Marketing Measurement, Suspicious Teens And TV Still Reigns Supreme

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Mary Meeker’s annual internet report, released Wednesday, is arguably one of the most significant studies of the year for marketers—but it doesn’t end there. This week in marketing statistics, teens aren’t sure whether to trust ads, world leaders prefer Twitter and Americans still love their TV.

Measuring Success, Real Or Not

Measuring the effectiveness of a campaign is half the battle, and 80 percent of marketers realize that this area must be improved, according to a study by Brand Innovators and Origami Logic. Of the 252 digital marketers surveyed, only five percent consider themselves innovators in marketing measurement, and another five percent call themselves leaders.

The largest percentage—49 percent—say they are on par and 24 percent are doing the bare minimum of what we should be doing. Three percent of respondents are doing nothing to measure their marketing efforts, but 50 percent of those surveyed are committed to making improvements to their measurement infrastructure in the coming year.

Fraudulent impressions wreak havoc on marketing measurement, but a majority of such activity originates from a small percentage of offenders. Fraudlogix, which monitors ad traffic, found that 68 percent of fake impressions came from three percent of publishers. The study analyzed 1.3 billion impressions from more than 59,000 sources over a 30-day period. Sites with more than 90 percent fraudulent impressions accounted for just 0.9 percent of publishers but contributed 10.9 percent of the market’s impressions.

TV Is Still Tops

Global consumer spending on media content and technology grew 8.1 percent to $1.7 trillion in 2016 and is on pace to expand another 7.5 percent this year, according to PQ Media. Digital media content and tech captured nearly 70 percent of overall global consumer spending on both traditional and digital media content and technology least year. Growth drivers include demand for digital media content and lower price hikes for new mobile devices, according to the company’s report.

A new insights analysis from Nielsen’s Q4 2016 Comparable Metrics Report found that over 92 percent of all viewing among US adults aged 18 and older happens on the TV screen. Televisions continue to be the top technology device in the US, according to research from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Ninety-six percent of homes in the US have a TV set, followed by smartphones at 80 percent. Smartphones surpassed DVD/Blu-ray players in 2016—devices which had ranked second for several years but dropped to 70 percent of households.

Media viewing with mobile devices will continue to rise, according to Zenith’s Media Consumption Forecasts. Mobile internet consumption increased at an average rate of 44 percent a year between 2010 and 2016, Zenith reported, predicting that 71 percent of all internet consumption will be mobile in 2017. Mobile internet will account for 26 percent of global media consumption in 2019, up from 19 percent last year.

Social Politics

Twitter lets users speak their mind, and that goes for world leaders, too. The social network is used by 276 heads of state and government and foreign ministers in 178 countries, representing 92 percent of all United Nations member states. Pope Francis is the most followed world leader on Twitter, with a combined total of over 33 million followers on his nine language accounts, followed by President Donald Trump with 30 million followers and Indian Prime Minister Narendra (also 30 million), according to Burson-Marsteller’s Twiplomacy study, an annual global survey of how world leaders, governments and international organizations use social media.

But leave the politics to politicians, consumers say. A consumer study fielded by SSRS found that 58 percent dislike when brands get political and are more likely to avoid brands that take a position contrary to their beliefs—for example, brands perceived to be racist, anti-LGBTQ or sexist.

Sixty-seven percent of agency professionals surveyed also believe that changing American values are causing brands to become more interested in corporate responsibility and values-based marketing. Thirty-three percent of agency respondents believe brands are more afraid to take a political stance than a social one (14 percent). Likewise, brands are more compelled to take a social stance (26 percent) than a political one (7 percent).

Block Or Believe?

An AdBlock Plus survey of over 1,000 US internet users revealed that 40 percent had used an ad blocker in the previous month. A majority of them said ad blocking took place on laptops and desktop computers, while 22 percent were doing so on mobile devices. The survey shows that avoiding advertising altogether is a priority for those surveyed—47 percent of the smartphone owners in the survey agreed with the statement, “I would prefer to block all ads completely on my mobile device.”

Teenagers are split on whether or not to trust the advertisements they see, but admit to be influenced by them, according to new data from YouGov. While 47 percent of US internet users ages 13-to-17 found ads to be at least somewhat trustworthy, 46 percent felt the opposite way and six percent had not formed an opinion on the matter. Despite these concerns, 58 percent of American teens agree that advertising helps guide their desires and purchase decisions.

3 Big Takeaways From Mary Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends Report

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Mary Meeker presented her annual internet report at Recode‘s Code Conference on Wednesday, providing insight into the trends that shape our industry today. This in-depth breakdown explores the evolution of marketing from technology to entertainment, social media to video games and everything in-between.

Highlights from the 355-page slide presentation include picture searches, the slowing of smartphone shipments worldwide and how Netflix rose from a rental service to earning 30 percent of home entertainment revenue in the US.

Digital Age, By Age

You’d think that teenagers would be spending the most time with digital media, but that statistic actually belongs to consumers aged 35-49, with an average of five hours and 19 minutes each day. US consumers 65 and older consume the most time with analog media, at an average of nine hours and nine minutes. Consumers aged 18-24 divide their time between analog and digital almost in half—four hours and 35 minutes for analog and four hours, 27 minutes for digital content.

Digital media consumption is on the rise, although analog media is still consuming the most time for US consumers. (Analog includes live/DVR/time-shifted TV, AM/FM radio, DVD/Blu-ray and game consoles.) In the fourth quarter of 2016, audiences spent an average of seven hours and 16 minutes consuming analog media, compared to four hours and 14 minutes digitally.

Gaming In China

Online gaming leaders like Tencent and Netease are driving mobile innovation and revenue in China, Meeker noted. China became the number one market for interactive game revenue in 2016 and is expected to increase its lead over the US in 2017. Online gaming monetization in the country far outpaces TV in terms of hourly revenue. Chinese consumers are increasingly willing to pay for entertainment, especially in terms of online gaming, livestreaming and video.

Ad Timing Is Everything

Ad inefficiency is increasingly exposed by data, but algorithms are helping marketers get their ads in the right place at the right time. Adwords is big business for Google—helping the company achieve $679 billion market capitalization as of February 2017. While Google Adwords is based on user-entered keywords, Snapchat is benefiting from user-uploaded images, launching the company to a $25 billion capitalization.

Pinterest, meanwhile, considers itself to be an image-based search engine and could change the way consumers discover products. Currently in beta, Pinterest Lens is integrated into the user’s camera so they can use it anywhere—a quick snap of something inspiring quickly identifies food, clothing, furniture and more then offers up recipes, design ideas or similar pins.

