Mobile + Social

Volker Hirsch (@vhirsch)

Social Media World ForumLondon - 15 March 2010

The Case forGames

Mobile Games...

... can be a bit of a nightmare

You do everything right...

on the inside...

... on the outside...

... and on marketing

Something is still missing...

THe $ Dilemma (carrier model)

total revenue

after VAT

after carrier

after distributor

after porting & QA

after License

after production

after overheads

THe $ Dilemma (app store model)

What is Social?

Social refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence [...]

Source: Wikipedia

A social network is not a community!

You need Context!

Prof Dr Karin Knorr-Cetina, Sociologist

Jyrri Engestrom,Founder Jaiku

Concept: Object-Centered Sociality

A game is a Social Object?

It always was!

It’s about Engagement

- Gamers Interact by the nature of the game.

- Gamers can be Fanatics!

- A game and the environment in which it is set matters to its fans.

games are powerful social objects

-Interact with players in context, i.e. in the game

-Let players interact between them (they have a common object!)

CwF + RtB = BM

Mike Masnick, TechDirt

WTF ?

WTF ?

Trent Raznor

Nine Inch Nails- All Music free under CC license.- All videos by fans aggregated on

website.- Free iPhone app: Fan Finder.

- Double Album for $10- Deluxe Edition (Double Album + Photo

Book + BluRay + DVD) for $75- 2,500 limited edition signed luxury sets

(with Vinyl + prints) for $300

CwF

RtB

Limited Edition sold out in 30 hours !!!

$750k revenue in 30 hours, $2.3m in week 1.

Let’s recap: Social is interaction in context

Object

make sure that mobile levers the Social Object (that is: your game) towards Your Users...

Mobile is the most powerful digital medium to date.

Why?

1. It’s Big (numbers)2.It’s Personal (nature)3.It’s really personal

(Identification of needs)

1,700,000,000

4,600,000,000

1,800,000,000

2,250,000,000

Internet users (PC, Mobile, Web Cafe)

unique credit card holders

tooth brushes in use

mobile phone subscriptions

475,000,000circulation of newspapers

825,000,000registered cars

4,000,000,000FM Radios

various sources

Mobile is a 1st!

• Personal mass media• Always carried• Always on• Built-in billing system• Always present at the point of

creative impulse• Accurate audience identification• Captures social context• Enables Augmented Reality

Tomi Ahonen, Mobile as 7th of Mass Media, 2008;Alan Moore & Jonathan MacDonald, The Glittering

Allure of the Mobile Society, 2008

It’s VERY personal...

• 91% of people have their mobile within arm’s reach 24/7.

• 64% of Americans are not willing to share their mobile with anyone. 60% of married people will not share their mobile with their spouse!

• It takes an average of 26 h for a user to report a lost wallet but only 68 minutes to report a lost mobile phone.

Morgan Stanley 2007

Unisys Survey

Wired Magazine 2006

• 8 out of 10 German men would rather lose their wife than their mobile phone.

Jonathan MacDonald; Survey of 10 German men at 1am in a bar...

OK, it’s huge, I get it.

But what do I do with it?

Address the unique propositions only

Mobile offers.

Value Levers: the 6 M’s.

Movement

Me

Multi-User

Machines

Money

Moment

Source: Tomi Ahonen

Mobile is a 1st!

• Personal mass media• Always carried• Always on• Built-in billing system• Always present at the point of

creative impulse• Accurate audience identification• Captures social context• Enables Augmented Reality

We need Tools

What

- Create Fanatics.

- Provide avenues for players’ passion.

- Incorporate players’ strongest community: his friends!

- Allow Choice: if, when and where to share. Just offer the path.

- Keep it in context, i.e. in the game.

Examples of how

- High-Scores (Reward) but make them customizable (context).

- Connect to the community (Avenues of Passion).

- Person-to-Person Challenges & Tournaments (Playful contextual interaction).

- Awards / Rewards (Fanatics).

- In-Game transactions & Virtual Currencies (Contextual Monetization).

Source: Bain Consulting

74% of all buying decisions are made on a friend’s recommendation

Real Cross-promotion

- General ads disregard the power of context & relevance (“Spray-Can”).

- Players = Fanatics = Ambassadors.

- Promotions by friends in context are genuine cross-promotions.

123,296,966,069,453

The Law of Big Numbers

One last thing:

The Mass Market is here:

don’t forgetthe “other”

smartphones!

Choose a tool that delivers all that.

Scoreloop does... ;-)

So...Where’s the Money?

Where it always was:

in your pocket...

Catchy phrase nicked from Jonathan MacDonald

Summing up:

• Facilitate engagement.

• Offer avenues to activate the player’s passion.

• Deliver, and in big numbers.

Got all that? You have a winner!

And if the user wins, the rest (incl. $$$) comes almost on its own...

Image Creditshttp://biodisplay.tyrell.hu/2008/09/24/experimenting-with-resolution/ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Numbers_grid_in_NY.jpg http://gapingvoidgallery.com http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Petanque_players_in_Cannes_(France)_2003.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Bhgs_crowd.jpg https://svn-create.freedesktop.osuosl.org/public/create/docs/logo/images/light_bulb_off3.jpg http://www.easy-access.com/garagelo/coloring/tools.gif http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/f-4eoJyuiitoJIPDaqrMJQ http://blogs.fayobserver.com/faytoz/files/2008/10/davinci_toothed_gears_original.jpg http://www.adsinn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/1100109100-1.jpg http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/video-game.jpg http://www.foldingbikehut.co.uk/images/Toolbox%20Travel.jpg http://ridgestonecondos.com/images/istock_000003282632medium_dollar_sign.jpg http://cdn2.libsyn.com/sellinggeek/mobilepic.jpG http://www.footballpictures.net/data/media/75/River-Plate-Fanatics.jpg http://pervasivegames.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/124659356_bbe1e5b661_o.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/FIFA_world_cup_2006_-_Rome_circus_maximus_flag.jpg http://www.wallpaperez.info/wallpaper/movie/A-Nightmare-on-Elm-Street-1939.jpg http://www.thisfabtrek.com/journey/africa/egypt/20100112-egypt-desert/desert-road-egypt-4.jpg http://www.theninhotline.net/archives/old.images/tr_tdspromo2.jpg http://www.wright-brothers.org/TBR/Information%20Images/Photos/1903%20First%20Flight.jpg http://www.uwrf.edu/library/arc/images/diary.jpg http://news.msu.edu/media/photo/2009/12/2c305035-52be-4906-b034-022eadb86877.jpg http://www.jamesallen.com/engagement-rings/sold/1414/big/Micro-Pave-Engagement-Rings.jpg http://www.cartoonary.com/madagascar/images/madagascar-marty-alex-gloria-melman-penguins-julien-2048x1536.jpg http://writeontheinternet.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/superman.jpg http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Lever/leverBig.gif http://www.ruralmarketingservices.com/images/marketing_road_sign.jpg http://cnx.org/content/m23853/latest/Picture%201.png http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/museumimages/thumbnail1.php/p2j200749041149arc_pht.jpg

@vhirsch

http://vhirsch.com

me@vhirsch.com

+44 7843 599 678

http://scoreloop.com

(@scoreloop)