Category Archives: marketing

Comcast DOES Care

Just a quick testimonial regarding a recent GREAT customer service SLASH social media experience I had.

I get back from a long trip to find my cable was turned off.  Strange clerical error, whatever, there are much worse things to stress about. I call, get it all taken care of and think I am all set.  But then days pass and my cable becomes increasingly more pixelated.  And then my internet goes down – and that’s just not ok.

I had heard of and seen people using the twitter @comcastcares account to help them with problems, so I thought I would try.  Not having internet in my house, I used my iPhone’s Twitterfon app and tweet my request for help.  Within minutes I had a reply saying that there weren’t any outages in the area and if I DM’d them my phone #, they could look into it further.  I dutifully complied and was then asked by another customer service rep from Comcast if they could help.  2 replies in 10 minutes!  I asked my first rep if I should get help from the 2nd rep and they went ahead and told them that they were on the case.

Within 15 minutes, I got a call form a local Chicago operator who then ran through some basic tech support and determined I needed an onsite person.  This was RIGHT before Memorial Day, so I wasn’t expecting an onsite person anytime soon, but the phone rep got someone to come ON MEMORIAL DAY.  And they actually came! And fixed it!

Now it sucks that it was messed up in the first place, but the fact that their tech support team was able to respond to my request using social media and then follow through with multiple other methods of communication REALLY impressed me. I am sure it’s not the last problem I will have with Comcast, but at least now I can have some faith that they can help me get it taken care of in the future.  Way to go Comcast!

Kids Online unconference – May 31

Hi all –

First of many plugs about the Kids Online Unconference that is happening the day before the Ypulse Youth Mashup. The whole thing is 5/31/09-6/2/09, but come to what you can.

We need to start getting a headcount, so if you could let myself or any of the other coordinators know if you are planning on attending, that would be great!

To sign up for the listserv we have set up, go to this link http://lists.idcommons.net/lists/info/kidsonline and click the “Subscribe” link.

Thanks!

GDC09 Notes: Designing Engaging Relationships

GDC09 presentation by Scott Rigby at Immersyve
Powerpoint deck and white paper available at:
http://www.immersyve.com/downloads/

- Fun can have negative aspects – not always positive
- work involved, stress, etc – all can be fun

- Collecting Behaviorial Data (telemetry)
- Outcome based rather than Causal

- The underpants Gnome Dilemma (South Park reference)
- 3 part business plan
- Collect Underpants
- Something
- Collect Profit
- We know that if we make the game fun then people will love it, but what is the middle part – how do we ensure fun

- Motivational Research is happening at the academic level

- Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS) Model
- Competence – to grow in skill
- Autonomy – experience personal agency/choice
- Relatedness – meaningful connection to other players – real or NPC

- Just tracking fun is not an indicator of retention – using PENS is better
- long term and short term (they had data from their study to back claim)

Competence
- efficiency, growth, mastery
- High intention to outcome ratio
- Mastery in Moment-to-monent gameplay
- getting good feedback in wins and loses
- granular, sustained, cumulative
- w/i session, w/i game, global
- guitar hero is a good example of this
- Rewards
- not just happy things, but also info to get better works well as a reward
- Challenge
- stretch, don’t overwhelm
- watch for boring and anxiety extremes
- sustained challenge is high on fun, but low on PENS
- player gets exhausted if challenge is sustained too long
- being able to express mastery is key
- PWNAGE :)
- Shaming is not helpful

Autonomy
- sense of personal agency or volition
- I am the cause of my actions, not the game design
- Opportunities for Action (OFA)
- Interactive opportunities x Possible Actions = OFA
- Not about creating more, but about perceived opportunity
- density of choice
- Make sure schemas are met
- If in other situations things work a certain way, make sure that it consistent
- in one game when you shoot at a box on the wall it explodes, but in another level the box is just a texture on the wall and does nothing when shot
- player is reminded of his place in the game at that point and enjoyment decreases

Relatedness
- connected/mattering to other people, either real or NPC
- Give positive contextual feedback – especially in the case of NPC, don’t make them just filler
- Random dialogue and serious attitude in NPCs is demotivating to players

