million users through Facebook in 5 months (source)
  • 80% of new users are now signing up using Facebook connect

What makes it social:

  • Taps into Facebook to remind you of friends’ birthdays for eCards
  • Import Facebook photos to easily customize videos to share

Fishville

Plenty has been said about all the very popular Zynga games. I recently decided to give Fishville a try instead of Farmville and Mike Arrington is not lying, it’s very easy to get hooked (which shouldn’t surprise you).

Jason Calicanis has said “they have figured out what’s addictive about social games. And what do we like about playing games? It’s playing games with other people.”

fishville

The stats:

  • 25 million monthly active users and growing (source)
  • Zynga sees revenues of $50 million in 2008 from sales of virtual goods (source)

What makes it social:

  • Become neighbors with your Facebook friends playing Fishville (like most Zynga games) plus incentives for helping them out and sending free gifts
  • Frequent news feed publishing if user allows it

Parking Wars

I had to include Parking Wars which is probably still the best example of a branded social game to live on Facebook by A&E.

parkingwarz

The stats:

  • 66,905 monthly active users but declining (down from 110k)
  • 400,000 people signed up in the first two months (source)

What makes it social:

  • Adding more friends gives you more places to park

Other notable Facebook apps: Pet Society, Scrabble, Mafia Wars, Flixster Movies, Social Interview, Friends Exposed, etc.

I Am T-Pain

iamtpain

The stats:

  • Users have created over 10.2 million recordings (source)
  • 300,000 downloads after 3 weeks w/ average time spent in app being 66 minutes (source)
  • During it’s most popular time period, was receiving 10,000 downloads a day (source)

What makes it social:

  • Basic posting to Facebook Wall or Myspace profile
  • Demoing sure to get friends wanting to try it themselves

Tap Tap Revenge

There’s no denying Tapulous is leading the way when it comes to social iPhone apps.

taptap3

The stats:

  • Downloaded by 1 out of every 3 iPhone/iTouch owner
  • 500,000 paid app downloads, over 6 million users (source)

What makes it social:

  • Challenge and battle friends online or real life 2 player mode
  • Now including messages, integrated chat, and rich profiles

Other notable iPhone apps: Words with Friends, Foursquare, Live Poker, Who Has The Biggest Brain, VW GTI, Moron Test, etc.

Modern Warfare 2

Gaming consoles made huge improvements several years ago with the most recent generation releases but it’s not until now we are starting to see the next phase of social features.

modernwarfare

The stats:

  • 7 million copies sold on day one (source), $550 millions in sales first 5 days (source)
  • 8 million online players within the first five days (source)

What makes it social:

  • Instant online play with logged on friends
  • Link your gamertag to Facebook profile

Other notable gaming console/handheld games: Animal Crossing, Halo, and basically any other game with online multiplayer mode.

———————

Most brands probably wouldn’t be creating their own console games like Burger King, but they need to keep in mind how hard it is to reach hardcore gamers. Some of my old work friends spend most of their spare time playing games like Modern Warfare.

Social gaming sites and Facebook apps are threatening multiplayer sites like Big Fish Games, Pogo, Addicting Games, Candy Stand, and Yahoo! Games and casual games in general. I’ve also been wondering why peer-to-peer iPhone games over Bluetooth have not really taken off (some examples).

For much more in-depth and daily news only on social gaming, definitely check out the Inside Social Games blog.

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