Why Extreme Consumers Make a Difference

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For most markets, general consumers are the primary focus, because, well, they’re the ones who drive business. On occasion, however, there are extreme consumers, such as people who can’t get enough of Porsche products, or folks who avidly hate video games, or someone who exclusively uses something such as a rice cooker to make meals. As “out there” as these consumers may be, they shouldn’t be ignored, according to an article from Forbes.

The website recent spoke with Jill Avery, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and former brand manager at Gillette, Samuel Adams and AT&T about this certain market. “Traditional market research is all about studying the average consumer, which gets rid of the noise in an effort to study the majority of consumers, but also gets rid of people who are potentially leading the category,” she explains.

With consumers who lie “in the tails” of the bell curve, product designers can actually discover new ideas for their company. “Only by looking at consumers who fall within those tails of the normal distribution can you understand the extremes,” Avery continued. “And they often influence the middle, spilling over into what the average consumer believes.”

Avery, working alongside professor of marketing Michael Norton, went further into detail with her recent HBS teaching note, Learning from Extreme Consumers. It was put together as part of the Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD) course for first year MBA students. By taking it into account, they become immersed with global research projects to produce a new product or experience within an emerging market country.

Taking part in said project can have students experiencing what it’s like to step outside of their pre-set comfort zone and learn new ideas. “There is an enormous gap between chatting with your friends and chatting with people on the streets of Vietnam,” said Norton. “This exercise creates a bridge for talking to people who are very unlike you.”

Do you think this is a novel approach to reach extreme consumers

Source: Forbes

Drive-Ins Use Creativity For Format Switch

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Considering how much film is changing in terms of distribution, going to a more digital means, some old-movie houses are struggling to find a way to keep up with the times. These include drive-ins, which were a popular institution back in the 50’s, but have lately seen a lot of closures, due to the inability to convert to the new format.

However, some drive-ins have found ways to adapt to the times, using some clever means to work their way around the problem and, as a result, remain open and show the newest movies available on the market.

200 of the remaining 348 drive-ins in the country have found a way to convert over to digital, a process that can cost more than $70,000 on average. Most of them have turned to crowd-funding platforms, including KickStarter and Indiegogo, to fund the process, while others have chosen to invest in financing programs or renting their theaters for secondary business during off-hours, including flea markets.

Ry Russell, a general manager of Saco Drive-In, drove the point home with a social media campaign, and managed to win an $80,000 digital projection system in a contest sponsored by Honda. As a result, his theater is holding a 75th anniversary celebration with the latest films, which will be displayed through said system.

“We’re just seeing Darwinism kind of take over,” he said. “The ones that survive will prosper.”

John Vincent Jr., president of the United Drive-In Theaters Owners Association, believes that conversion is the key to survival with the business, especially since this summer is likely to be “the last summer of film” as far as formatting goes.

Not all drive-ins have been successful, though. The 62-year old Pride’s Corner Drive In is struggling to keep up, only showing $1,350 of its $100,000 campaign to go digital. “When they stop making film, that’s it,” said Andrew Tevanian, operator of the theater. “Then you’re out in the cold.”

What do you think Should film go completely away in favor of a digital means Should drive-ins be saved

Source: Inc.

 

Gameloft Changing Focus To Quality Over Quantity

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While it’s always nice for a company to push multiple best-selling games out the door, it’s all for naught if they aren’t good ones. Fortunately, it appears that Gameloft is taking a new approach that will focus more on the quality of its upcoming games, rather than the count.

Gameloft vice president of publishing for the Americas, Baudouin Corman, believes this will be a change that leads to “fewer, bigger, better” titles. “That’s our case, and the case of a lot of competitors,” Corman said. “We used to launch 30 games on smartphones or tablets [annually]. This year we’ll launch 12 to 14 games, but we didn’t reduce the number of developers, so the numbers speak for themselves. We develop less games, but with more investment on each game . . . We see some companies making a very good living with just one, two, or three games. So when you have one successful game, it can be so big, you don’t need too many other titles.”

It’s not easy to make such a switch, as the mobile market as a whole continues to expand, with growing interests in new genres and releases. However, this change will bring a six-month add-on to development time, going from 12-18 months to 18-24 months.

