By Susan Monahan
Whether they’re Farmville addicts or Guitar Heroes, marketers of all kinds can reach game lovers with the right interactive element. Within a hit-based industry that continues to consolidate, what opportunities lie ahead for marketers to work with games?
As part of Medill IMC’s Professional Speaker Series, President and CEO of Midway Games Matt Booty presented a look at the $50 billion worldwide gaming industry through an IMC lens.
Last summer Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment acquired Midway Games’ assets, including the popular Mortal Kombat series. It’s another move in game manufacturing’s rapid consolidation. Booty described just how hit-driven his business is: “Last Christmas, about 90% of console game sales came from the top 10 games.” Similar to films, these blockbuster games infiltrate our culture and build distinct fan-communities.
Who is this consumer? The average U.S. game buyer is 38 years old. There’s increasing demand for Teen- and Mature-rated content. Other media companies hoping to increase sales have allied with game manufacturers; most recently, publisher Random House created a division to write story content for games. This partnership is intended to enhance the game product while providing a direct link to a complementary book series.
Outside the console game market, “casual gamers” include those who play on social media sites like Facebook. They represent a market segment that likes competition with friends, as opposed to MMO players (massively multiplayer online games), who go online to combat strangers in group play like World of Warcraft. Facebook’s Farmville has 60 million active users, and includes a pay-to-advance model. The game’s parent company, Zynga, undoubtedly found its own monetization of the social medium. In the future, strategic sponsorships may form with social media games and consumer products.
The lesson here hearkens back to Michael J. Wolf’s Entertainment Economy. As marketers turn to entertainment content for a competitive edge, learning the codes that appeal to game-savvy consumers could advance them to the next level.
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Susan Monahan is a graduate student in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern. She serves as Vitamin IMC’s liaison to the Medill IMC Professional Speaker Series. Please email her if you have a suggestion for a speaker, or would like to speak at an upcoming event at susanmonahan2010@u.northwestern.edu.
