July 2015 | Page 2 of 17

The Dollars Are Really Moving From TV To Digital

July 30, 2015, 12:00AM

As consumer spend ever greater amounts of time with digital media, it appears more and more advertisers are following suit.

Per a story from the Wall Street Journal, new data from Standard Media Index indicates that digital ad spending is on the rise, increasing by 16 percent in the U.S. between October 2014 and June 2015. This shows that more brands and marketers are getting behind digital means, while slightly moving away from traditional television.

The agency, which tracks 80 percent of overall U.S. agency spending, estimated that digital ad spending was up $3 billion for those months from the previous year, including about $1 billion in “organic” growth.

It also states that $1.1 billion of national TV ad dollars, $400 million in local TV and syndication spending, $350 million of print ad dollars and $150 million of radio spending moved to digital for those months. The chart below shows this in easier-to-read fashion.

However, that doesn’t mean television advertising is in any danger — far from it. Standard Media Index reported that advertisers spent an approximate $25.5 billion on national TV and $6.4 billion on local and syndicated television over those months, compared to $22 billion spent on digital. So it’s not going away anytime soon — it just has some healthy competition with digital.

Still, more and more advertisers are starting to see the conventional means of advertising directly to an audience with digital, as their ads are usually up-front compared to being saved for the usual commercial breaks. And this investment is likely to continue in the years ahead, and streaming and digital channels gain more ground.

The report concludes by confirming this theory, stating that many marketers showed interest in investing even more money in digital ads, provided a better metric system was put in place to measure their return on investment, and see whether online ads provide any leverage on purchases.

Dennis Fong Discusses Plays.tv’s New eSports Approach

BY Robert Workman

July 30, 2015, 12:00AM

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ESports has really come a long way over the past few years, offering millions of dollars in prize money and attracting both huge audiences and sponsors worldwide. And now, a new deal is promising a fresh perspective on how we look at them.

Plays.tv has announced that it has entered a partnership with the Electronic Sports League (ESL), just in time for the Extreme Masters, which will kick off next week with players competing in Cologne, in time for the Gamescom event.

This series features a number of big names, including players competing in League of Legends, StarCraft II and other games, but it also means a more personal integration. With it, Plays.tv will enable a gameplay recording client that will work with all competition PC’s in the tournament. Using Raptr’s video capture tool and social network, viewers will be able to see pros in action from around the world, watching the action from their point of view. It’ll provide a unique perspective for the eSports world, along with statistics on spectator views and up-to-the-minute highlights.

The founder of Raptr, Dennis Fong, took the time to speak to us about the deal, as well as what this could mean for eSports in the future.

Since you last spoke with [a]list, how have things changed for Raptr?

Since we last spoke, we at Raptr and Plays.tv have been focused primarily on expanding and enhancing the Plays.tv experience, in terms of both the gameplay recording client and the website/community. We’ve added a number of cool new features to both, with even bigger, more innovative features coming later this summer, and at the same time we’ve seen the audience grow considerably, which is really exciting.

What does this new partnership of Plays.TV and ESL, the biggest eSports organization, mean to you?

It’s a great match: the leading eSports organization joins forces with the best gameplay capture and sharing platform to give fans of pro gaming unprecedented access to some of the very best players and teams in the world. It’s a huge vote of confidence for Plays.tv, which launched just four months ago but already has a large, dedicated audience and is really just getting started in terms of features, functionality, and gameplay recording innovations

Tell us more about your plans for Gamescom, with the first implementation?

The ESL will coordinate most of the effort – we’re providing the tool and the venue, along with the large and growing audience of gamers that Plays.tv has already attracted. Simply put, every competition match in CS:GO and StarCraft II will be posted to the ESL page of Plays.tv – in multiple forms. So in addition to the traditional commentator (aka ‘spectator’) POV, fans will for the first time be able to view each match from the perspective of every player. In the case of CS:GO, that’s ten different POV videos for each match, so you can see – and hear – exactly what each player experienced at any given moment of any match throughout the Gamescom IEM competition. The ESL will also post edited highlight videos for each match.

Do you think this will help audiences better understand what eSports players experience when they take part in tournaments?