Bud Light Goes For Second Esports Activation On Initial Success

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Bud Light continues to market to esports fans. The non-endemic brand has launched the 2017 Bud Light All-Star activation, which consists of 16 top North American esports players from Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone and Street Fighter V as nominees fans can vote for. Fans are able to choose one player from each of the four games, who will ultimately make up the Bud Light All-Stars roster that will be announced in late June.

Bud Light All-Stars has been revamped for its second year to focus more centrally on engaging esports fans digitally. Every Thursday, beginning June 29 and running through December, a different Bud Light All-Star will stream from Bud Light’s Twitch channel during the Bud Light Happy Hour and fans will get to watch unique content while also having a chance to win exclusive prizes. This marks a significant, two-month expansion in the program’s length this year. Additionally, a documentary-style film will be produced for each of the Bud Light All-Stars that will explore their journey to esports stardom.

Bud Light All-Stars will live primarily in the digital space, but Bud Light will continue to engage esports fans through live experiences as well. It will be introducing a trial program this year to work with bars and restaurants to deliver experiences tailored specifically to esports fans, and it recently expanded its relationship with DreamHack to feature a Bud Light Lounge at both DreamHack Austin and DreamHack Atlanta.

Nick Burt, manager of experiential marketing at Anheuser-Busch, explains how the company is targeting esports fans in this exclusive interview.

How did you go about targeting gamers of legal age to drink with the initial activation, and what are the typical demographics for these games you picked from all of esports?

We know from research that esports appeals to a wide and predominantly adult audience, with the average age of an esports fan being in their early 30s. Both this year and last year, through all of our live events and digital activations, Bud Light takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure only people of legal drinking age are able to interact directly with the brand. To that end, there are checkpoints both online and at each live event to ensure the participation is limited to adults of legal drinking age.

How did you choose these four esports from all of the games out there, including the top esports title League of Legends? Did the ages of fans impact which games you targeted?

When selecting esports games for this year’s Bud Light All-Stars, we looked at a number of factors. Ultimately, there were many great options out there, which really speaks to not only the growing breadth of esports, but also its depth. We selected the four titles that we did—Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, Street Fighter V—because they all had significant fan bases of individuals 21 years or older in North America, which as you can imagine is a big priority for us. Additionally, we felt that the communities and players of these four games lined-up really solidly with the Bud Light brand. We’re constantly learning as a brand about esports, its fans, and the games and communities that make it so vibrant a space, and we’re looking forward to engaging across these four games this year and learning even more.

As the first big beer/alcohol company into esports, was there any backlash from parents or anyone? Or is esports now on a level playing field as college sports and professional sports?

Bud Light was received positively overall when it entered esports last year, and we took every possible step to ensure that only fans of legal drinking age were able to interact with our brand, both through our online digital experiences as well as at live events.

Esports is already massive by any measure, and Bud Light has always been a brand that has been a friend of the fan regardless of the sport. Esports is no different, and Bud Light treats the accomplishments of esports players and the dedication, passion, and enthusiasm of their fans as seriously as those of any other professional sport.

What type of ROI did you receive, or if you can’t get into that, how did the first year’s activation impact the Bud Light brand among gamers?

There was an immediate and high level of enthusiasm from the esports community when we announced Bud Light All-Stars in April 2016, which we attribute to being the first-ever beer brand to have entered this space and our creation of a new, unique program.

Fan engagement throughout the 2016 program was incredibly strong, and we saw a positive effect on how Bud Light was perceived by esports fans. In terms of engagement, more than 3.6 million minutes were watched on the Bud Light Twitch Channel during the 2016 Bud Light All-Stars, with more than 1.7 million consumer views of the Bud Light All-Stars streams on that channel. Additionally, there were more than 433,000 YouTube views of the documentaries made about the Bud Light All-Stars

What did you learn from your inaugural All-Star activation that you’re applying to this year’s activation?

We recognized before we launched Bud Light All-Stars that even with all of our expertise in engaging fans across professional sports, as well as the valuable input received from our partners, we were still a new brand to the esports space and that there would be ample opportunities to learn and grow.

We cast a wide net in 2016 in terms of the amount of fans we sought to engage with by selecting All-Stars from across five very different games and genres. Bud Light has tightened its focus in 2017 through a fine-tuning of the number of games (we’re now focused on four) from which All-Stars are nominated and how content will be delivered to fans.

In 2017, there will be a pronounced focus on engaging esports fans digitally. We know that digital platforms are what esports fans engage with most and we’ve dialed up our digital executions this year to ensure we’re bringing Bud Light All-Stars to places where esports fans are already engaged. For example, every Thursday, beginning June 29 and running through December, a different Bud Light All-Star will stream from Bud Light’s Twitch channel during the Bud Light Happy Hour and fans will get to watch unique content while also having a chance to win exclusive prizes. This marks a significant, two-month expansion in the program’s length.

Our documentaries chronicling the lives and careers of our All-Stars last year were very received across the board, and we’re bringing them back again this year so that fans can get a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a Bud Light All-Star.

We also learned the importance of including in our program not only players 21 and over who are excited about it and Bud Light, but are also among the top North American players in their respective games.

Esports fans are digital and mobile consumers, how are you tying into that this year with the voting process?

Fans are able to vote for this year’s Bud Light All-Stars at budlightallstars.com, and the site is available to consumers via both desktop and mobile devices. It was very important that with consumers increasingly becoming mobile-centric that we built a streamlined, simple voting process that was equally accessible across mobile devices

What role have you seen social media play in communicating with esports fans directly from last year? And how will you tap into this for this year?

Social media is a critical way of communicating with fans of any sport, and even more so within esports. Bud Light recognized this when initially heading into the esports space in 2016 and launched a dedicated Twitter handle just for esports (@BudLightEsports), as well as a Twitch account in conjunction with the announcement of Bud Light All-Stars.

Looking ahead to this year’s program, this Twitter handle will be used to keep fans updated on multiple aspects of the program, and the Bud Light All-Stars will engage fans via Twitch streams weekly from the official Bud Light Twitch account. Our Bud Light All-Stars are also extremely active on their own social channels and they will also share news about the program with their friends and fans. We also maintain relationships with our All-Stars from last year who will also be active throughout this year’s program on social media.

What has Twitch opened up for the Bud Light brand as a new engagement tool for esports fans and gamers?

Twitch has been an incredible partner since Bud Light first began developing ideas for our entry into esports more than a year ago. It’s an incredible platform that truly shows the magnitude of popularity that esports has achieved, both from a professional player perspective as well as that of the fans. For us at Bud Light, focusing our efforts on Twitch this year is a testament to how strongly we believe in the ability of it to help connect us to the multitude of esports fans across genres in a way that we really could not do as effectively or efficiently any other way.

Our new campaign “Famous Among Friends” celebrates friendships and a platform like Twitch can truly make an esports player famous among not only their friends, but people around the world. We love the community aspect of friends coming together to play and watch esports on Twitch. This program and partnership are a natural extension of our overall campaign.

