Today as I browsed the marketing section of the IAB enews, an article about branded social games caught my eye. Yesterday I commented on spam's online games. In this particular article, Oliver Chiang talks about the marketing value of online games. Although Chiang focuses on facebook games (and spam just has games on their website) it gave me pause.
So I checked out the spam website again. I had a blast catapulting cows at soldiers while everyone made funny noises. Will I come back again? Will I email the link to a friend? Possibly. In that case, spam has succeeded in driving more web traffic - both repeat and new visitors.
Where spam is lacking is a great facebook game. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough, but I couldn't find an easy link to any games on facebook. For that matter, a brief search of facebook turned up no obvious official spam page with games. There's a big opportunity here to engage consumers in a deeper way - and increase your reach as you do so. (Chiang)
In addition to viral marketing, Chiang discusses the increased revenue opportunity for branded social games. Not only do visitors play the game, but the company has a new opportunity to sell branded merchandise. (Which is tempting when you imagine just how cool you'd look in spam branded socks.)
Spam - you're doing great with your game, but it's time to expand. Get yourself a developer with a sense of humor and test the facebook waters.
Article referenced: http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/13/social-games-sanrio-technology-brands.html
SPAM does indeed walk a fine line: how to have a little fun with the name without hurting the brand. I think they find a nice balance here, with their use of font style and colors reflecting a lighter side of canned meat, but without demeaning the brand. I bet they have many internal discussions (and laughs) about this in their marketing dept.
ReplyDeleteI just had dinner with some friends earlier this week, and the discussion turned to SPAM. I mentioned their website and one of the women got so excited and went on and on about how she went to the SPAM museum, and we should all think about planning a girl's weekend and going there.
ReplyDeleteTalk about brand loyalty! They have obviously done a really good job at reaching out and retaining a distinct group of loyal customers.
So, who knows... maybe we'll go check it out.
Does brand awareness increase sales? Does repeated viewing of an ad simply reinforce the brand image?
ReplyDeleteI believer that repetitive viewing of an ad does reinforce the brand image, if not even basically on a subconscious level. If you have seen a products logo a multitude of times and you go to the store to purchase an item in that brands area I feel that your eye will be attacted to a familiar logo and thus more likely to purchase and make repeat purchases. Whew!
ReplyDelete