Definitely. Seeing any given moment from any player’s perspective is incredibly informative – add to that the in-game communications between teammates and the actual mouse clicks of each player in their respective POV videos (which traditional commentator videos don’t include) and you’re effectively riding shotgun with any player you like, reliving the match exactly the way the player originally experienced it.

What kind of community do you think will be drawn into these videos? Are you appealing more towards hardcore eSports fans, or casual audiences, perhaps both?

We expect both hardcore eSports fans and more casual players of the games in question to find this content compelling.

What makes the ESL such an ideal partner for this venture?

Well, obviously it’s great to have the largest eSports organization in the world in our corner, working closely with us to redefine eSports spectating in some very unique ways. It helps that ESL is a great partner on all levels, from technical implementation to marketing, and has been really open to trying some new things.

Finally, once the service is up and running, could you see expansion into other eSports avenues? Perhaps even other games, such as Rocket League?

We’re certainly open to hosting all kinds of gameplay-as-video content, and you’ll see other examples of this, in different veins, in the coming months.

Harebrained Schemes Plans The Return Of ‘Battletech’

BY Steve Peterson

July 29, 2015, 12:00AM

Harebrained Schemes has had great success in reviving its tabletop franchise Shadowrun as a PC game, and building on that the indie publisher is bringing its oldest and most successful franchise Battletech back to thunderous mechanical life. The company has announced at the GenCon gaming convention in Indianapolis this weekend that a Kickstarter will be launching this fall, and the company is rallying fan support already.

Jordan Weisman, the creator of BattleTech and MechWarrior, is back with the first turn-based BattleTech game for PC in over two decades. Steeped in the feudal political intrigue of the BattleTech universe, the game will feature an open-ended Mercenaries-style campaign that blends RPG ‘Mech and MechWarrior management with modern turn-based tactics. The Seattle-based developer made headlines with its two previous Kickstarter successes: the visionary, digitally-enhanced miniatures boardgame Golem Arcana, and Shadowrun Returns, one of the first videogame Kickstarter projects to exceed one million dollars in funding.

Visitors to Harebrained Schemes’ booth at Gen Con will have the opportunity to become early supporters of the project and receive an exclusive BattleTech collectible. Players can also sign up to join the Battletech mailing list at www.battletechgame.com.

Weisman spoke with [a]lisdaily about the plans for this new game, and how the marketing is critically related to the crowdfunding.

What Is Harebrained Schemes up to now, and why are you announcing it at GenCon?

We’re announcing that we’re going to be producing a modern turn-based tactical mech game, but we’re being real tight-lipped about too much of the game itself because that will be coming out as we do the Kickstarter this fall. We wanted to announce the Battletech game here at GenCon. It’s a little premature, but this is the audience where that game got started. These are the fans that helped build up Battletech from the beginning. This convention itself has been the hub of so many milestones for Battletech. We’ve been doing Battletech stuff here for a lot of years, and as soon as we were able to secure the rights to the game we knew this was the audience we needed to tell about it first.

What can you tell me about the game?

It’s PC and Mac, and it’s an open-ended mercenary campaign. Where you’re going to be building your own mercenary unit. It’s mixing a lot of turn-based tactical with a lot of RPG elements, because you’ll not only be managing a lance of ‘Mechs but also Mechwarriors as well. You have all their careers and their skill trees, doing the depth of story like we did in Shadowrun that we want to bring to Battletech. As we say, the feudal Machiavellian politics that was at the core of the Battletech universe.

Will you have fiction to go along with the game?

Fiction is an important part, both in the game and accompanying the game. We’re working with the Catalyst guys so we coordinate with their fiction line. We’re putting the game back in the original setting in 3025, because I think it played up the geopolitics really well and it lost some of the feudal nature later on. We want to sell the whole sweep of the story and sell the platform to do that.

What are you doing at GenCon for the game?

We have a teaser, just a paragraph about the game and a couple of pieces of concept art. For people that want to get involved early, we’re going to have a Vanguard backing opportunity. They drop by the booth and we’ve made up dog tags from different mercenary units. They can pick those up and if they back later on, they’ll get a variant of one of those ‘Mechs. There are ten different types of mercenary units, and if someone wants to pick up all of them it’s a $50 backing and then they get a free copy of the game when it comes out, the dog tags and the variant ‘Mechs.

The benefit of crowdfunding is that you not only get financial backing for the game, but you also get guidance on the design of the game, as well as a tremendous marketing benefit, wouldn’t you agree?