Once the winners have been chosen, will there be some type of live event?

Bud Light is very excited to announce the 2017 Bud Light All-Stars in late June, and we’ll have more information on how we’ll be announcing them in the coming weeks.

We’ve seen Buffalo Wild Wings bring ELeague into its chain. How is Bud Light working with bars and restaurants to connect with esports fans?

Bud Light will be introducing a trial program later this year to work with select bars and restaurants to deliver experiences tailored specifically to esports fans. Bud Light has been a leader in creating incredible experiences for fans of other professional sports—football, basketball, baseball, hockey, just to name a few—and its view is that esports fans deserve the same caliber of experiences.

What type of fan engagement have you seen through your DreamHack partnership as that brand expands across the US?

Bud Light has seen a strong connection built between fans and the brand through its presence at DreamHack events, beginning at 2016’s DreamHack Austin where the Bud Light Lounge was first introduced. The Bud Light Lounge, which returned to DreamHack this year in Austin and the upcoming stop in Atlanta, provides fans with a premium experience where they can enjoy a crisp, refreshing Bud Light while having an enhanced view of some of the biggest esports action. Fans have embraced the level of access that Bud Light provides through these lounges, which are free to enter for fans that are 21 and older

What similarities do you see between the current esports fanbase and those of college and professional sports?

Bud Light is the beer that friends, regardless of the sport they watch, reach for and enjoy together. We view esports fans in much the same way that we view fans of other professional sports: they are incredibly passionate about the games, teams, and players they follow, and both Twitch streams and competitions are viewing experiences where Bud Light plays a natural role as the beer that can be enjoyed with friends as they watch their favorite players play the games the love.

What opportunities do you see the rise of collegiate esports opening up for your brand?

Bud Light is focused solely on the professional esports space as part of its Bud Light All-Stars program. As a beer brand, we want to ensure that we’re only engaging with individuals 21 and older, and so the college esports space is not an area that we currently are active in.

What’s the message you want esports fans to connect with Bud Light?

Bud Light’s activities in esports are a natural extension of what the brand has long stood for in sports as well as its new “Famous Among Friends” campaign: we are the friends of the fan and we enhance their sports experiences. We know the esports community enjoys gaming together with friends and we’re committed to being respectful and staying true to everything that makes that community special already while supporting its continued growth.

‘Tekken 7’ Is Ready To Fight Thanks To Hands-On Promotions

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Tekken 7 releases globally for PC, PS4 and Xbox One this weekend, but from its reputation, you’d think it has been out for some time. Bandai Namco has spent a year cultivating a dedicated fan base through esports competitions and strategic partnerships—building awareness and hype ahead of the game’s debut.

Released for Japanese arcades in 2015, Tekken 7 had already gained a reputation overseas but the team at Bandai Namco had to find a way to bring stateside awareness. The answer was simple—let people play it. The publisher created the esports tournament King of Iron Fist, named after Tekken‘s in-game event that is pivotal to the story line.

Proving Grounds Preview

Bandai Namco took King of Iron Fist to 16 different US cities. In addition to Wizard World conventions, the game was also featured at bigger indie tournaments like Combo Breaker, Final Round, Evo and the Soul Calibur Regionals across North America. It was free for anyone to enter, and there was a $3,000 prize pool at each location.

“We’re just getting our feet wet in esports,” Mark Religioso, brand manager for Tekken 7 at Bandai Namco told AListDaily. “Our goal was to meet the right people and right partners for the post-launch esports activation. We’re looking at what other publishers are doing and seeing what fans like and don’t like about tours and applying that to [2017].”

Road To King Of Iron Fist, a documentary about the tournament premiered on Twitch on May 15, delving deeper into the origins, players and emotional roller coaster associated with an undertaking this size.

The competition is far from over, as Twitch and Bandai Namco have formed an exclusive partnership to create the Tekken World Tour—a six-month season with a total prize pool of over $200,000. As with King of Iron Fist, hometown tournaments remain at the heart of Tekken‘s game plan.

“With the Tekken World Tour, we are able to provide a concrete structure to the grassroots tournament scene—and a clear path for players to aspire to,” Twitch program manager Richard Thiher told AListDaily. “This will only help invigorate the existing Tekken community to train harder, as well as inspire new fans to join the scene.”

Mixing It Up

Tekken 7 pits father-against-son so the tagline is “The Best Fights Are Personal.” Bandai Namco teamed up with platinum-selling hip hop artist Kid Ink to write an original song for the game—an offer he eagerly agreed to, being a long-time fan.

In addition to the song and behind the scenes video, Kid Ink created his own Tekken 7 playlist on Spotify.

Friends In The Fight

WWE champion Alexa Bliss joined the team at Wizard World, where fans could try the game and enter for a chance to win a copy of their own. The wrestling partnership mirrors a similar theme earlier this year when Bandai Namco teamed up with Pro Wrestling Japan—adding costumes and moves for a crossover promotion.

Tekken 7 costumes are now available for purchase in Little Big Planet 3. Fans can dress Sack Boy or Sack Girl as Asuka Kazama, King, Jack-7, Alisa Bosconovitch, Yoshimitsu or Devil Jin.

New Game, End Of An Era

Tekken 7 represents the final chapter of the 20-year-long Mishima feud story line. Since the first game in 1994, Tekken has been about the conflict between various generations of the Mishima clan that usually ended badly—like being thrown off a cliff. To help players get up to speed on Kazuya and the Mishima conflict thus far, Bandai Namco released an 8-bit animated recap video.

The entire Tekken story has focused on revenge, so an end to the Mishima clan saga could open up the series to new themes. For now, though, fans can don their limited edition Tekken 7 sukajan jackets and get ready for battle.

Growing The ‘Smite’ Franchise With A Collectible Card And Strategy Game

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Hi-Rez Studios, makers of the popular competitive games Smite and Paladins, is steadily expanding its portfolio. Earlier this year, the company hosted the Hi-Rez Expo—a convention that now features multiple esports tournaments. There, attendees got first looks at two spin-off games based on Hi-Rez’s flagship title, Smite, a MOBA game where gods from different pantheons battle each other. The first game, Smite Rivals, brings these gods to the mobile gaming space, while the second game—titled Hand of the Gods: Smite Tactics—takes an altogether different approach with the IP by being a turn-based tactical strategy game with collectible card game (CCG) elements.

Smite Tactics is currently in beta and its featured pantheons include Greek, Egyptian, Norse and Chinese mythologies, which are the main staples of Smite. Players control the movements of these gods while using cards to summon creatures and cast spells to battle their opponents. It’s a game that demands slower pacing than the action game that inspired it, but it also marks a bold move for the company by entering into the CCG space. According to findings from SuperData, digital collectible card games will earn $1.4 billion in 2017, led by Hearthstone.

