Marketers will spend upwards of $271 million on social game ads this year, and in less than three years, analysts expect mobile game ad spending to reach nearly $900 million annually. When it comes to brands, budgets and games on laptops, mobile devices and connected consoles, the stakes are high. Paul Gunning, CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide, led a discussion at Ad:Tech San Francisco with Zynga, Electronic Arts and Microsoft. He spoke with the titans of gaming about how they are shaping social, mobile and connected console advertising from the old method of in-game banners to new innovations, rising trends and technologies.
Game mechanics have infiltrated all forms of advertising, from check-in based coupons, to loyalty programs that reward shoppers with points, to branded virtual games that let moms dress up their avatars like the Real Housewives of Orange County. The buzzword for this is "gamification," and companies are now focused on making their offerings more ad-friendly. This makes three of the biggest names in gaming - Zynga, Electronic Arts and Microsoft - three of the most powerful companies in digital advertising today.
Zynga wants to make everything social - not just Facebook games. EA has dominated the console market, but is pushing steadily into mobile and social gaming, and Microsoft is transforming the Xbox 360 console into a full-fledged content and advertising platform.
In the video you'll get a glimpse into the advertising innovations currently being developed by each company, details on how they're pushing into each other's respective markets, and in a Q&A led by Tribal DDB Worldwide CEO Paul Gunning, you'll see what opportunities currently exist for advertising mobile, social and connected-console game platforms.
SXSW Beyond Just Music Licensing: March 16 @ 12:30
#sxsw #beyondlic
Beyond Just Music Licensing in Advertising
Explore the creative and production process of ways in which music, bands and artists are being utilized in advertising projects that are beyond just traditional licensing deals. Hear real-world examples including advertising projects as brand partnerships, product placement, events-based campaigns and digital, social and collaborative endeavors.
Where
Friday, March 16th
12:30-1:30
Austin Convention Center
Click here for more information or to add this session to your Friday, March 16th schedule.
There's a stark contrast between "owning" an idea versus collaborating in an open structure. It's often the root of the divide between "traditional" and "digital/new media" people. Because good ideas evolve into better ideas through collaboration and open input, organizations that can effectively bridge these camps are the ones that will survive. Let's Kumbaya with Azher Ahmed, SVP Director of Digital Operations and Jonathan Sackett, Managing Director and CDO of DDB Chicago.
Where
Monday, March 12
11:00AM-12:00PM
Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin (701 Congress Ave)
Click here for more information or to add this session to your Monday, March 12th schedule.
#sxsw #CCCSocial
Credits Coins Cash: Social Currency & Finance 2.0
While Second Life and other online worlds have propagated virtual economies with their own "millionaires", 2011 saw virtual currencies break into the marketing mainstream. Facebook Credits were launched with the backing of brands including Walmart and Zynga; Google Wallet was announced and BitCoin rose, then fell, then rose then - who knows? As we enter 2012 the question 'what is currency?' has never been more relevant for so many people. And more applicable to marketers, how does our understanding of the 4 P's (product, price, promotion, place) change in a world of virtual currencies? This is both a philosophical and highly practical question: if you buy something with Microsoft points - have you really bought it? How much did you pay? What if you are hacked or get kicked off the platform - it is still yours?
We'll Talk About:
This panel will examine the state of virtual currency, where it is heading, and consider how marketers should be evolving their strategies to account for virtual currencies.
Where:
Monday, March 12
11:00AM -12:00PM
Hilton Garden Inn (500 North Interstate 35)
Sabine
Click here for more information or to add this session to your Monday, March 12th schedule.
Pocket Intelligence:
The future of mobile interaction & feedback networks may not be wrapped in a mobile phone interface at all. Let's talk about what feedback networks and invisible information gathering can mean for mobile experiences now and in the future.
We'll talk about:
Contextual feedback (imagine your phone buzzing three times when you walk up to the bus stop-indicating that a bus is three minutes away).
Context prompted information aggregation, (imagine your phone automatically collecting the "business cards" of all the people you meet today - whatever information they made public through their OWN network).
Networked complimentary functionality (imagine your mobile device automatically syncing with the ATM as an entry device, with that television in the window as a remote control, with that lock as a keypad, etc.).
Where:
Friday, March 9
5:00PM - 6:00PM
Hilton Austin Downtown (500 E. 4th St.)
Salon K
Click here for more information or to add this session to your Friday, March 9th schedule.
You've just spent the past six hours killing dragons and zombies with spells and enchanted swords. Now it's time to do the laundry. We all know that videogames have swiftly become an incredibly important part of our media landscape. These digital media allow us to visit places without walking out the door, and to experience things that don't exist offline. The potential of this medium seems boundless. But as advertisers and cultural critics, it is very hard to know what to make of games. They are frustratingly difficult to define, pin down, and relate to other, more familiar media. Videogames are simultaneously movies, puzzles, narratives, and above all else, they are interactive. Despite all of this complexity, we do know one thing. Videogames games are incredibly important to their players. Don't believe me, than just watch this (head to 1:15 to see the carnage). Convinced? Thought so.
