chapter 7 (social entertainment)

SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENT

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Social Entertainment Zone

Social Media Marketing, 2e©© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015

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Social Entertainment

Social entertainment encompasses the digital and social forms of entertainment media. Social games

Casual, social games Socially-enabled video games Alternate reality games (ARGs)

Social music Social television


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What is Social Branded Entertainment?

When brands create owned vehicles of branded content, in the form of games, music, or film, which is participatory and shareable via digital connections, that is social branded entertainment.


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Social Entertainment as Play

Play as power Play as identity Play as fantasy Play as frivolity


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Social Games


What is a Social Game?

Social games are multiplayer, competitive, goal-oriented activities with defined rules of engagement and online connectivity among players.


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Typical Elements of Social Games

LeaderboardsAchievement badges

Friend listsSocial Media Marketing, 2e©© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015

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Gamer Segments

Casual Hardcore


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How Can We Characterize Social Games?

Platform (Hardware systems)

Mode (way the game world is experienced)

Milieu (visual nature of the game (Scifi/Horror/fantasy)

Genre (method of play (simulation/action/FPS/platform etc)


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Options for Game-Based Marketing

In-game advertising Display ads (in the game’s

environment) Static ads (hard coded into the game) Dynamic ads (change based on

specified criteria) Product placement

Screen placements Script placements Transactional advertising


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Options for Game-Based Marketing

Brand integration In game immersive advertising (for e.g,

game integration between the game and the brand)

Plot placements (brand is actually incorporated into the story itself in a substantive manner)

Advergames The game itself is a form of branded

entertainment Designed by the brand to reflect the brand’s

positioning statementSocial Media Marketing, 2e©© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015

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Why Do Social Games Work For Marketers?

Gamers are open to advertising content in games. When players love a game, some of these

positive feelings rub off on the brands they encounter within it; we call this spillover a transference effect.

Internalization occurs when members of the target market accept the beliefs of an endorser as their own.

Brands benefit when they associate with a successful game.

Players identify with the brands their characters use, increasing brand involvement.


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Why Do Social Games Work For Marketers?

When spectators become actors, they are less likely to sit back and think of reasons why the advertising message on the screen doesn’t apply to them (psychologists call this common process counterarguing).

Narrative transportation theory explains how even imagined interactivity can build positive brand attitudes.

Branding within a game’s story is an unobtrusive way to share a brand’s core message.

Targeting to specific groups is possible. Marketers can measure a game’s promotional

value.Social Media Marketing, 2e©© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015

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Alternate Reality Games (ARGs): An Intensive Form

of Social Game An ARG is a cross-media genre of

interactive fiction using multiple delivery and communications media, which may include traditional media such as television, radio, newspapers, and postal service and digital media.

Because they involve two or more different media, they are transmedia social games


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Social Media Marketing, 2e©

The Marketing Value of ARGs

Although an ARG benefits from a sponsor’s deep pockets, many of the games do not identify who is behind the effort. Instead, players play until the mystery is solved (or the sponsorship is inadvertently discovered and leaked to the community) and the brand sponsor is revealed. This type of branded ARG is known as a dark play ARG.

Dark marketing refers to a promotion that disguises the sponsoring brand.

The term “collective detective” acknowledges the need for a team approach to solve the mystery.

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The Vocabulary of ARGs Puppet master: The authors, architects, and managers of

the story and its scenarios and puzzles. Curtain: The invisible line separating the players from the

puppet masters. Rabbit hole: The clue or site that initiates the game. Collective detective: A term that captures the notion of

collaboration among a team of geographically dispersed players who work together to flesh out the story.

Lurkers and rubberneckers: Lurkers follow the game but do not actively participate; rubberneckers participate in forums but do not actively play.

Steganography: The tactic of hiding messages within another medium so that the message is undetectable for those who do not know to look for it.

Trail: A reference index of the game including relevant sites, puzzles, in-game characters, and other information.


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How Can We Evaluate the Effectiveness of an ARG?

Number of active players Number of lurkers and rubberneckers Rate of player registration Number of player messages generated Traffic at sites affiliated with the ARG Number of forum postings Average play time Media impressions made through ARG-

generated publicitySocial Media Marketing, 2e©© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015 7-18

Other Forms of Social Entertainment

Social Music

Social Television

Social Media Marketing, 2e©© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015 7-19

Options for Marketing with Social Music

In-Network Advertising Social music is primarily based around cloud

services providing streamed sound. Brands can include many types of ads on social

music sites including audio ads, display ads, billboard ads (which serve as a screensaver which appears if a listener has gone inactive), and homepage takeovers (which ensure all site visitors are exposed to the ad)

Immersive Branding Brands that want a more integrated option need to

find ways that the brand itself can add value to the content that the target audience valuesSocial Media Marketing, 2e©

© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015 7-20

Social TV

Social TV is technology that supports communication and social interaction in either the context of watching television or related to TV content.

The experience of watching TV is enhanced by social media.

The phenomenon relates to social celebrity and the rise of “microcelebrities”.

• TV Genome is technology that identifies content in television and ties that content to social media conversations


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Social Media Marketing, 2e©

Field Exercise 2

Due: March 11, 2015 Form: email “Visit unfiction.com or argn.com to see

what ARGs are playing now. Explore one of the current games. Is it associated with a brand (or is it a dark play ARG, with the brand yet to be identified)? Make a list of non-entertainment brands that could use an ARG to tell their story and immerse their brand fans”

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