Part of the reason to announce now is that you have to make people aware that you’re doing a Kickstarter, you can’t just show up and hope people appear.

This will be our fourth game that we’ve brought to market with support from fans. The third Shadowrun title will ship August 20, and all of those were funded by fans. The Golem Arcana game shipped last year at Gencon. We’ve really enjoyed that kind of cooperative, co-development relationship with our backers. Obviously the financial support has allowed us to grow and we wouldn’t have done the games wthout that, but just as importantly the kind of emotional support and sounding board that they provide during development we’ve found to be a very energizing experience.

If we’ve done our job right and kept them happy during development, they’re a great amnplifier for when the game launches. That marketing opportunity is really twice â€“ once when you’re doing the crowdfunding and making a lot of noise, but then a year and a half later or whenever you’re shipping the title. If you’ve really worked collaboratively with your audience all the way through, they’re a great help in getting the word out when the product comes out.

SuperData: Social Casino Games Evolving

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

July 29, 2015, 12:00AM

Breakout of most-played social casino genres, 2015.

[Social Casino Genre/Percentage of respondents that played in the last month for PC, Smartphone and Tablet]

Casino: 80 percent, 62 percent, 54 percent.
Slots: 74 percent, percent, 61 percent.
Bingo, 54 percent, 49 percent, 52 percent.
Poker: 47 percent, 34 percent, 30 percent.
Other table games: 24 percent, 21 percent, 17 percent.

SuperData, the leading provider of market intelligence on playable media and digital games, today released its report Social Casino Market: US Player Insights on the US market for social casino gaming. Valuing the total market for social and mobile casino games at $1.5 billion in 2015, the US continues to be the world’s largest. As the market has started to mature, a survey among players reveals that an emphasis on ‘mobile only’ is no longer enough to service this audience. Rising consumer expectations, the report finds, demand a different strategy for each of the platforms.

“PC players are more likely than their mobile counterparts to play all-in-one casino games like DoubleDown Casino. These games offer ample variety for long play sessions,” says SuperData Analyst, Carter Rogers. “On mobile, where shorter, on-the-go sessions are the norm, slots are the top casino game type.” In addition to identifying key consumer trends among social casino players, the Social Casino Market: US Player Insights report also focuses on the reasons why players stop playing games. According to the report, one of the ways that social casino games keep players interested is by featuring competitive multiplayer capabilities.

Key findings include:

Seventy-four percent (74%) of social casino players play on either a tablet or smartphone. While PC is the most popular individual platform, smartphone and tablet players together make up a bigger portion of social casino players.
On PC, the lifetime value of those who spend on all-in-one casino games is $611.29. While smartphone spenders tend to have longer life spans, PC player’s high average monthly spending means their lifetime value across all genres averages 85 percent higher.
Four out of five PC players play all-in-one casino games, while slots games are the top genre on mobile. Because PC game sessions tend to be longer than those on mobile, PC players favor games offering a wide variety of content.
The average PC social casino user plays four casino games at once, one more than mobile players. The contracting PC social casino market means only the most dedicated players still play on the platform.
Mobile casino players are more than twice as likely as PC players to make monthly in-game purchases. PC payers spend 97 percent more on average than their mobile counterparts each month.
Social media ads are how 53 percent of social casino players hear about new games. Social casino games stand apart from most video game genres, where word-of-mouth is the most common way to learn about new games.
Seventy percent (70%) of social casino players return to a game after quitting. New features and bug fixes lure back more former players than promotions or bonus in-game currency.

CBS Will Stream Ads For Super Bowl 50

BY Robert Workman

July 29, 2015, 12:00AM

Super Bowl commercials are a big deal. Companies try to make them so, considering they cost millions of dollars to get on the air, and audiences have responded by paying much more attention than normal for commercials. But over the past few years, the only way to catch them in conjunction with the “big game” was to watch them on television – even though they could be seen online following the game. However, CBS looks to change that starting next year – and that could open up big possibilities for companies advertising during the yearly event.

A new report from Variety indicates that, starting with Super Bowl 50 next year, the company will live-stream both the game and its commercials in real-time (or as close as it can get to it) along with showing it on television. As a result, companies will now be able to consider not only TV ratings for the effectiveness of their ads, but also online impressions.

