Video Game Consoles Amp Up The Video

Game consoles are continuing their stealthy takeover of the living room. We've been seeing this trend for a while, but the pace is accelerating as the holiday season approaches.

The PlayStation 3 is going Netflix next month. The second console to get the streaming video service, this added functionality should help the PS3 sales for the holiday (which are already predicted to be high due to the lower price point of the PS3 Slim). The solution currently works using a disc shipped out from Netflix, though it's been confirmed that eventually a native client will be released. There are still rumors of a similar disc-based approach coming to the Wii.

The Xbox 360 just saw the release of Sky TV on the system for Sky subscribers in the U.K. This service has one up on the Netflix services already being used by Xbox 360 users in the U.S.: live TV. A number of Sky channels are available for live streaming to the system, including sports. And there's an on-demand content library. The Xbox 360 is also getting 1080p HD streaming for "Zune Marketplace" video content, with a system update coming next month (assuming a download speed of 8Mbps and an HDMI connection). This will apply to purchased and rented content within the video marketplace, and replaces the existing download method.

These trends in the consoles mirror a larger trend among consumer behavior. Streaming of full-length TV or movie content is on the rise in the U.S., increasing by about 100% year to year. For the general population, 26% have streamed a full-length TV episode in the last month (up from 11% eight months prior), and 51% of 18- to 24-year-olds have (up from 26%). These numbers mirror streaming growth reported on Netflix's earnings call this quarter, with 42% of subscribers viewing instant stream content today versus only 22% last year. As the ease of use and quality increase for streaming content to the living room, this behavior will likely continue to spread - and, at least so far, the consoles are sitting at the forefront of this transformation.

Xbox Looks To Have The Jump On Motion

Over the past few weeks Sony and Microsoft have offered new details on who/what will be used to launch their own entrances into the world of motion-controlled games, which has thus far been wholly dominated by the Nintendo Wii.

Judging from the initial list of titles for both Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's as-yet unnamed motion control wand, Sony is looking to move first-party titles by catering to players who already own a PS3 and the titles that are being upgraded to be motion-control compatible, whereas Microsoft, with its partnership with top publishers like Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard and Sega, is looking to create must-own titles that will move consoles.

In the current environment, Microsoft's strategy is the right one. While the Wii was the only motion-control game in town, Nintendo could get away with having mostly shovelware titles with only a few games worth owning. Now that all the major players are getting involved, the list of motion-control titles offered by each platform really needs to be exceptional, and the third-party publishers Microsoft's lined up looks ready to make that happen.

Online Retailers: 99% Plan to Have Facebook Fan Pages

With two-thirds of marketers using social media, and retailers shifting marketing dollars towards social initiatives, it comes as no surprise that new research from the e-tailing group and PowerReviews shows that brands are more hip to social media than ever before.

What is quite remarkable, however, is the extent at which brands and retailers are adopting and implementing social media tools, and their preferred social home — Facebook. According to eMarketer, a combined 99% of surveyed online retailers currently employ (86%) or plan to employ (13%) Facebook Fan Pages.

Similar stats hold true for Twitter too. 65% are already all a-Twitter, with 26% planning to get in on the action as well. If the survey results are to be trusted, nearly all online retailers will have Facebook Fan Pages, and 91% will be using Twitter for status updates by the year 2011.

Data from the “Community and Social Media Study” was gathered between August and September of this year, and shows that retail respondents are also favorable to creating and managing their own blogs, but they’re not as keen to adopt the longer form outlet as readily as they are Facebook or Twitter. In fact, at first glance, it might be a little surprising to find that only 55% of those surveyed have blogs now, but 65% and 86% have Twitter accounts or Fan Pages respectively.

Marry those stats against the fact that retailers still fear losing control of their branding, and you have a bit of a oxymoron. The data shows that retailers are actively adopting social media tools on third-party sites over adding social utilities like a blog, Facebook Connect (43% use today), or forums (27%) to their own sites. But, according to the report, “One of their biggest fears was that customers would abandon their site in favor of one that was more socially engaging.”

