#SXSWi Session Notes: Storytelling Through Advertising

These are my raw notes from this session.Storytelling and advertising through social games.Zynga's mission is connecting the world through games. Has 57 million daily active users. World's largest social gaming. One in 5 Americans are playing social games.Average browser time per user per day is 68 minutes.Farmville audience is similar to the audience size of American Idol. Farmville is the new daytime TV. 40 year old mom is the new hardcore gamer.55% of all social gamers are women. 53% are between 24-54 years old.Gaia Online1/3 of revenue comes through ads and sponsorships.An avatar-based community. Builds both the game and the network. 30 million users.Finding likeminded souls when playing these online games.Gaia users: 60% female and 40% male; 90% 18-24 years oldWhy are playing social games?They are easy to play. If you can use a mouse, you can play these games.They are social. Cooperation not competition.Everyone wins.It is free.What is in-game advertising?Integrated and seamless. Enhances the game and users don't even realize they are interacting with the brands. One of the most successful brand sponsorships was with Nike. Nike shoes would make the player run faster."Sponsored features" not banners. Scion cars allowed for customized cars on Gaia. It made the feature better.Aligned with user goals.Engagement with the brandDiscussion about the brand.Zynga looks at advertising as content."Social glue" = integrating the online game with the real world. Case study: 7-11 partnership with Zynga. 3 million redmptions. Beat projections. Most successful co-redemption ever according to 7-11. (Question: did any of those users go back to 7-11 after the promotion?)Case study: Farmers Insurance. All Farmville users could get a Farmers blimp on their farm for a week that protected their crops. Farmers KPI was Facebook likes. After this promotion, they were the most liked insurance brand on Facebook.Reasons for success:ScaleEngagementUser choiceUser rewardTruly believe that social gaming will lead to social good. $3 million raised for Haiti. One day turnaround for Japan relief. Have built a school in Haiti by allowing Farmville users to donate school supplies.Gaia had an Alice in Wonderland promotion. 87% of users responded that they enjoyed seeing and participating in the promotion. 515,000 forum posts. Users spent over 5 minutes in the flash space for Alice in Wonderland.People love to take surveys and polls.(I would like to see behavioral overlays to the demographics of these online gamers.)