Application
- Ask questions during game design phase
- How will overall or specific game play satisfy needs?
- Can I satisfy multiple needs simultaneously?
- Heat Maps in Game
- Push Short Surveys in game in different areas to gauge what needs are being met or not in what areas of the world

These concepts were found to be fundamental – across geography, age and game genre

SXSW09 notes

better late than never, eh?… :)

Iphone gaming session
– There are 20-30million iphones/itouchs in market
- games and entertainment 1 to 3, account for more than half
- pinch media has great iphone usage stats in US
- There are over 600 paid family apps
- 70% of mobile market (people using their phone for web use) is from iphone – not the same as market share
- make less than $1 profit margin per app
- hoping for push notifications soon

- core
- free apps – maximize traffic
- platform – multiply traffic (ads incorporated)
- paid apps – direct to premium apps (native & awesome)

- ngmico average durations on games
- 22.6 min rolando,
- topple 11.3 minuutes,
- mazefinger 6.3 minutes

- distribution
- 27,000 apps, hard to get featured
- chronological listing is the only implicit feature area
- refresh every 2-3 days
- ads not cost effective – great clickthru, but not great rev
- youtube videos and reviews
- send out press releases to every media outlets
- get them free copies of the game
- as much info as possible
- once app in top 100, it is self sustaining
- pangea hired reverb communication to handle the pr
- the more you do to encourage viral marketing
- invite and challenge features help

- price points
- started at $10

  • *****************

- Learning and Gaming core conversation was a tense and interesting session. Mind Candie’s peeps headed it up and had tons prepared, but the crowd was not having it. Within the first 10 minutes a griefer in the back raised the tension stating that trying to determine how gaming in schools could ever happen with the strict educational standards in schools. A designation of learning versus educational was made, saying that while they may mean very similar things, the connotations are looser with the term “learning”. Then another griefer took it to an extremely tense moment bashing teachers for being horrible and that all of them should be gotten rid of as they were just getting worse. This caused the teachers of the room to get all riled up and many of us wondered who would bring it back to a professional conversation level. Many great applications of integrating learning into games and gaming into classrooms were given, but the topic kept coming back to the lack of a bridge to connect the developers to the educators. One gentleman offered to build such an application and was received with much fanfare a the end. All in all a very interesting session and positive outcome to know that the topic is so emotionally charged.

  • ******************

Tech Moms
- Lively conversations in the room and all very passionate
- Talked about the paradox of Paid Endorsements
- lost authenicity if you pay, but risk of negative feedback if you dont
- ROI vs SOI – Sphere of Influence
- Have to figure out where the moms are
- Many moms prefer local forums over blogs
- tons of moms on twitter now
- see the saturation of mom forums/communities, etc and use twitter as a catalyst tool
- “give me the tools” to engage with your brand
- twitter hashtags of #playoutdoors, #momsxsw, #techmoms, #momswhotech
- Rachel Silverman – NYT moms/tech columnist

KidsOnlien unconference to dovetail with YPulse Youth Mashup

I’ve been working behind the scenes on planning our program for the 2009 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup event in June, which will include a Kids Online “Unconference” Sunday afternoon and three pre-conference sessions on Monday morning (more info on that coming soon). In addition to the pre-conference “formerly known as urban” (we’re working on a better name – suggestions welcome), and our youth marketing bootcamp, I’m working with Dan Coates from Ypulse sponsor SurveyU on a pre-conference focused on reaching college students.

The Ypulse Campus Case Study Slam | Ypulse

Catching up on my feeds and saw this mention in YPulse. Few months off, so save the date!

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Women Building the Future of Identity on the Web | Identity Matters | Fast Company

Then there’s Kids Online — this subject has gotten a lot of attention lately with the release of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force report. I have been working with two amazing women in this field and together the three of us produced an unconference in December called Kids Online: Balancing Safety and Fun.