Perhaps that conundrum can be rectified by the notion that the study also found that “the primary social media goal … was to increase customer engagement.” Social sites do offer a quick and easy way to reach and engage with a broader customer base. Just look at the New England Patriots Facebook initiatives for a prime example of a big brand opting to add social utility on Facebook instead of their own website.

Interesting enough is that this study’s social media adoption rates closely mirror a recent Mzigna/Babson Executive Education study, but that particular study also found that 84% don’t measure the ROI of their social media programs. Clearly we can expect to see adoption rates continue to rise, but what happens after the Facebook Fan Page, Twitter accounts, and blogs are created still remains somewhat of a mystery.

Social Media Tools Gaining For Driving Sales

According to the first annual Community and Social Media Study, from the The e-tailing group five out of ten social media tools have been adopted by more than 50% percent of brands and retailers, with the Facebook Fan Page leading the way at 86%. In addition, the study found three-fourths of the survey respondents feel brands have accelerated their use of, and commitment to, community and social media in the past six months.

The study found that the penetration of social media tools within brand and retailer organizations is extremely high, given the length of time these tools have been around:

Community and Social Networking Tools Employed and Planned (% of Respondents)
	Anticipated Timing
Network or Tool	Today	Next 12 Months	Beyond 1 Year	No Plans to Employ
Facebook fan page	86%	10	3	1
Twitter	65	19	7	9
Customer reviews	55	26	13	6
Blogs	55	25	12	8
Viral videos	50	22	13	15
Facebook connect	43	31	10	16
Social listening	36	31	19	14
Q & A	29	20	25	26
Community forums	27	18	23	32
Product suggestion box	19	26	20	35
Source: e-Tailing Group, September 2009

The motivators, which drove the last wave of social media adoption, will also be driving the next wave in the coming year, says the study. Over the next 12 months, study respondents say they plan to adopt:

• Facebook Connect (31%)
• Social Listening Tools (31%)
• Customer Reviews (26%)
• Product Suggestions (26%)

The study also found the primary goal for adopting social media was:

• Customer engagement (39%)
• Mobilizing advocates to drive "word of mouth" (30%)
• Increasing brand loyalty (21%)

Regarding advocacy and word of mouth (the #2 goal of using social media tools), the study found that Facebook is considered by brands and merchants to be the "single most effective tactic in mobilizing brand advocates and influencers to spread the word about products/services."

However, when it comes to driving sales and customer engagement, customer reviews came out on top by a wide margin, with 78% of those polled listing customer reviews as the #1 social media tool for generating sales and 61% listing customer reviews #1 in driving customer engagement.

Top 3 Sites or Tools Expected to Yield Greatest Sales Increase (% of Respondents)
Social Media or Tool	Total Response	% Rank 1	% Rank 2	% Rank3
Customer reviews	100	78%	14%	8%
Q & A	43	16	49	35
Facebook fan page	39	13	36	51
Viral videos	34	18	44	38
Community forums	33	6	45	49
Blogs	30	10	47	43
Social listening	22	14	27	59
Facebook connect	19	26	32	42
Product suggestion box	17	41	24	35
Twitter publishing	14	7	57	36
Source: e-Tailing Group, September 2009

Top 3 Sites or Tools Expected to Create Greatest Customer Engagement Increase (% of Respondents)
Social Media or Tool	Total Response	% Rank 1	% Rank 2	% Rank3
Customer reviews	67	61%	16%	23%
Q & A	46	20	50	30
Community forums	46	48	26	26
Blogs	43	16	58	26
Facebook fan page	42	31	43	26
Twitter publishing	29	34	14	52
Product suggestion box	27	22	30	48
Viral videos	24	12	38	50
Facebook connect	21	19	29	52
Social listening	6	33	17	50
Source: e-Tailing Group, September 2009

The Power of Facebook Fans

Facebook Fan Pages are proving to open up dialog with consumers, empowering them to deliver actionable insights to global brands. Creating Facebook relationships and shifting communications from monologue (Brand-centric) to dialog (Fan-centric) can take time but if done correctly, can be extremely valuable. Addressing general trends and recognizing contributions from Fans can go a long way to motivating your Fans to become evangelists. The brands that are using Facebook effectively are actively engaging consumers. Their pages have creative content, two-way communication, active discussion boards, videos and images, and a fun and casual tone to match the medium. Below are five examples of brands that excel with this medium.