Scott Zier, executive producer for Hand of the Gods: Smite Tactics, Hi-Rez Studios

Scott Zier, executive producer for Hand of the Gods: Smite Tactics, describes the game as “a turn-based collectible card game that’s based in the Smite universe. Really, it’s a game that’s about building decks, deploying units on the battlefield, and fighting.”

AListDaily sat down with Zier to talk about why Hi-Rez is making a strategy game out of Smite and how these gods might compete in the crowded CCG market.

Changing Genres

When asked about what led to the development of a tactical strategy CCG game, Zier said, “I think there are a lot of inspirations. For me and Scott Lussier, the lead designer, we’ve wanted to do a turn-based game for a while. We play a lot of turn-based games and he has a lot of history with CCGs, I have history games like Civilization, and we were playing a lot of different games at the time. So, we thought it would be cool to do something like that with the Smite characters.”

The game started as a paper prototype, created in Zier and Lussier’s free time, and the two ended up enjoying it so much that they pitched it as a full game. In talking about whether they thought making a strategy game from an action game was a risky move for the IP, Zier said “It was definitely stretching our boundaries, since we’ve only done action-based games for the most part. But the development team plays all kinds of games from different genres, and we’re all avid gamers.”

Zier also admitted that, having made so many action games, creating Smite Tactics was more of a technical challenge than a design one. But “a lot of the pieces came together very well,” he added. “With us using the gods on the battlefield and each of them having an ability, we were able to draw from Smite and bring in the powers that players know about and have used. Bringing that flavor to the characters in Tactics was something that naturally flowed.”

We asked Zier how promoting a strategy game compared to action titles like Smite. “I guess the main difference is that, because it’s a Smite title, there are already a lot of fans interested in it,” said Zier. “That probably made things a lot easier. From a marketing standpoint, we’ve approached it the same way we have previous games. We engage a lot on social media and moved very quickly to bring our players into a closed beta so we could get feedback.” The game launched a promotion in March, where subscribing to the game’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels earned players free card packs.

Zier said that fans responded very positively to Tactics at the Hi-Rez Expo and that they were quickly taking to the different style of gameplay. “Fans have an immediate connection when they see their favorite characters from Smite appear in Tactics,” he explained. “I also think that gamers tend to spread out to a lot of different genres. There are a lot of strategy fans who are interested in seeing what they can do with these characters.”

Tactfully Spreading The Word Of Gods

Tactics kicked off its cross-promotion with Smite by offering people who purchased a Founder’s Pack (a premium pack of digital items) an Enyo skin for the Smite goddess Bellona. “Enyo is Bellona’s Greek counterpart,” said Zier, explaining the significance of the item. “A long time ago, we decided to go with Bellona in Smite because we thought it was the version that fit best at the time. But with Tactics, we’re using the goddess Enyo, so there’s a fun little trade there.”

But what will convince non-Smite players to give Tactics a try? “We’re not borrowing the MOBA mechanics [from Smite],” said Zier. “We’re borrowing the characters and the lore, and they extend beyond Smite because they’re actual mythological characters. So, I’d say that if you like tactical games, mythology, gods and supernatural creatures, then that’s a good reason to give Smite Tactics a try.”

We then asked if there was a different approach to growing a strategy game compared to an action MOBA or first-person shooter. “We’ve talked about that,” Zier replied, “because with Smite and Paladins, we’ve gotten into a steady rhythm of patching every two weeks and releasing a new character almost every month. But when you’re doing a strategy game, you have to be a little more careful about constantly releasing content that would change meta and strategies. I wouldn’t say that we’ve settled on anything yet, but we’re looking at how frequently we want to do content updates. Updates will have the same amount of content as our other games, but it might make more sense to release them once every two months or maybe once a season. We’re still seeing how our players feel about it.”

Growing The Competitive Scene

With the success of both Smite and Paladins in the competitive scene, we asked Zier if he thought there was a good chance Tactics would be adopted as an esport. “We definitely love esports and we’re all about promoting it,” he said. “I think that we’ll put in an initial push for esports and see if the community gravitates to it. We did that with Paladins and Smite very early on, and both saw a very good and growing esports scene. So, that’s why I think we’ll do the same thing with Tactics, and we’ll probably host a few tournaments to see how the players feel about it and continue to more if it makes sense.”

In early May, the game announced that it was hosting a weekly tournament series while still in beta and competitors have a chance at winning a $100 first-place prize. However, even with esports in mind, Zier understands where the game’s priorities are.

“We don’t deliberately make sacrifices to fun in order to make a good esports game,” said Zier. “We’re always looking for the fun first. I think that to be a good esports game, you need to have a healthy population of people that enjoy the game. But I also think that every designer wonders, in the back of their heads, how it’s going to look on stage.”

Entering The CCG Space

Card collection can be found in some of the world’s most popular games, including Clash Royale, and Smite Tactics’ monetization relies heavily on card collection. We asked Zier for his thoughts on why CCGs were so popular.

“I’m not sure,” he replied. “Maybe it feeds into our need to collect? I’ve been playing card games for a long time, and there’s something nice about not only collecting, but building different decks and accounting for the things you’re missing as you build them. You want to try different strategies, and then you get a new card that modifies them. It’s that learning process and trying out different things is very enjoyable.

“When we started Tactics, we weren’t pushing too much on the cards—we just wanted to make a fun turn-based tactical game. But the cards came in naturally as we played it more and more because they brought in an element that we thought was missing.”

With the CCG space being as crowded as it is, what is key to standing out? Zier believes that a little godly intervention and smart tactics go a long way. “We’re a bit different in that we have the tactical board, so there’s an extra layer of complexity and strategy,” said Zier. “I think that’s a strength for us, especially when doing a single player campaign, because we can do different setups that are very visual and visceral. That’s our main approach. Beyond that, we’re just looking to make a fun game. If our Smite fans like it, then that’s good enough for us.”

How Corporations And Start-Ups Can Collaborate To Cohabitate

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Story written by Ruth Yomtoubian, director of the AT&T Foundry

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Ruth Yomtoubian, director of the AT&T Foundry

Corporations face the challenge of generating their own disruption to boost their core business, or expand into a new business. Part of the disruption process entails engaging with start-ups to drive the next growth phase.

The opportunities for start-ups to run hard are greater and increasingly complicated. While every city, accelerator, conglomerate and non-profit is looking for their next demo participants, or proof-of-concept partner, start-up founders are heads down building their businesses, so they must navigate the multitude of hack-a-thons and corporate outposts jumping on the innovation bandwagon.

The balance of power appears to be tipping toward agile startups, and away from corporations. Creating the conditions for ideas and start-up collaborations to flourish is certainly nuanced and dynamic—but it can be done.

