Changing The Game

Changing the Game reveals how leading-edge organizations are using video games to reach new customers more cost-effectively; to build brands; to recruit, develop, and retain great employees; to drive more effective experimentation and innovation; and to supercharge productivity. It is written for a general audience, and includes a wide variety of case studies, practical tips, and warnings of pitfalls to avoid when creating or using video games for business purposes.

Reviewed positively in The Economist, Inc. Magazine and The Financial Times, it’s written by David Edery (pictured), Worldwide Games Portfolio Manager for Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and Ethan Mollick,  studies innovation and entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management. You can order it here.
------

In certain situations, the benefits of an advergame can go well beyond increased brand preference and purchase intent.

Advergames, unlike so many other forms of advertisement, enable a marketer to form a direct relationship with a potential customer. At its most basic level, this may simply mean encouraging players to register with their names, e-mail addresses, and demographic information before they can play a game.

While this is not the right strategy for many advergames, it can be very effective for games that are of particularly high quality, that are narrowly targeted, or that offer compelling prizes to players. Contact and demographic information can then be used to notify players about updates to a game, game-related contests and tournaments, and other information. Players who specifically opt-in can also be sent other advertising messages.

At a more advanced level, advergames can also be used to study consumer behavior and even test the attractiveness of new product features. For example, in 2001 Nike released Nike Shox, a basketball advergame which enabled players to customize the color of their avatar’s shoes before engaging in a slam-dunk contest.
Although it’s unclear whether Nike actually studied the customization choices of its players, one can easily see how they might have used that information to forecast consumer interest in different shoe colors. General Motors understands this opportunity better than most companies. In 2007, it launched Chevy Cobalt Labs, a Web-based advergame that enables players to not only race against each other, but also substantially customize the features and paint job of their virtual Cobalt car.