1. Coca-Cola (3.6 Million Fans)
The Coca-Cola fan page is a testament to the brand’s commitment to user participation. Coca-Cola has taken the unorthodox step of displaying user created content in their main page Wall feed by default, something that most brands shy away from. That’s a bold move for Coca-Cola, but one that really demonstrates their interest in getting fans involved with the brand. Coca-Cola also stands out in their approach to photo albums. Many companies simply incorporate an album of product pictures and call it a day, but Facebook offers companies a chance to get creative with photos, and Coca-Cola has taken advantage of that. They have a number of albums showing off the product, workers at the company, photos of Coke fans, pictures of Coke products from all around the world, and pictures of old Coke nostalgia. Coke knows that their brand is an icon and people don’t just interact with their product by drinking it — they actually collect it. The best example of how Coke is truly committed to their fans on Facebook is the story of how the page came to be. The page was originally created by two fans who just loved Coke. Coca-Cola found the page, and rather than trying to buy it or create another “official” page, they rewarded the two fans and worked with them to continue building the page and representing the brand. By empowering their existing fans, rather than trying to marginalize or steam roll them, Coca-Cola has been able to build on the connections that were already established with fans on Facebook before they even arrived in an official capacity.

2. Starbucks (3.8 Million Fans)
Starbucks is clearly dialed in to the world of social media, and that is reflected in the Starbucks fan page. The page incorporates great videos, varied content, and has active engagement with the fans. But what makes it truly exceptional, is its use of status updates. Status updates are an important aspect of any fan page because they provide two-way communication between company and fan, while keeping the page fresh with new content and information, which gives fans a reason to return. So many companies struggle to understand how best to utilize these updates and either don’t use them at all, update solely about product announcements, or update so often users become overwhelmed and the updates turn into so much noise. Starbucks, on the other hand, has established a good frequency of updates, sharing something new every couple of days. More importantly, though, the content is varied, fun, and interesting. Their updates share videos, blog posts about all aspects of coffee — and not just on the official company blog — including how to grow coffee beans, articles about Starbucks and Starbucks employees. The tone of each update is informative and casual, and even their product updates are kept varied enough to remain interesting, for example, by offering up reviews of new music or books for sale in their cafes. As a result, the quality status update content has led to a very engaged fan base, with every update receiving thousands of comments. The Starbucks Facebook fan page is a great example of how a company can still engage fans without the use of flashy apps, and instead simply focusing on quality content.

3. Adidas (2 Million Fans)
The Adidas fan page offers all the usual attributes of a strong page: active fans, a branded application, lots of content variety, plus, good video, pictures and notes. That’s all good stuff, but what really makes them stand out is the way they use their page’s tools to promote their other social media and advertising campaigns. Running a contest on Facebook brings variety to a page’s content, engages fans, and has the ability to directly increase the company’s revenue by introducing new customers to the brand. Lots of brands attempt to promote campaigns on Facebook, but there are only a few do it well. Most recently, Adidas teamed up with MTV to run an exclusive Facebook contest where a fan could win an all-expenses-paid house party. Their campaign was successful for a few reasons. First, Adidas chose a prize and partner that would resonate with their Facebook user demographic. Second, they wisely chose to promote the contest on their fan page not only before the contest, but after it had ended as well. Once they had chosen the lucky winner, they used their page to share the fan’s blog posts, photos and video from the party. The integration of status updates, photos, notes and videos, with a smart contest, resulted in a whole lot of fan engagement, and keeping the winning fan involved even after the contest had ended showed their commitment to fans and helped them get extra mileage out of the campaign. The contest also gave the page content variety by breaking up the usual status updates with something new, fun, and with an included call to action for fans to get involved.