Last year, I met Levi Ware, founder of The Melodic Caring Project (MCP), a non-profit start-up that streams live concerts to children in hospitals. Levi was open to how MCP could collaborate with the AT&T Foundry.

With a mission to take the viewing experience to the next level, a collaboration was created between MCP, Quantum Interface, AT&T Foundry and Ericsson. The team of partners crafted a vision to livestream a concert in fully immersive 360-degree video to kids in their hospital beds. That vision came to life during singer Amos Lee’s performance in Austin’s famous Moody Theater earlier this March.

So how do corporations approach collaborations with start-ups in order for ideas—and results—to flourish?

Set Expectations

Expectations are key when working across the corporate and start-up divide. Start-ups are often ready to jump into action after one positive meeting with a potential corporate partner. On the corporate side, that one positive meeting usually means crafting a plan to facilitate alignment and buy-in across several teams, and potentially requiring dozens of additional meetings to reach a final. Engaging in a proof of concept or quick test can minimize the uncertainty—but not always the timeline. It’s important to be transparent and set upfront expectations. Give visibility to the process for key stakeholders to develop a trusting relationship. If working together is not a fit, don’t be afraid to say no or provide feedback about the value of the solution to your company. For example, whether their pitch is a unique idea or the tenth monitoring solution for an application. Open upfront feedback resonates in the tech ecosystem.

Start-ups are fast moving and if they are “A” players, they’re usually impatient and have other “suitors.” Setting expectations is important, but timelines are also critical. We’ve seen corporates hesitate a couple of months and they’ve lost the opportunity with the start-up because their valuation has increased so much as to put them out of budget.

Display Empathy And Openness

Either party coming to the table with chests puffed out too wide more often than not will result in a missed opportunity. Start-ups inadvertently bring the swagger meant for venture capitalists into the corporate boardroom, which falls flat with companies grappling with disruption. Likewise, any complacency on the corporate side can be a turn off to millennial founders who value transparency and embody a non-hierarchical style. They operate in a community of shared ideas in which peer reviews are ubiquitous, including the review of your ability and willingness to collaborate. In a multigenerational environment, all sides need to have the confidence to learn, accept and adapt to new things.

Start-ups born out of addressing a problem subscribe to the approach that it’s not what your business is—it’s what your customers need. Corporates on the other hand talk a lot about customer centricity but don’t always know how to do it. They want to take on the start-up’s drive and speed. But when the rubber meets the road, the “not invented here” syndrome can rear its head. Be mindful of what corporate leaders may need to keep their teams inspired. Don’t put anyone in a position to admit inadequacy by belaboring the framing of the problem when you have an opportunity to share a solution.

Align Incentives

The current context of innovation requires the vendor-customer model be utilized in new ways. Companies should resist the inclination to apply the vendor procurement framework to start-up partnerships. The zero-sum game strips the potential to maximize a win-win partnership with a startup where much benefit can be gained in the byproducts of a collaboration. Creating a mutually beneficial relationship starts with reducing assumptions with transparent conversations about each other’s needs. If you’re on the corporate side, ask start-ups directly about their main focus—is it better understanding of their customers, promoting their brand or gearing for additional rounds of funding? Identifying areas of alignment might reveal that a proof of concept is not the only opportunity for collaboration.

Be A Platform For Meaningful Exchanges

Corporate leaders shouldn’t fall into the comfort of soley consulting peers at the top. They must be intentional about getting information in creative ways. For instance, our Futurecast series is thought leadership aimed at generating conversation around bleeding-edge debates in the tech ecosystem. It’s one way we creatively capture insights from disruptors across the ecosystem to enable our business leaders to look at problems and technology use cases through a different lens. Likewise, it’s a platform for start-ups to gain visibility under our global brand.

Bridge The Gaps

There is a cultural divide between start-ups and corporations that can’t be ignored. Bringing parties to the table with context and understanding can bridge the culture gaps and rid the initial interaction of assumptions and misunderstanding. Start-ups should also understand how decisions are made across the corporation, if their technology is competing with projects in motion and connect their solutions values with the internal rhetoric/messaging in the company. If the corporate initiative is “digital first,” use that term to help everyone quickly connect the dots.

Positioning internal champions and catchers on the inside can help play the role of translator and guide. They can manage how a collaboration might fit into the overall structure. Don’t expect different outcomes under the same structure. Make sure start-ups weigh in on the fit of their technology to the space and path you’ve provided. Don’t silo the start-up from the realities within the company. Be a good host organization through transparency and translation.

Go Unconventional, Get Creative And Don’t Forget Empathy

This past year AT&T Foundry launched a series of Futurist Reports to synthesize the context, make bold projections about the future and delve into ways our company can collaborate with external partners. When it comes down to it, we’re all businesspeople operating in different environments. Start-ups should have empathy for C-suite executives steering big ships, and corporates must respect the lean resources of a start-up. A transactional pitch could be replaced by utilizing those on the frontline of disruption as advisors to a business unit leader. Get creative around forming these collaborations.

Ruth Yomtoubian is a full spectrum strategist and cross-cultural executive based in San Francisco, with experience running programs at the cusp of large brands and start-ups. As a director at the AT&T Foundry, she identifies business needs that can leverage innovation within the enterprise and evaluates startups in the tech ecosystem for strategic partnership with AT&T; positioning companies and developing their solution message. Yomtoubian is also an executive producer of both the broadcast thought leadership series Futurecast and the AT&T Foundry Futurist Reports to synthesize forward-looking insights, identify transformative trends and be a catalyst for innovation projection. Yomtoubian has helped establish the AT&T Foundry as a model for corporate innovation, bringing deep understanding to new approaches companies apply to their most compelling problems.

‘DomiNations’ Developer Reveals Strategy For Growing Mobile Games For A Decade And Beyond

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Since its launch in 2015, DomiNations has been quietly making history in the mobile gaming space. The strategy title, where players grow their civilizations across different ages throughout world history, has surpassed $100 million in lifetime revenue. Nexon acquired developer Big Huge Games in March of last year, and DomiNations has become a prime example of the game publisher’s vision of having mobile games with 10-year service lives.

Tim Train, CEO at Big Huge Games and project lead for DomiNations, sat down with AListDaily to discuss how the game has managed to become so successful after two years, and how it plans to maintain that same growth and engagement over the next eight.

Tim Train, Big Huge Games CEO; project lead for DomiNations.

What has been the key factor in DomiNations’ success over the past two years?

We like to think that the core of it is having a fun game design. We have a team that’s done a lot of work on strategy games, going back a quarter-century now, and a lot of those games have been history titles. So, a lot of it comes down to the quality of a game, but I also think that the historical subject matter is something that is also very important for its success. We’ve always bet big on how history is a really compelling subject matter for games, even when marketing department doesn’t think that history is all that sexy.