Several media buying agencies are already on board with the plan. “It’s a huge deal,” said one exec. “They are not going to let people opt out” of live-streaming.

In the past, TV ads and online ads have been sold separately, but with this new set-up, CBS could sell them together as a package deal, and perhaps even up the price in the process. With this, “a significant industry admission that the manner by which viewers are watching TV – or better, ‘consuming video’ – has, effectively, migrated to a variety of screen environments beyond the confines of just the TV set,” said Tim Hanlon, founder and chief executive for Chicago-based consultant Vertere Group. “Given that splintering of viewing behavior, why wouldn’t advertisers demand that the presenting broadcaster ensure that their expensive and heavily promoted ads are seen across every viewing environment by which the game is being watched ”

Now the only question is what kind of price increase this will bring to advertisers, as it already sits in the $4.5-$4.7 million range for a 30-second spot. While the company hasn’t made an official request, CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves has stated that the network was looking somewhere “north of $5 million” for a 30-second spot. Despite the massive exposure, that could be a tight pinch for certain companies.

Still, it pays off, as a number of mobile companies benefitted from big ads, like Clash of Clans with its Liam Neeson spot and uCool with its Heroes Charge ad. And it’s likely to do the same again next year, thanks to a much bigger outreach online.

Twitter Ad Sales Rise, But There’s Room For Improvement

BY Robert Workman

July 29, 2015, 12:00AM

For Twitter, things are getting better, but there’s always room for improvement.

A report from Adweek indicates that the social site has seen an increase in ad sales, according to the second quarter earnings report. Ad sales have managed to increase 63 percent over the previous year, hitting just over $450 million. Revenue has also gone through the roof to just over $502 million.

That said, interim CEO Jack Dorsey wasn’t entirely pleased with the results, as the pace of growth was much lower than expected. As a result, he promises a better user experience, as well as a full marketing blitz in the hopes of getting more people to jump on board.

“Our Q2 results show good progress in monetization, but we are not satisfied with our growth in audience,” said Dorsey during the earnings announcement. “In order to realize Twitter’s full potential, we must improve in three key areas: ensure more disciplined execution, simplify our service to deliver Twitter’s value faster, and better communicate that value.”

Dorsey found big shoes to fill when former CEO Dick Costolo stepped down last month, since he already had his hands full with his mobile payments company Square. Still, he seems confident in pleasing Twitter’s growing audience, which has risen to 316 million, up from 308 million from the previous quarter.

Speaking with Wall Street analysts, Twitter reps explained that attracting mainstream users could take some time, and the company is still thinking up ways to revitalize the platform so that it’s much easier for them to use. Part of that could come in the form of Project Lightning, a media service set to curate the most popular content on Twitter so that people can see what’s trending almost immediately, instead of sorting through hundreds of messages. “For the first time, we’ll have an integrated marketing campaign in the U.S. behind the launch of Project Lightning,” said CFO Anthony Noto.

It would help to cater to a mobile audience, since the site generates 88 percent of its ad revenue through mobile devices. Clearly, it has something in mind for making Project Lightning work in favor of those who use tablets and smartphones.

Another interesting fact about this earnings announcement is that it was broadcasted live on Twitter’s Periscope app, and over 4,000 people tuned in to hear the numbers live. Hardly record numbers, but, hey, it’s still innovative – and probably paves the way for future announcements to follow suit in the same way.

Snapchat Makes Progress Despite Some Hesitation

BY Robert Workman

July 29, 2015, 12:00AM

Earlier this year, many companies didn’t know how the social app Snapchat would pan out. The team introduced a new advertising system back in January that left some brands wondering if the investment was worth it – after all, $750,000 per day is a lot to ask for advertisements that aren’t as permanent as on other sites. However, despite some hesitation, Snapchat has done quite well for itself, not only getting new partners on board with content for the app, but still maintaining a strong audience. There are many factors that contributed to its success.

First of all, Snapchat made a change in the design of its application so that content would be easier to see. With the launch of the Discover feature earlier this year, users actually had to manually swipe twice to get this content, resulting in a nearly 50 percent drop-off in traffic just three months after the launch.

However, Snapchat’s change made it easier for these channels to be seen, via the Stories tab, so users wouldn’t have to continuously swipe to get to the content.