Denise Tayloe is the founder and CEO of Privo. Their tools give parents tools to do permission management in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Joi Podgorny has been an online community manager for kids. Before becoming VP of Interactive Development at Ludorum she consulted for companies to develop and implement online strategies. Joi’s leadership continues to move the group forward and is leading the effort get a podcast going. The next event will likely be in June.

Women Building the Future of Identity on the Web | Identity Matters | Fast Company

Kaliya wrote a nice little thing about me in Fast Company.  :)

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10 Questions: Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime – Video Game Features, PC Game Features

3. Marketing for core games is seemingly a fraction of the ad campaigns that have been pushed for other Nintendo titles. Are there any plans to expand marketing in the future to reach the core audience? Do you believe what marketing you are doing for titles such as Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is enough to spread awareness?

Marketing is shaped by what’s appropriate for a particular game. While it might seem to some that games that appeal to the expanded audience get more attention, that’s probably because the expanded audience has a steeper learning curve. Core gamers and their friends are tuned into the gaming news and blog sites, so they already know a lot of what’s going on. This new audience is just getting started, so our initial outreach might be more focused on education – in fun and unique ways – then we can begin to communicate the availability of titles they might find appealing.

And as I said, we take a different approach with every game. Just look at Super Smash Bros. Brawl, for example. Mr. Sakurai posted something new on the Dojo site every single day leading up to launch. That probably represents one of our most aggressive flows of information, and that’s a game that definitely resonates with our loyalists.

10 Questions: Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime – Video Game Features, PC Game Features

Nintendo has done such a great job at recognizing the importance of non-hardcore gamers. 

Increasingly, as each tech sub-industry’s audience starts to be made up of more and more newbies, the all or nothing approach to marketing will have to end.   This is definitely more costly, but it shows to the consumers that they are important.  If you just cater your messaging (and content for that matter) to hardcore gamers, newbies will be put off.  Make it to newbie friendly and hardcore gamers will feel it’s not challenging or get bored.  Diversification is key. 

So simple, yet with slashed marketing budgets becoming more prevalent “in these troubled times,” a simple rule to forget.

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Media and Hardware integration

Tons of articles of late about media and hardware integration – Roku and Amazon, Youtube/Netflix and LG, MySpace/Toshiba/Intel/Yahoo. Especially interesting the play the TV companies are making – smart direction to go in, imho.

I hope they don’t migrate too close to exclusivity and these are just the projects and partnerships that open the door to a consumer friendly integrated experience.  I worry that some of the account and sales reps negotiating these deals may get blinded by the $ and forget about what they are enabling.

Noone wants to be tied to one thing or even a collection of things when they are consuming media.    Sure we do it, like itunes/ipod, but I know that if Itunes started not having the content and experience I wanted, I would move away.

I am positive there is a way to integrate everything together that still allow for accurate tracking of revenues so everyone is happy.  And those who know me know that I am not an idealist.  Let’s make it happen people!

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Conferences for 2009

So I am trying to figure out my conference schedule/budget for 2009.  So far for the first quarter:

- I am speaking at Engage Expo (formerly Virtual Worlds)  – 3/10-11, NYC
– I am doing a podcast for and then attending SXSW – 3/13-17, Austin TX
- I am doing a regular podcast for Kids Online hopefully starting soon.

I also have a calendar that I am sharing of other Kids/Entertainment industry conferences.  Let me know if you want to be one of the admins for that calendar or have any other conferences you think I should add.

Anyone have any other big events coming up quickly that aren’t on my radar yet but should be?

And one of my many new years resolutions is to bog more this year.  Last year got away from me, but I will wrangle 2009 in a bit and try to have more control.
:)

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Sign up now for the Kids Online unconference

Hi friends -

If you haven’t signed up for the Kids Online unconference, you should as soon as you can.  We are trying to get a good idea of head count.

It’s extremely affordable (especially as conferences go) and should give us a whole day to talk about all the topics we usually only get a session or two to discuss.  Plus it’s an unconference, so everyone can participate and anyone can suggest a topic.

Let me know if you have any questions.  There are still a couple sponsorship opportunities available too. 

Hope to see you in November!

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