There are a number of market forces pushing mobile developers in this direction, Corman believes, with justification in the market for stronger investments and the ability to transition to a free-to-play stance, which isn’t always easy with the format of the games.

As far as free-to-play goes, “I’m not saying we’ll never do premium, but when we look at the opportunities and how much we can invest in a game, the opportunities are much bigger with a free-to-play game than a premium game today,” Corman said. “These are the dynamics of the market . . . Things are changing so fast that what’s clear today could be different tomorrow. It would be easy to say premium is obviously done forever. But the truth is for now, free-to-play is dominating. Tomorrow, who knows

“This market is really switching from feature phones to smartphones very fast,” Corman concluded. “It started like 12 months ago, and few companies working in South America were expecting the switch to be that fast.”

Source: GamesIndustry International

Latin American Game Markets Grow

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Game sales aren’t just thriving in the U.S, as there are other markets where it’s clearly picking up.

A new report from Superdata indicates that the game markets in Mexico and Argentina are really making their mark in the industry. Mexico holds a 22 percent share of digital regional revenues, while Argentina is closely behind with 14 percent. As a result, the Latin American gaming market is really picking up steam.

There couldn’t be a better time for it, as, according to the report, Brazil has “entered a cooling period” after seeing growth over the last few years. “The crown jewel of the Latin American market for digital games, the Brazil online games market is forecast to total $1.5 billion in 2014, and will continue its growth to an estimated $1.6 billion by 2017. Still, as the rest of Latin America catches up with more connected devices and engaged gamers, Brazil’s share of the regional market is expected to decline,” noted SuperData. That’s slowing a bit compared to what Mexico and Argentina are doing.

Image courtesy SuperData

The report indicates that there is a “strengthening in the remainder of the region,” although, even with the cooling off, Brazil is still the leader in the game sector. Mobile games and MOBAs (like League of Legends) continue to lead the charge in their own right. The MOBAs by themselves have doubled their market share in Brazil, while mobile sales have reached $606 million in yearly revenues.

“Mobile games are the largest digital games market in Brazil, totaling $606 million in annual revenues. Overall accessibility allow smartphone-based gaming to outpace digital console and subscription-based online gaming. The bulk of potential mobile gamers, however, have already settled into the market as monthly active users show marginal growth,” Superdata also noted.

Although there’s still some catch-up with some of the regions (like Peru and Chile), there’s no question that the overall worth continues to be strong, despite the small drop. It’ll be interesting to see where the Latin America gaming market goes from here.

Source: GamesIndustry International

7-11 Celebrating Birthday With Digital Goodies

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If you somehow missed the July 11 celebration last week (as well as the free Slurpees that came with it), not to worry. The 87th birthday of the convenience store chain 7-11 will continue on all through this week, as the company intends to give away a series of freebies through both its Twitter account and through its mobile app, which is available to download for free on App Store and the Android App Store.

These goodies vary, including “everything from free ice cream bars to free cookies to free Big Gulps,” according to a report from USA Today.

“Everyone is looking to create brand utility through apps,” said Via Agency brand consultant Greg Smith. “The problem is, there are already too many highly effective ways to manage your interactions with brands without downloading another app.”

Its week of giveaways should help 7-11 in this department immensely, as well as social interaction through its Twitter page at @7eleven. This, on top of the attention received through the free Slurpee giveaway this past Friday, should have no trouble drawing in millions of customers.

That’s not all, as the chain also intends to lower prices on products, including the Big Bite hot dogs, which will drop down to $1 (from $1.99) in the near future. New flavors of Slurpees will also be introduces, such as Lemonade Slurpee and Slurpee Lite Sugar-Free Fanta Watermelon Punch. This is on top of the new Doritos Loaded cheese snacks that the company introduced last month.

Along with providing various promotions and free goods, the app also “customizes based on time of day, product preference and even the weather outside,” making it a slight bit more interactive than the usual company-oriented app. Apps can do all sorts of wondrous things, thus expecting an app to boost sales of Slurpees is perfectly reasonable.