A lot of times, people may think of history as a subject that you learn in school, and maybe one people don’t pay a lot of attention to. But we know that history, for a big segment of the market, is very compelling as a kind of player fantasy. You get to play as an emperor or a queen that’s commanding troops and building out a nation—giving that sense that you’re the person who is the guiding hand behind its development. There just aren’t a lot of games that are like that out on the mobile market—reminiscent of Civilization, Age of Empires, Rise of Nations and so on. So, I think subject matter has a lot to do with it.

How does DomiNations distinguish itself from other mobile strategy games like Civilization?

Civilization Revolution is a different kind of beast because it’s a more traditional type of game where you can play through to the end, which could take an hour-and-a-half. For us, we love the feel of a mobile game that’s always there and continues to engage with players for years—always improving your city, beating up on people whenever you want, and being able to play in five-minute increments throughout your day, as opposed feeling like you have to sit down for 90-minute gameplay sessions.

I really like that play style, especially as I grow older and my time seems more fragmented. I want to fit my gaming sessions into the nooks and crannies of my day. So I think that’s the main difference between our presentation of a history game versus other products out there. Part of the reason for the success of DomiNations is that you can dictate what your gameplay session looks like. You can make meaningful progress in the game with a 30-second log in or longer. I have had hour and hour-and-a-half-long gameplay sessions when I’m trying to raid for resources or searching for that next big upgrade.

How has DomiNations grown since its launch two years ago?

It has grown in both the terms of the content that we’ve put into it and our community. We’ve added three new ages since launch: the Industrial Age, Global Age and the Atomic Age, which all have new toys for people to play with. Our community has continued to grow with people who have stuck with us for two years or longer. They’re our hardest core fans that run their alliances and try to make their way up the leaderboards. We’re very pleased to see the growth of people who have been with us over the years.

We love adding social features and ways for players to interact with each other. Alliances, where players can join an alliance of up to 50 people, is the core system for that. In late 2015, we added the World War feature, where people can gang up on other alliances, and we continue to add new features. For instance, our latest update includes Friendly Battles, which allows you to post your home city in the alliance chat for a mock attack. That way, they can help you better defend your base by pointing out weaknesses.

Considering how many mobile players quickly move on from one game to another, do you find that multi-year engagement is surprising?

We don’t think of it as much as a surprise because we had a lot of conviction in that—if we put together great strategy game set in a historical subject matter—it would find an audience. But we definitely feel as though the game has defied expectations. There certainly have been a lot of competing strategy games out there with different subject matters, and for us to have the kind of longevity and success that we’ve had is something that validates the core sense that historical subject matter is great for gamers to play with.

What has been the strategy for creating a game that engages players for multiple years?

We’re really inspired by Sid Meier’s “just one more turn” design ethos, where you’re always trying to be sure that players have something interesting to look forward to when they are playing the game. So, you’re always looking to see what’s just beyond the horizon—when you get the next upgrade or unlock the next unit. We think that’s something that keeps players coming back throughout the day and week. They want to see what’s happening with their civilization and what they can do to next to advance their home cities.

I should also highlight the role of our live ops team. They’ve done a great job at providing users with new events, troop tactics and sales so that when player log in, they always know that there’s something new in the world of DomiNations to check out.

Do you have a map for the next eight years?

Yes, we have a years-long road map for DomiNations. One of the things that’s fun about human history is that you’ve always got new ages to add on to the game, so you can bring in new content and have that sense of a civilization progressing through time. We have several new ages mapped out, and we’ll see how long it takes to get them into players’ hands.

How do you engage with players outside of the game so that people continue to spread the word and grow the audience?

We’re really happy with how word-of-mouth seems to drive DomiNations’ continued success. Obviously, we do traditional marketing and user acquisition on mobile, but we have a very high ratio of people who are installing from word-of-mouth. We continue to support that with Facebook posts and our forum community, chatting with players through those channels.

What would you say attracts players to historically-themed games?

One of the great things about history—and people oftentimes don’t think about it this way—is that history is its own intellectual property, just like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings or any other major movie. History contains characters, events and backstory—and the best part is that everyone in the world has some connection to that IP, as opposed to films. Everyone knows what a catapult is and they understand what they’re good for. Everyone knows the name Cleopatra and the other famous generals we have in our game.

When we run our weekly events, we like to find interesting characters or units from history you might not have heard about, but may be interested in learning more about. We just did an event with a unit called the Night Witch, which was a squadron of female Russian aviators from World War II that gave the Germans fits even though they were flying obsolete airplanes. We love highlighting different areas of history people might not know about.

What will be the key factor for DomiNations’ continued growth for the next eight years?

We’re always looking at what players want to add to the game. For example, Friendly Battles was one of our most requested features. We love talking to our community, hearing what they want to do, and trying to accommodate them whenever possible. New ages have a built-in sense of aspiration with their sense of progression through history and civilization, so we’re excited to continue adding those on.

I also think that we’re getting much better at adding new kinds of events and designing different ways to play the game, putting the focus on features that players might not have seen or have gone into depth with. By doing that, you can showcase the depth of the game and keep people coming back every single day.

We’re super excited about how DomiNations has found an ongoing audience with people who love the game. We look forward to continuing to tell the story of human history throughout the ages.

Brand Sponsors Take Notice As ‘Rocket League’ Sets New Esports Standard

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  • Rocket League, a game where sports meet cars, is holding the third season of its championship series June 2-4 in Los Angeles.
  • Rocket League developer Psyonix is attracting non-endemic brands like Brisk, Mobil 1, 7-Eleven and Old Spice to esports.
  • Twitch partnership has solidified Rocket League as a legitimate esport.

Over the past three years, developer Psyonix and Twitch have partnered to bring brands like Brisk, Mobil 1, 7-Eleven and Old Spice into the Rocket League, which is holding the third season of its championship series June 2-4 at The Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles.

“Our non-endemic sponsors have been excellent partners during the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), with Mobil 1 joining this season for its second consecutive year and 7-Eleven, Brisk and Old Spice jumping in for their first year,” Robin Allemand, Rocket League program manager at Twitch, told AListDaily. “7-Eleven and Brisk are giving fans exactly what they want—more RLCS-level gameplay—by creating three one-off $5,000 tournaments during the summer. Beyond their attractive prize pools, the tournaments will act as a connector between Seasons 3 and 4 (one per month in June, July and August) so that fans can track their favorite teams’ progress heading into the qualifiers for Season 4.”

Allemand said RLCS attracts an audience comprised of all ages, from kids under the age of 10 to adults 50 and above. However, the core age range is between 15 to 29 years old. “The quick games, exciting gameplay and easy-to-understand rules make Rocket League especially accessible for all ages,” Allemand said.

