The latest from TechCrunch
- The New Games People Play: How Game Mechanics Have Changed In The Age Of Social
- The Coupon Network: Everything You Need To Know About The Web's Hottest Business Model
- Rule Your Work Productivity With RULE.fm
| The New Games People Play: How Game Mechanics Have Changed In The Age Of Social | Top |
| The crux behind game mechanics is the feeling that you've accomplished something; "If you're clicking on a plot of land or a musical note that is an accomplishment" says Social Gaming Network's Shervin Pishevar. Social gaming gives you the opportunity to share these goals with your social graph so that many people see them, as well as the chance to work on these accomplishments collaboratively. At Friday's Social Currency CrunchUp , leaders from the Social Gaming space including Pishevar , Disney Mobile SVP Bart Decrem , Stanford School of Business Professor Jennifer Acker and SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch sat down together in order to discuss gaming's next evolution. What elements are needed for addictive games? Pavlovian mechanics are crucial. It’s important as a user to feel like the time that you spent came up with a result, social elements like being able to see how you did with other people, and being able to play with other people play into this. Integration with music also creates an emotional linkage, one thing responsible for Tapulous’ success was the functionality to apply multiple songs from artists like Justin Bieber to Lady Gaga. Decrem elaborates, "There’s an actual science around how to engage and monetize users, the Farmville harvest mechanic , for example. On mobile, its ‘the x factor’ does the game have magic?" What we're now seeing is what happens when the science of game mechanics in social games is combined with the quirkiness of what you see on the iPhone platform. According to Seth Priebatsch, new employees at SCVNGR memorize a deck of 50 game dynamics like the progression dynamic, or earning points to make progress. They then can incorporate those elements into a game, "Humans love progress bars, if you see a progress bar, you want to complete it." How will games increasingly square with the real world? Currently all the value creation happens mostly on Facebook, but that will soon change. The panelists all agreed that this recent integration of social and mobile is beginning of a new computing platform, mainly due to the capabilities introduced by the iOS. Killer apps on this new platform will need to incorporate both a social element and an entertainment element in order to survive. According to Pishevar, SGN is “ Working on things where you’re placing your phone in the real world and seeing 3D characters walking down the street, games where you have a garden in your actual physical yard that you’re actually tending to and it's growing and you can see it on the iPhone. “ Decrem elaborates "There’s no difference to me between playing Tapulous on the iPhone and using my Starbucks card in the morning, wanting to get 15 stars so I can get a free coffee … “ Real life rewards for online behavior are a force to be reckoned with, and will increasingly become more prevalent as developers continue to experience success with them. Yelp for example, saw their usage skyrocket when they incorporated the Check-in element. "You're checking in with a physical card instead of a mobile. We haven't invented anything new." Says Priebatsch "We are bringing one very new thing to the game framework, the open graph API. Social traffics in connections, games traffic in influence. By applying that to the real world, we are building a platform that traffics in motivations and rewards.” In what new ways can these game mechanics can be applied in the future? “We're really in the first or second inning on the mobile side, ” says Pishevar, “The level of creativity and fun that's coming is incredible.” Should businesses rush to apply social mechanics? “It's just natural evolution,” says DeCrem. Businesses developing a product should ask themselves, How about if you can connect with your friends? How about if we make it fun? Piveshar’s one criticism is that the gaming industry could do so much more. “Because of the social graph many have cut corners of quality in order to monetize; We've got hypergrowth. Lots of millions have been created and its time to give something back.” Acker brought up the idea of games that cure cancer as one way social gaming can actually benefit society, referring to HobeLabs’ Re-Mission and Zamzee , "It doesn’t matter how many brochures you show a kid, he’s not going to want to [go to chemo]. But when you build an avatar called Roxy have have her shooting the cancer cells, and then when you feel weak you go get her a chemo tap … It's incredibly powerful." Elements of gaming engender powerful emotions; Chemotherapy can become a positive thing and cancer becomes something you can beat. And that’s pretty formidable. CrunchBase Information SCVNGR HopeLab The Walt Disney Company Tapulous Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| The Coupon Network: Everything You Need To Know About The Web's Hottest Business Model | Top |