So, who wants a Big Gulp

Source: Adweek

Kids Teaching Robots To Play Games

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It’s pretty common these days to see developers doing savvy things with robotics. However, when it comes to the researchers at Georgia Tech, they are going the extra mile by letting kids take part in the fun.

The team of researchers is working closely with a group of youths to help educate robots on how to play Rovio’s Angry Birds games. As a result, the kids will be able to regain muscle movement and control through the project.

As the kids play the games, small two-legged robots watch them as they defeat the evil Piggies and move on to each successive stage. The robot keeps a close watch over the score, and then recreates the child’s actions for similar results.

However, it’s not just an example of mimicry. The robot actually learns when it makes mistakes, and then corrects itself during future play sessions. And by succeeding, it actually performs a little victory dance.

Project leader Ayanna Howard, a professor with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, believes that this project is a great way for kids to learn about turn-taking, as well as muscle control and other skills, while at the same time remaining entertained with the whole process.

“The robot is able to learn by watching because it knows how interaction with a tablet app is supposed to work,” said Howard.

The project really lends a hand with therapists, who can use the robot to train and help kids cope with certain disabilities, and at the same time interact with them so it’s educated as well. While observing, the robot is capable of making decisions about the game, and playing along with the child.

This could certainly be popular with many game players, especially if you could teach the robot to play Call of Duty exceptionally well. Then all you’d need to do is teach the robot to trash-talk opponents, and you’d have a perfect companion. All kidding aside, the possibilities for rehabilition and therapy are tremendous, and it’s a technique that would really motivate kids. It’s a great little project, as you can see in the video below.

TechCrunch

 

EA Origin’s Interesting Date Request

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Usually, when you head to EA’s Origin page, you expect to find games to buy, or head over to interact with the site’s many users. It’s not often you run into something as personal as a date request.

However, that’s exactly what happened last week, when the team posted a question on its Facebook page, asking Emily if she’d consider going out with a boy named Nathan. (This is after he contacted them, wondering if they could ask her.) It also posted a poll with the choices, “Yes”, “Of course” and “Definitely Yes,” in humorous fashion.

However, the experiment didn’t go without some confusion, as various EA Origin fans – namely those who went by the name of Nathan – posted responses stating that they were confused. “It’s obviously me,” posted Nathan Fuentes, while Nathan Daniel Tevis responded, “Do we no which Nathan this is or is it all of us”.

Eventually, the real Nathan stepped up, saying, “Thank you guy’s I’ll tell Emily to look,” only for Emily to walk in with a smiley face.

While Emily didn’t post a response as to whether she would accept the date, the real Nathan responded, “She said wen school starts and school starts on my bday.”

Congrats, of course, to the two, and the derring-do of the EA Origin team to make a personal request on a games-savvy site. Now, the only question left to ask is, what will the pair do on their first date Will EA Origin possibly provide a couple of copies of Titanfall and send them on their merry little way…

This just underscores the increasing importance of the social aspects of gaming the need to build a strong community around games and publishers. It’s also about opportunistic marketing, with community reps and marketers working together to take advantage of marketing opportunities that present themselves.

Source: Kotaku

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Free-To-Play ‘Has A Half-Life’

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While a lot of developers these days are taking the free-to-play route with their games, namely with efforts like King’s Candy Crush Saga, there are those who believe that it’s not quite the market that gamers are looking for.

Among these folks are MMO creator Richard Bartle, who believes that the business model for free-to-play is actually on a “half-life,” meaning that it will eventually lose popularity.

During a Develop conference in Brighton earlier this week, Bartle took part in a debate alongside free-to-play advocate Nicolas Lovell, discussing how free-to-play may look like a “great revenue model” at the moment, but it’s not likely to last.

“It will start to tail off because the people who play the games will recognize when they’re about to be nickled and dimed, and stop playing them,” said Bartle. “It will tail off because there is a fixed amount of people willing to spend enormous amounts of money, and there’s too much competition for those people.

“It will also tail off because the type of games people want to play will change. The more games you play, the more sophisticated the content of the games you will want. And when you want a more sophisticated game, then the overlay of free-to-play will be more of a problem for you. You will get a more moral sense of fair play.”