Josh Watson, head of esports at Psyonix, believes Rocket League is the perfect property for brands and sponsors interested in entering the esports market.

“For even the most casual viewer the game is exciting, fast-paced, and easy to understand,” Watson said. “You couple this with the non-violent gameplay and community focus and it is a great fit for our partners. We are very excited that we have seen so much interest in the game from brands outside of the traditional esports sponsors.”

Watson has watched Rocket League rapidly evolve into one of the most exciting new properties in esports. “We’ve seen the sport grow exponentially over the last year, and it is only getting bigger from here,” Watson told AListDaily. “Our goal for the Rocket League Championship Series has been to set the standard for new esports properties, and we think we’re on the right track. With the addition of a new region, more teams and more stability this season, we are looking to continue pushing the property forward. Outside of the premier league, we have a lot of other Rocket League esports initiatives on the way, including collegiate esports and more major events for our players.”

One reason for this growth is the addition of an esports button in the game, something other publishers are having success with, like Activision with Call of Dutyare using with success.

“Attracting the audience is one thing, but engaging viewers is something that is often forgotten,” Watson added. “We’ve always tried new and innovative ways to engage our viewers, like the community-driven Midseason Mayhem in the RLCS, where the viewers get to decide how the best players in the world compete. This season we’ve also created RLCS Overtime, a new weekly talk show that goes in-depth into the action and analyzes the sport as a whole. We also have some new exciting things coming up to continue to engage our growing fan base, so keep an eye out for more on that in the coming weeks and months.”

This year’s World Championship has expanded thanks to the new Oceania region, which has resulted in a larger three-day event featuring ten of the best Rocket League teams in the world. Aside from all the added match-ups and content, Psyonix has added some surprises like an exclusive first-look at Rocket League’s next big update and an appearance from WWE Superstar Xavier Woods.

As Psyonix creates new game modes for Rocket League, new opportunities arise for esports. “In many ways, we allow the community to help lead the esports side of the game,” Watson explained. “With the introduction of modes like Rumble and Dropshot, we have seen new competitions enter the grassroots esports community and that is really exciting. We want our players to be able to have a place to play competitively and experience tournaments no matter which modes they prefer.”

Watson said fan feedback is crucial in all things Psyonix does for Rocket League. At the end of every season, the studio gathers feedback from players and viewers and tries to improve on everything from broadcast to the rules. “Their feedback was instrumental in some of the changes we are making to provide more stability in the coming season,” Watson said.

With the introduction of the new auto-qualification for Season 4, Psyonix has seen a big influx of interest from established esports teams. Watson believe changes like this not only help the players, but add some stability for incoming esports teams who are interested in Rocket League. He’s watched Rocket League transition from the budding sport it was a year ago to an established presence in the esports space.

Just as how Electronic Arts’ Madden Championship Series has created new esports teams dedicated to that specific game, new teams have emerged around Rocket League. “Since the beginning, new teams like Cosmic Aftershock dominated the sport,” Watson said. “Even in Season 3, we are still seeing new teams cause a stir in the league, most notably the fan-favorite team, The Leftovers from the European region. It is always exciting having new blood join the tournament, and these teams are really important to tell an interesting story.”

New esports teams and new fans open up new opportunities for both endemic and non-endemic brands as this motorized soccer game continues to evolve as a global esport.

James Cameron And Disney World Bring ‘Avatar’ Brand To Life

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Highlights:

  • Disney Parks will help 20th Century Fox market four future sequels through a must-see attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park.
  • The cast and creators of the Avatar films spent time speaking to global media representatives to get the marketing message out to the world about Pandora: The World of Avatar.
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom attracts over 10,000 visitors a day and 10.9 million visitors a year, who will bring home Avatar merchandise to cities and towns around the globe.

Director James Cameron and many principals from the cast of Avatar, including Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Joel David Moore and Stephen Lang, made the trek to the planet of Pandora this week. More precisely, they jetted to Orlando, Florida to christen the realization of an alien world first conjured by Cameron at age 19. Pandora: The World of Avatar, officially opens on May 27 and is the largest expansion in the history of Disney’s Animal Kingdom park.

The new 12-acre land offers 20th Century Fox a permanent promotional vehicle for Avatar, which will continue with four sequels that will roll out between December 2020 and December 2025. For Disney Parks, Avatar adds a must-see land for the youngest of the Walt Disney World parks. While the alien world itself is the main attraction, there are two rides located inside Pandora. Na’vi River Journey is a family-friendly boat ride through the bioluminescent world from the films featuring the most advanced audio-animatronic character (the Na’vi shaman) ever created by Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI). The tranquil, and very dark, four-and-a-half-minute ride also features creatures from the film brought to life via cutting-edge technology.

“It started as dream images I had at 19 that I drew and painted, and eventually that turned into a story and that turned into a movie,” Cameron said. “Everything for the movie was created digitally—even though it looked real in the film. But now it’s been physically manifested, you can walk through it and smell it and even fly a banshee. It’s a pretty amazing place.”

Flight of Passage will be the most talked-about attraction in this new land, and Disney knows it. The queue line was designed to contain (and entertain) visitors for a five-hour wait. Before being connected with a banshee for a wild flight through the Valley of Mo’ara, visitors will come face-to-face with a life-sized Na’vi in an underground science lab once run by the RDA and now operated by Alpha Centauri Expeditions (ACE). Eight visitors per ante-room will sit on the back of a motorcycle-style seat, grasp the handles, and then “fly” through the world courtesy of 3D glasses, a giant screen and real effects like wind and water. The seat even pulsates to the rhythm of the banshee’s heartbeat.

At the conclusion of the Flight of Passage ride, guests exit through the gift shop, where they can order a customized $80 Na’vi action figure. That price includes a two-part immersive experience that begins with the customer sitting inside the Avatar Maker machine. A member of ACE serves as both guide and technician while doing a thumbprint collection and 180-degree head scan of the visitor before offering a tablet to choose from a variety of eye colors, facial markings and hair styles to personalize the Na’vi. All of this data is recorded on an ACE digital card, which is used once again 30 minutes later when a thumb scan reveals the human face and then the packaged Na’vi in a wall-based ACE machine (which is similar to a futuristic vending machine). This item is part of a huge line of merchandise designed exclusively for the theme park, which will promote the Avatar brand to visitors from around the globe.

Joe Rohde, Walt Disney Imagineering portfolio creative executive, told AListDaily that this Pandora story takes place a generation after the events in the original film (and the four sequels Cameron has written). This has opened up a peaceful setting for guests (who are on safari with ACE within the land’s fiction, as well as created a backdrop for conservation “call to action,” which is a theme at Animal Kingdom. There’s even a Pandora Conservation Initiative with cast members on hand throughout the world (in character) to explain the importance of things like water purification. This theme is also evident in the ride queue for Flight of Passage.