As advertisers, we should care about games a great deal. Not only because they are lucrative, not only because they have exceptionally high rates of engagement, and not only because they a relevant to their players, but because videogames, along with many digital technologies, are changing what counts as real. Take this example, in which gamers helped some scientists in the fight against AIDS. Seriously crazy stuff, that shows how much games can matter, how real they can be.
In a few days, I'll be shipping off to Madrid for the sixth annual Conference on the Philosophy of Computer Games. This year, the conference will address what it means to be a videogame player. I will be presenting a paper there entitled Believe and Be Live: Entangled Experience in Halo. The paper jumps off from this ad campaign, and focuses on what happens when the experiences of playing a game become entwined with real world experiences, challenging the idea that experience in the digital world isn't as important as experience in the real world.
"It's not about what you can do anymore because that's not what is important. It's about how you're going to do this and why anyone should care that we've done something."
Tim Cheng, Executive Creative Director for Tribal DDB Hong Kong, offers insightful explanations of the unique position of Asia's advertising market and the increasing centrality of mobile advertising.
Cheng makes a convincing case for how the culture of advertising in Asia is different due to its relatively recent inception, and Asia's tendency to produce more experimental, off-the-cusp ideas for its clients. Employees of agencies in Asia have not necessarily followed the traditional educational route to joining the advertising industry ranks. Instead, they have a vision for what they want, and they learn from trial-and-error rather than past precedent. According to Cheng, it's their fresh perspective that allows them to be daring in how they leverage digital media. And many creatives espouse the ideology that, nowadays, technology can empower them to achieve anything.
Cheng also addresses the importance of mobile, claiming that it will play a significant, if not the most important role in advertising. He contends that people always carry with them their keys, wallet, and mobile phone--which will soon be able to serve as a wallet with the advent of near field communication--and, therefore, advertisers are no longer trying to interrupt consumers or at the whim of when they decide to watch television or read the newspaper. Instead, advertisers must cater their appeals to consumers on mobile phones by providing utility and, again, emphasizing the message above all else. In other words, the mobile ads must offer added value either through entertainment or convenience.
Paul Gunning, CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide, was interviewed at the Yahoo Asia Pacific Marketing Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, last month about digital media trends (including social media, social commerce, and mobile marketing), and how important these platforms and tools are becoming throughout the industry and in Asia in particular.
From a macro level, Gunning explained that social media impacts marketers' perspectives by virtue of elevating the role of the consumer and instilling consumers with the potential to be the very sources of media, rather than just the recipients. Recommendations from friends have long been a cornerstone of driving sales but social media allows clients to leverage people as brand ambassadors, taking advantage of scale.
Similarly, social commerce is impacting businesses by changing the very way people buy. Gunning asserts that, although it is in the early stages, social commerce has the potential for making a tremendous impact by serving as a catalyst for exponential brand growth. Using a few people to appeal to their wide-ranging networks on behalf of a product or service creates a whole new sales channel that was untapped on such a large scale before. Moreover, transaction points have been amazing, with as much as 50% of people who receive a deal promotion actually buying the product.
Gunning also spoke to the dynamic mobile platform in Asia, emphasizing its growing centrality and utility as a platform through which marketers can achieve large-scale penetration. This is especially true in a population where so many people are now bypassing the computer all together, relying solely on Internet access from their smartphones. Gunning used as an example his own experience when interviewing a family in China ca couple of months ago: he observed the fifteen-year-old daughter intently using her cell phone to social network for the entire duration of the interview, a clear indication of the ubiquity of both mobile usage and social networking throughout Asia, especially among younger age demographics.
Although digital is so pervasive, Gunning warns marketers to observe due diligence of the medium, looking closely at time spent on various devices and the impact on society at large. While it is now widely accepted that digital is a medium that offers marketers opportunities unlike any other, digital still requires careful experimentation and, unlike television and other traditional mediums, marketing techniques are not necessarily applicable across industries.
"Creativity is arguably the most influential force that can change the world for good. And as a creative industry, it's our obligation to use it." That's how Tribal DDB U.S. Chief Creative Officer Rob Rasmussen kicked off the inspiring Creativity For Change panel at the New York Festivals last week. Followed by fellow creative chiefs, Mark Tutssel (CCO of Leo Burnett Worldwide) and Rei Inamoto (CCO of AKQA), Rob and the group explored some of the last decade's most influential campaigns for positive social behavior.
First, Rob discussed the MakeHomosexualsMarry.org video to highlight humor as a vehicle to disarm ignorance. Showing Justin Long cheerfully gripping a phallic surfboard is good icebreaker for any speech - especially one for socially responsible creativity. Next, he spoke about the World Wildlife Federation's.wwf file extension, which developed a new file format to disable the Print functionality on documents such as .pdfs and .docs. The WWF campaign reached over 200,000 people in 183 countries. "This is the direction we should go as an industry," Rob conveyed as he then stated that small ideas like these can have massive, lasting impacts.