| Due to the proliferation of deals sites like Groupon and Livingsocial , couponing is currently the hottest thing on the Internet. At yesterday's Social Currency CrunchUp , TechCrunch CEO and resident coupon expert Heather Harde sat down with News America Marketing VP Ginny Byrnes to dispense couponing advice to startups, which tend to approach the problem from a technical perspective. As we enter the next generation of couponing, this list of tried and true lessons is a must-read for those vying for the top of the heap. 10. There are two types of shoppers: Planners and impulse buyers Planners take time, make a list, look at the circulars, check coupon sites and clip coupons at home. The impulse purchaser prefers to make buying decisions on impulse while they're in the store. These two types need a two-prong approach to in order to best be reached when buying decisions are made: Home (planners) vs. Point of purchase (impulse buyers). For example, an impulse buyer needs an advertisement or promotion that calls out and draws attention to the product – i.e. "tell me how this will make my life easier." 9. Brand tactics are different for each consumer: Loyals, Switchers, Non-Category User Loyal: Encourage a loyal customer to continue purchasing in high volume, perhaps offering “buy two get one free” types of offers. Switcher: Switchers are price sensitive, so a discount of a few cents over your leading competitor can hook them and bring them into the category. Non-Category User: Oftentimes offering a trial of your product can give people incentive to continue using it. 8. Premium brands need to pretend they don’t discount Because high price points equal higher quality in the minds of consumers, premium brands need to be more delicate with their discounting, using promotions that are more targeted to an elite niche market. Luxury brands succeed by providing a higher quality free sample, as well as cultivating a higher end look and feel. 7. Create promotional patterns to match purchase cycles Each product has its own shelf life so businesses need to take into account when and what is the best way to reach their target consumer. Luckily this is getting easier with technology’s ever expanding capabilities to profile and target consumers. 6. Consumer targeting: Know when to use a hammer and when to use a scalpel Targeting is a double-edged sword — You don’t want to be too targeted because you don't want to miss out on growing your market. Still some products, such as septic tank cleaner, are better served using a direct approach. Don't be too narrow minded with your targeting; If you don’t see toilet paper on a customer's Safeway loyalty card data, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not buying toilet paper, they might be paper pantry loading at CostCo and not Safeway. 5. Redemption rates, highs lows, & truth While coupon redemption rates are relatively low (.5% to 1% according to CMS) when you launch a coupon campaign you are generating awareness. Customers recall seeing a coupon promotion, so even though they might not be redeeming the offer, they are still purchasing your product. 4. All promotions need a little pain You want to make sure that the customer works a little, giving someone a coupon for a latte while they're in line at Starbucks feels like cheating. "If the consumer gets the discount without any work, then the brand doesn't feel like they got credit for the discount or helped to really change consumer behavior," Heather Harde points out. 3. 360 degree marketing works With currently available technology (like QR or shortcodes) it's now more than ever possible to interact with your customer at multiple touch points. Touching the consumer no matter whether they are outside, at the store, in home or at point of purchase is crucial for brand absorption. 2. Build for your currency: Virtual vs. real money While with virtual currency you can always change your plan, if you're using monetary coupons you first need the correct infrastructure and security to complete what amounts to financial transactions. 1. Don’t slow down the checkout You want to make it as easy as possible for consumers and retailers to buy your product. You don’t want a consumer to give up on a purchase because the process is so slow, or because there are issues or concerns or point of purchase. Frictionless options such as integrating customer coupons into loyalty cards, with all coupons preloaded for redemption at point of purchase, are currently at the bleeding edge of coupon marketing innovation. CrunchBase Information Ginny Byrnes Heather Harde Groupon LivingSocial Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Rule Your Work Productivity With RULE.fm | Top |
| It's takes a certain type of person to get excited about a work productivity tool. Mark Nielsen and Patrick Carmitchel , unsatisfied with 37Signals ‘ Basecamp, have decided to disrupt the productivity software industry (see their incredibly twee video above). "We decided we'd rather not see the light of day for awhile than have to live with knowing that with just a little bit of creative, a pinch of logic and a dash of sexy, we could revive the productivity software world with a tool that would even make Apple cry." Previously unknown to the blogosphere, Nielsen and Carmitchel emailed us at 2am last night and emphasized that they were out for 37Signals’ blood (we’ll get more into why we actually listened in a later post). When reminded that the formidable former Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz was also in the collaboration tool space, joining the likes of Salesforce , Zoho, and Atlassian with his stealth startup Asana , they replied "It will be fun to see if [Dustin Moskovitz's] deep pockets can stand up to a garage. Or vise-versa? " The RULE.fm product itself looks like what would happen if Apple got serious about productivity software, with much emphasis on design aesthetics. Right now its basic function is a ramped up contact list manager with real time updates from your contacts pushed to you, a Yammer -like discussion area, a place for tasks, and a communal file sharing functionality. Nielsen describes it as “a place to know and understand everything that’s going on with in your organization” and hopes the company will eventually expand into wikis, customer retention management and accounting tools. For those curious, the tour is live on the RULE.fm site right now, and the platform itself will go live on Tuesday August 3rd, making the productivity software industry just a little bit more badass. CrunchBase Information RULE.fm Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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