Sometimes, the implementations from the free-to-play model can be difficult to predict, according to Bartle. “Until we normalize, which could take a few years, and we know what’s being charged for, then it’ll be the Wild West,” he continued.

Lovell felt that creativity in the games industry could continue to fuel the market and overcome the problems Bartle suggested. “My sense is that the market will keep evolving,” Lovell said. “Things that initially work against players will stop working; players will love, with their attention and with their wallets, for games that treat them more respectfully.

“To my mind what free-to-play does is broaden the market by being free up front. It enables creators to keep creating. And I don’t think that has a half-life because I think the games industry is endlessly innovative, and the reason why we’re at the forefront of making money from digital content when every other medium is dying is because we love tech, we love change, and we love experimenting and tinkering. I’m incredibly positive.”

Bartle, however, stood his ground. “I think that new game designers will be less keen on free-to-play as a regular model because they’ve seen its disadvantages,” he concluded. “Most people working in the games industry are there because they like making games. They want you to play them because they’re fun, not because they subject you to cheap psychological tricks. They want to say things through their games. They want to make money, of course, but money is a side issue.”

Source: GamesIndustry International

Phone Use For Video Games Rising

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The gamer population hasn’t grown much in the U.S., unless you consider the mobile gaming market. There, it’s really on the rise.

A new report provided by global information provider The NPD Group indicates that the number of what they call Avid Omni Gamers, players who spend time on multiple systems (including consoles and mobile) has risen 6 percentage points to 22 percent of the overall gaming population. As a result, they replace the casual gaming audience as the second largest gamer segment, compared to last year. Free & Mobile Gamers continues to lead the charge with an estimated 29 percent of the U.S. gamer population, but, as you can see, Avid Omni Gamers are clearly gaining.

71 percent of gamers in the U.S. overall prefer to use their mobile devices to play video games, which shows an increase of four percent over the previous year. That makes it the only type of gaming device that shows a year-to-year growth in terms of usage.

Although the mobile device is preferred by the Avid Omni and Free & Mobile groups, many others, including Casual Gamers and Social Gamers, continue to rely on the PC as their top machine. Meanwhile, consoles continue to be quite popular in the Core Console Gamer and Family Gamer markets, according to the report.

As for spending habits on game systems, about $48 on average is spent over a three month period on physical products, which approximately $16 is spent on digital products. These are an increase over last year’s numbers, with $45 on physical titles and $11 on digital.

No matter which way you cut it, video game spending continues to be on the rise, and mobile devices continue to play their part. With Apple and Samsung set to launch new devices later this year, you can expect this trend to keep up.

Source: NPD

Global Ad Spending Doubles In 2014

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We’re not even done with 2014 yet, and already we’re seeing some record numbers when it comes to global ad spending.

New figures reported from eMarketer indicate that advertisers has spent a whopping $545.40 billion on paid media for this year, even though it isn’t even finished yet. That shows a growth of 5.7 percent, based on total media ad spending — double the rate of 2.6 percent from last year.

There are a number of trends that helped make advertising such a boon this year, including the popularity of the FIFA World Cup, as well as the Winter Olympics. In addition, there have been big increases in both online and mobile advertising, with consumers shifting their attention more to digital devices, including mobile units, game consoles and other accessories.

The U.S. continues to be the dominant leader in total media ad spending, with the country set to exceed $180 billion in spending this year alone — and that’s just a third of the worldwide total. The spending will also be the highest per capita, as U.S. advertisers are set to spend nearly $565 on paid media, per average.

How does that compare to other countries China will only spend $37.01 per person this year, a mere fraction of what the U.S. advertisers are going after. Meanwhile, Norway continues to push heavily on its front, spending $538.71 on its per person basis, just short of the U.S.’ amount.

Digital channels are proving to be the big avenue on spending, as eMarketer believes that it will increase 16.7 percent this year, totaling the amount of $140.15 billion and surpassing 25 percent of overall media ad spending — the first time it’s doing that ever. It seems likely that digital ad spending will contionue to grab an ever-larger share of the total ad spend.

It appears these numbers could be on the rise for next year as well.

Source: eMarketer