Mark followed Rob's opening remarks by discussing Leo Burnett's Red Cross campaign to "sell hope" at shopping malls during Christmas, and its "Earth Hour" initiative that prompted the world to turn off its lights for 60 minutes to preserve energy on Earth Day (even McDonald's turned off its golden arches). "Connecting to people has never been easier," Mark concluded, "but connecting with people is still a challenge." Rei then took the crowd back in time through an artful presentation that demonstrated the historical importance of marrying storytelling and technology to incite change. He showed off the Nike Chalkbot and Heineken Star Player app as creative pieces that met his benchmarks for success: useful, usable and delightful. His presentation closed with him urging the group to "Encourage brands to think like non-profits, and encourage non-profits to act more like brands."
It became clear that developing an emotional bond was a key driver in creating positive change. Fittingly, Rob encouraged the audience of creative professionals to approach assignments from paying clients with the same mindset that they might use for pro bono projects, surmising that consumers choose brands based on their emotional, not informational connection. Creativity can be a phenomenally powerful force, which is why Rob ended his talk by beseeching the group of advertisers to "Act responsibly" - a request that was likely put on hold by the attendees until after that evening's Cinco de Mayo rooftop party.
Most advertisers and agencies perpetually claimed, "next year's the year for mobile" throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, 2010 really was the turning point for mobile advertising and projects after which platform will continue to develop and expand as the years go on. While marketers had been cautious in the mobile space up until this point, mobile advertising is no longer considered experimental so marketers should take advantage of the breadth of opportunity mobile offers. One such opportunity is the chance to capitalize on the massive amount of scale across the different platforms and technologies at brands' disposal.
Feedback from clients about mobile marketing has been unequivocally positive, affirming both the appeal and the utility of mobile. Clients are attracted not only to the intangible rewards of mobile, such as the "cool" factor, but also to the tangible results, such as sizable redemption rates. "The opportunity has gotten so sizable, that it allow us to finally work across just a couple of platforms and get massive amounts of scale which is really what the clients have been waiting for," explains Paul Gunning, Tribal DDB Worldwide CEO. "I don't think it has been a lack of understanding or a belief that there's not an opportunity. I think it's been the ability to scale this thing and that's what we found last year and why we took such a huge leap forward."
This first phase of mobile marketing has yielded great results for brands, and it is rapidly being adopted and revered as the most exciting and innovative channel throughout all of digital right now. Location Based Services (LBS) offers lucrative opportunities for brands because the technology bridges the gap between viewing an ad and the point of purchase. In turn, there is a symbiosis between the message of the ad and the act of buying. However, that said, it is important not to focus solely on this aspect of mobile as we witness and participate in the dynamic continuum of mobile marketing.
Our Worldwide CEO, Paul Gunning, joined the Mobile Upfront team this week as a guest speaker to talk about the evolution of digital and mobile advertising, and the ways in which the industry and the clients are adapting to this cutting-edge medium since the inception of decade-old Tribal DDB. Listen to the interview on the Mobile Upfront blog.
DDB Speaks: How Business Will Reach Consumers in 2020
Though we may not have a crystal ball to tell us what the future of marketing holds, DDB believes that certain key consumer trends provide revealing clues as to what tools and techniques will be necessary to propel marketing forward over the next decade.
Jeff Swystun, DDB Chief Communications Officer, is delivering the keynote address at the 2011 Marketing Innovation & Discovery Summit in Austin on April 19th - a unique gathering of agency super stars and executives from world-recognized brands. Jeff's session will take a close look at the challenges we face in marketing and how to effectively transform these challenges into tomorrow's opportunities. He will also examine six key influences marketers need to understand and master in the coming decade in order to remain relevant and find success.
Jeff is a prolific speaker and writer, having spoken at over 80 conferences all over the world. He is the editor of The Brand Glossary, now available in four languages, The Brand Marketers Report, Best Global Brands, Best Canadian Brands, and Best Chinese Brands. He is also the author of numerous white papers and marketing columns for a variety of journals and blogs.
DDB Speaks: Attracting Customers in the Next Decade
For the majority of us, any attempt to forecast the next three months, let alone the next decade, is a challenge. However, there are trends that are extremely revealing and give some sign of the path we will need to take going forward.
Jeff Swystun, Chief Communications Officer is presenting at the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation on Thursday, February 10th. Using best practice cases, he will take the attendees through: the current challenges in marketing; opportunities those challenges present; and six key influences businesses will need to understand and master over the coming years.
A prolific speaker and writer, Jeff has spoken at over 80 conferences in over 25 countries. He is the editor of The Brand Glossary (now in 4 languages), The Brand Marketers Report, Best Global Brands, Best Canadian Brands, Best Chinese Brands, author of many white papers and columns in marketing journals and blogs.
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