4. Pringles (2.7 Million Fans)
While Pringles has created an inviting laid back tone, and managed to engage fans via reviews, discussions, and original interactive games, the most notable aspect of the page is definitely their use of video. Because videos are so easy to consume, video is among the most commonly shared types of content online. Pringles recognizes that its Facebook fans react well to comedy and have used their fan page to catalyze the spread of videos that certainly have the potential for virality. The videos are low budget productions with little editing or props depicting people singing goofy songs. It’s not much, but Pringles clearly knows its demographic, and the way Facebook works. By distributing the videos on their fan page, they’ve given users the chance to spread the Pringles brand to their friends without resorting to paid ad placements, which is exactly what thousands of people have done by “liking” the videos, an action which is then repeated in the newsfeeds of their friends and can potentially attract new people to the Pringles fan page.

5. Red Bull (1.2 Million Fans)
The Red Bull fan page is easily one of the best on Facebook simply because it has been able to break out of the typical fan page mold by providing fun content that encourages fans to interact with and ultimately connect with the brand. Their uniqueness is captured in their innovative incorporation of Twitter into their Facebook fan page. Integrating a Twitter stream is not special on its own, but Red Bull doesn’t just pull in tweets from their official corporate account, as you might expect most brands do. Instead, Red Bull has aggregated tweets from sponsored athletes like skateboarder Ryan Sheckler and snowboarder Shaun White and included them directly in their Facebook presence. Associating themselves with popular athletes, and letting fans connect to those athletes on a separate social network (i.e., not boxing them in) gives Red Bull some instant cool points. Their page’s “Boxes” section is also pretty darn incredible. Red Bull has built all kinds of content and applications that help them break out of the vanilla Facebook mold that forces all brands to look and feel more or less the same. They also deliver humor with an app that lets fans rate phone calls of people who “drunk dialed” the Red Bull 1-800 number. It’s not only hilarious, but it also successfully encourages fan engagement. Clearly Red Bull is a company that understands their audience and knows that the best way to connect with them on Facebook is with humor, fun, apps that get people engaged, and by being creative.

When designing your Facebook strategy, it's worth keeping in the mind the following objectives:

1) How can you drive awareness with product updates, promotions, events, etc.?
2) How can you build relationships with Fans by engaging in authentic conversations?
3) Can you get input and insights by requesting feedback from Fans and tracking what they are talking about?
4) Can you motivate action by encouraging Fans to try or buy new products?
5) Can you build brand evangelism by encouraging Fans to help reach new customers?

All the brands above have benefited from a solid brand image and loyal following before they actually joined Facebook and started using social media tools. They are all committed to engaging and empowering their Fans and have effectively done so.

Widgets & Apps that Might Scare You into Loving RE5

Resident Evil is returning to computers with its 5th addition to the revolutionary series. With unbelievable detail, realism and control, Resident Evil 5 will bring new fans to the series, adding to the existing mega franchise. The Resident Evil series has sold over 40 million units since the original game was released in 1996 and has spawned a multi-million dollar trilogy of films from Sony Pictures. The latest installment of the game, Resident Evil 5 promises to revolutionize the series just as Resident Evil 4 did.

In order to help promote the release of this ultra successful, horror-filled video game for PC, The Game Agency has created two applications:

A Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/majini-makeover/) that gives users a chance to see their most evil side –literally. Targeting gamers and non-gamers ages 17 to 35 who are fans of the franchise and the horror genre in general, MAJINI MAKEOVER allows Facebook users to transform a regular photo into a grotesque Majini. Once a user selects an image from a personal or friends’ public photo gallery, he or she can use a library of gruesome wounds, stitches, worms and more to turn themselves into one of the infected Majini’s that scare their way through Resident Evil 5. If you don’t feel like getting infected, then grab a friend’s photo, tag them and suddenly you’ve created a photo album with one evil friend – or maybe a new enemy. Users who enter their transformed image into a public Facebook gallery are entered to win a laptop computer, five top of the line Intel processors, copies of the game and Resident Evil collectables.