“It’s not the movie Avatar that we are portraying,” Rohde said. “It is the planet Pandora where you can come, you can visit, and have your own unique adventure. Rather than reliving the adventures of characters from the film, you’re going to come to the planet where those things happened—and have your own set of adventures you can own.”

In a departure from any other Disney “land,” there are no signs for the two rides inside Pandora. The fiction and queue lines blend in with the themed environment. That holds true for the bar, the Pongu Pongu Lounge, which features an old RDA mech vehicle from the battles featured in the original film. And also the quick service restaurant, Satu’li Canteen, which features sustainable fish and an assortment of “healthy” and customizable protein-based meals. Even the restrooms are set within the fiction of this evolved planet landscape. Spread throughout the land are cast members from the different factions living on the planet, including ex-Patriots who’ve fallen in love with the planet and relocated from Earth.

“I never thought I’d see the day when the Pandora I imagined could be made physically real,” Cameron said during the Opening Dedication. “Working with Disney to bring this world to life has been an amazing experience, and the result is something I think everyone will love for generations to come. It really feels like you’re stepping into a dream.”

Cameron and his Lightstorm Entertainment worked with WDI to create the fiction of this new story, as well as push the technology of the two rides forward. Rohde said Cameron would have been a great Imagineer given his love for engineering and tech.

“Anyone can visit Pandora in all its majesty. And when they do, they can learn about the Na’vi culture and all their values. The Na’vi have a spiritual connection with their world,” Cameron said. “Pandora and Disney’s Animal Kingdom both inspire us to understand and respect the natural world and our place in it.”

In keeping with that theme of restoration, Disney has created new ways for smartphone-equipped guests to help save animals on planet Earth. While waiting in line for Flight of Passage, guests can use Facebook Messenger and speak with a Pandora Conservation Initiative scientist to unlock a $5 donation that Disney will contribute to the Wildlife Habitat Restoration through a new Connect to Protect program. These interactions, as well as others inside Pandora, are expected to raise over $1 million this summer alone.

“I’m blown away (by this place),” Cameron said. “I never got to see the movie the first time because I’d seen every part of the movie 10,000 times during production. When I walk through here and go on the Flight of Passage, it’s like seeing it all for the first time.”

Top Apps, Top Games; No Phone For A Day? 74 Percent Say ‘No Way’

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Studies show that when it comes to watching TV, comedy is part of a complete breakfast. Digital video game sales are up, retailers see AI in their future, AR use is on the rise and being without a phone makes a lot of people nervous.

TV App-etite

Fifty-two percent of Americans watch streaming content on their TV, according to findings by Ipsos for TLC. The nationwide survey confirmed not only the trend of cutting ties with cable providers, but engaging with a wide variety of TV apps. A sample of 4,024 U.S. adults ages 18 and over was interviewed online including 2,115 adults who say they use apps—either on their TV or via a smart device—to watch streaming content on their TV.

“Chillin'” at the top of the list is Netflix, used by 73 percent of respondents. Rounding out the top 10 are YouTube (51 percent), Amazon Instant Video (36 percent), Pandora (32 percent), Hulu (30 percent), HBO Go/HBO Now (27 percent), Spotify (24 percent), Watch ESPN (17 percent), Disney Channel (17 percent) and NBC (16 percent).

What are people watching on Netflix, you ask? It depends on the time of day, the company reported on Tuesday. Viewers rise and shine for comedies, Netflix found—around 6AM, its members are 34 percent more likely to watch comedy compared to the rest of the day. Across the world, drama accounts for nearly half (47 percent) of viewing between noon and 2PM and an additional 27 percent by 9PM. From 11PM to midnight, however, it’s back to unwinding with comedy. After midnight, Netflix found, the wee hours are for learning—documentaries see a 24 percent increase in viewing during this time, including titles like Abstract, Making a Murderer and Planet Earth.

Game On

According to SuperData Research, the global games software market’s total digital revenue in April 2017 increased by nine percent from 2016 to $7.7 billion. Bluehole Studio’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, while still in Early Access, made an estimated $34 million in gross digital revenue in April. GTA V is still going strong thanks to the “Tiny Racers” update.

The top games by total digital games sales in April were League of Legends (PC), FIFA 17 (Console) and Clash Royale (Mobile).

Hands Off The Phone

If your eyes are constantly glued to a smartphone, you’re not alone. A recent study by B2X found that about half of millennials spend at least three hours per day on their phone and 25 percent of Baby Boomers do the same. According to the company’s Smartphone and IoT Consumer Trends 2017 report, about 25 percent of millennials spend at least five hours each day using their smartphone.

The study also found that 74 percent of respondents worldwide wouldn’t give up their cell phone for a full day, even to spend that day with a favorite celebrity.
About one-quarter feels stressed, lost or sad when disconnected from their phones. Eighty-five percent of all smartphone users who participated in the study have their cell phone within reach at all times.

Cell phones aren’t the only screens catching eyes. The average household has 7.3 screens, according to findings by ReportLinker. Although 93 percent of survey respondents said they had a TV, 79 percent mentioned smartphones, laptops (78 percent) and tablets (68 percent). Sixty-two percent of parents say their kids spend three or more hours using a smartphone, compared to 57 percent who say their children spend more than three hours a day playing video games.

Watch And Learn

There are several forms of video advertisements, but pre-roll was found to be the least interruptive, according to a study by YuMe. Only 17 percent of mobile device users felt that the ad interrupts the content compared with 60 percent on outstream and 72 percent on mid-roll.

A separate Yume study found that multiple exposures to a video ad increases brand awareness. On average, for purchase intent and brand favorability, these ads are most effective at a minimum of nine exposures.

From AI To AR

Could artificial intelligence (AI) be the way of the retail future? According to a new report from BRP, 45 percent plan to use AI within three years to enhance the customer experience. Social media is another focus for retailers, with 92 percent of retailers using it as a tool for customer research.

Aside from organic use of social media accounts, 80 percent of marketers use paid social ads, according to a new report by Target Marketing. Budgets for social media marketing have changed dramatically over the last six years, from more than 50 percent not using social media in 2013 to nearly 50 percent increasing spending on it in 2016.

This year, 12.3 percent of the US population will engage with some form of AR content, according to a new forecast by eMarketer. Forty million people in the US will engage with some form of augmented reality (AR) at least monthly, up 30.2 percent over last year, fueled by Snapchat Lenses and Facebook Stories, while VR usage will be driven by 360-degree videos on social networks. By the end of 2019, eMarketer projects AR users will top 54.4 million, accounting for 16.4 percent of the US population, or nearly one in five internet users.