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| Kung Fu Panda 2 |
With Kun Fu Panda's opening weekend coming up in a couple of days, I couldn't help but notice their promotional movie tie in with Zynga's social game ¨Cityville¨. This weekend is going to be a tough one to beat in the box office, due to Warner Brother's Hangover 2, and Dreamworks knows it. That's why they're trying to step it up and push these social gamers from their computer chairs to the closest movie theater.
After Gagaville's recent success (Ladygaga+Farmville) Zynga has proven again that social gaming is one of the fastest growing technologies and they're at the top of the list. Lets learn a few facts about them:
1. It owns six of the ten most popular games in Facebook, including crowdpleasers such as Farmville, Citiville, Mafia Wars and Pet Ville. 10% of Facebook users play on Farmville.
2. Players use Pay Pal to exchange money for game credits. In September of 2010 Zynga created their Platinium Purchase program allowing members to wire more than than $500 at a time.
3. Reports have stated that 68.7 million Americans will be playing social games by 2012. As of May 2011, Zynga's games on Facebook have 250 million active users every month.
Taking all these facts into account, it's not surprising to find the film industry trying to take advantage of this rising technology. Here are some examples of the most recent movie tie-ins with gaming mogul Zynga.
1. Farmville and Megamind: It was Zynga's first film partner and the promotion was held only 24 hours before the film opened. Paramount built a ¨Mega Farm¨ hosted by the plot's villain and even gave gamers the opportunity to purchase and watch the movie inside Farmville. It allowed the studio to reach the 16 million daily users of Zynga's game and engage them long enough to watch the movie on opening weekend.
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| Megamind Farmville |
2. Mafia Wars and Public Enemies: A couple of years ago Universal decided to launch their home video campaign with the help of Zynga's mob game. The result was a success: it gathered 55 million interactions in a week and 25,000 likes on the film's Facebook page.
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| Mafia Wars Public Enemies |
3. Frontierville and Rango: This week long promotion had several incentives for gamers. The main objective was to Find Rango (Where's Waldo style), buy virtual goods related to the movie, watch the trailer inside the town, engage in a multiple quests and get rewarded with a special virtual prize. Rango gained exposure to Frontierville's 19.4 million active users and increased buzz and box office revenues.
And now it's time for Dreamworks and Kun fu Panda 2. The fact that almost a third of the movie's fans were already playing on Cityville before their product integration works in their advantage. Moreover, Cityville as of now has 100 million users, double than Farmville. Starting Friday and lasting one month players will be able to compete to get their Panda Statue. What are you waiting for?
We'll have to wait till this weekend to find out if their efforts have paid off. As of now, I leave you with Gagaville's video, a fun and glittery way to start your evening!
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| Frontierville Rango |
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| Cityville Kung Fu panda 2 |
While not a fan of Zynga (in the games industry they are well known to copy successful ideas from others and then use their extensive marketing resources to make it more popular) I have to admit that they certainly know how to get users' attention into what they want.
ReplyDeleteWith Cityville showing Kung Fu Panda 2 advertisements you can bet that most of its users will be engaged.
This is product placement at its finest: players know they are being targeted by commercials, but it's a commercial that brings them something interactive, unlike the product placement in movies or TV shows which most people just shrug to when it's so obviously placed.