A Resident Evil 5 SuperWidget (http://demo.thegameagency.com/demo/611) that can be accessed on consumer desktops and across 60 online destinations including Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, etc. For 5 weeks, this widget will offer some seriously disturbing screensavers, eye opening wallpapers, and a trailer that will get even the casual gamers excited for this blockbuster PC experience. In addition, users who install the widget will be able to enter their name and email for a chance to win an Intel Core i7 processor or digital download of the game! Users can enter once a day and prizes are awarded weekly.

Please check these two apps out when you have a chance.

Effective Consumer Outreach Proves To Be Fun And Games

September 01 2009

Online games targeting a more casual participant are attracting a wider audience, including more women, due in part to ease of play, the free or low cost, and overall popularity of video games. Given that trend, PR and marketing pros are leveraging such games to better connect with consumers.

“Gaming is a key mechanism that works with the overall strategy to help drive awareness and deepen consumer engagement,” says Heather Mitchell, Unilever's PR communications manager.

Unilever's Axe recently incorporated the game Pogo Xtreme as part of an education campaign that teaches guys how to use a “double pits to chesty” move to apply its deodorant body spray.

“Based on consumer insights, we know that gaming is a big part of our guys' world,” Mitchell notes in an e-mail to PRWeek. She adds that Unilever sees gaming as a still-growing trend.

Intel, which recently created a PC version of Atari's Ghostbusters, used a branded Facebook game as part of the marketing campaign surrounding the game, which is part of Intel's product line.

“It's an interesting way to reach a new audience, but also get people to spend a little more time getting those messages,” says Erik Cubbage, software marketing manager for Intel. Intel worked with AOR Burson-Marsteller and The Game Agency (TGA), which says it is seeing more companies interested in casual games as part of PR or marketing campaigns.

“There are still companies licensing pre-designed games and slapping their logos on them, but they are not finding success be-cause there is nothing unique,” says Stephen Baer, managing partner of TGA. Instead, he says, success comes when games are original and incorporate a brand or product in a relevant and unique way.

Tone Skin Care, part of the Dial Corporation, took part in a Facebook fashion game called What To Wear as part of the PR campaign around the launch of its Tone Antioxidant Blueberry Body Wash. It gave the brand a unique way to reach out to its target: 18- to 35-year-old women, says Sami Myohanen, brand manager for Tone, which works with AOR Marina Maher Communications.

“When this opportunity came up, it just seemed like a natural fit, as we've seen this age group interacting with online games and social media,” he adds.

What to Wear was created by Plus Media and Large Animal Games, which both report a rise in companies asking about this tactic for PR efforts. Other firms have also seen that shift.

“There is definitely an increased appetite and inquiring to see how online original gaming can be included within the PR mix,” says Jennie Kong, digital and games consultant for Atomic PR.

“It's another example of how the marketing mix is breaking down,” adds Jud Branam, MD of MS&L Digital. “You would have thought of programming something like a game as maybe an interactive agency piece, but that is becoming more common ground for everybody.”

There is still debate about where gaming falls within the marketing mix. It would appear that PR has an edge, as games allow for consumer interaction, storytelling, and building community – all areas where PR takes the lead.

“I definitely see that falling more to PR,” says Victoria Lang, co-president of Plus Media. She adds that digital PR pros are also a necessary part of these campaigns.

“If you're looking to create an original online game specifically for a client or company,” Kong adds, “the digital team is pretty much integral to working with the PR team.”

INDUSTRIES USING ONLINE GAMES

Healthcare
Companies such as Humana, Novartis, and Teva have all introduced online games as ways to educate consumers about well-being and train employees

Automotive
Car companies like Lexus and GM have used online games to promote driving safety, showcase products, and teach consumers about car parts

Video games
Its target audience is already into gaming, so companies like EA Sports use free online games to promote their NASCAR and golfing games