This change has brought success, according to a report from Digiday. A Snapchat representative reported that, with the design change, 50 million visitors have checked out the Discover section, with the team being “very happy with the engagement”.

While exact view numbers haven’t been revealed (the company has been stagnant in reporting these numbers), one anonymous source has stated, “Our views have doubled.”

“Obviously a more prominent placement leads to more traffic,” said publisher Jon Steinberg, the North American CEO of Daily Mail. He, amongst other publishers, is “thrilled” with these changes.

Secondly, Snapchat has seen an increase in partners willing to advertise on its app. These include Buzzfeed and Vox, who came on board shortly after its redesign made its Discovery service easier to use. However, it’s dependent on what kind of content these partners produce, according to Re/code‘s Kurt Wager and Peter Kafka. “Publishers make more money if they bring in advertisers for their channel. In other words, it pays to spend time and effort on the content.”

iHeartRadio is also a prominent partner with the Discover service, after both Yahoo and Warner Music dropped out. “Since launching Discover with Yahoo and Warner Music six months ago, the teams have been continuously experimenting and learning what type of content works best,” said a Snapchat rep, speaking with Variety. “Although we have new partners joining Discover today, we continue to look at different ways we can work with Yahoo and (WMG) on Snapchat in the future.”

With Buzzfeed and iHeartRadio on board, more diverse content and stories will be coming to Discover, which in turn should increase the app’s numbers overall.

Thirdly, Snapchat has made more effort in “capturing the moment” at key events, as detailed by the L.A. Times. Concert-goers at the Coachella music festival last weekend managed to rock out live, but Snapchat users also got to take part thanks to video snippets uploaded to the app. Even though they didn’t run longer than ten seconds, they gave fans an idea of what the music event was all about.

Advertisers have also picked up tremendously when it comes to video, including Universal Pictures and Coca-Cola, among others. “You have a TV-sized audience all viewing at once, or at least within a day,” said Michael Boland, chief analyst for BIA/Kelsey, regarding Snapchat’s video outreach. “Brand advertisers really like that.”

Even though some may be balking at the requested price for advertising, there’s more than enough business going around to keep Snapchat’s investors pleased. “I see what Snapchat is doing around Stories and Discover, and I feel it’s safe to assume that Snapchat will become a viable platform for video advertising,” said Jared Lake, director of digital strategy for Ocean Media. “They have some refining to do, but I would be shocked if they didn’t get there soon.”

Snapchat isn’t just about corporate focus, though – more personal moments make the app a worthwhile download for fans, like when Jaime Bonventre uploaded a six-second video of a worker pushing a goal cage off the ice following the New York Islanders’ final regular season game at Nassau Coliseum. That clip managed to get 3.6 million views. “It was just insane,” said Bonventre, who also serves as a social media producer for News 12 Networks in Long Island.

In fact, she became even more of a fan following that video’s success. “Like Coachella, those were awesome,” she said, discussing the daily compilations around various cities and events. “It made me wish I was there.”

Stories really go a long way for Snapchat, sponsored or no, as it enables users to get more of a personal experience from the app. “The experience is through the lens of the community, and that human perspective is pretty unique and exciting,” said Mary Ritti, a Snapchat spokeswoman.

More details on the Stories section can be found here.

So, to sum up, yes, Snapchat has seen its fair share of bumps and bruises in an effort to reach out to its growing audience. But between the expansion of its Discover and Stories section, and more creative content coming from partners and advertisers alike, there’s no question it’s picking up steam – and could become an even bigger social app in the years to come.

Now Hiring This Week: July 29th

BY Lauren Arevalo-Downes

July 29, 2015, 12:00AM

[a]listdaily is your source for the hottest job openings for senior management and marketing in games, entertainment and social media. Check here every Wednesday for the latest openings.

Harmonix – Director of Marketing (Cambridge, Mass.)
Disney Interactive – Manager, Social Media (Glendale, Calif.)
Ubisoft- Brand Manager (San Francisco, Calif.)
Ayzenberg – Account Director (Seattle, Wash.)
Ayzenberg – Senior Project Manager (Seattle, Wash.)
Ayzenberg – Sr. Social Media Strategist (Pasadena, Calif.)

For last week’s [a]list jobs postings, click here. Have a position you’d like to place with us Email us at pr@ayzenberg.com.