Zinga knows how to play the game

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. 

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.           

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.

Frontierville Rango

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?

Cityville Kung Fu panda 2

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!

Movie Taglines: Or how to sell your movie in one sentence

¨A tagline is a succinct phrase, situated under or alongside your logo, that communicates a single but powerful brand message designed to resonate strongly with an intended audience.¨ 

And movies have it more difficult. Not only do they have to be memorable, they have to recreate the film´s essence in one line and be another element to persuade the audience to spend that extra 12.50, without the popcorn bucket and that delicious overexpensive Coke.

Adweek recently posted an article about their choice of the Best 66 movie taglines in the last 30 years. Take a trip through geeky movie memory lane and read the whole article here. My three personal favorites were:

 1. For Harry and Lloyd every day is a no brainer - Dumb and Dumber. Match it with Jim Carrey (and his bowl cut, another character in itself really) and Jeff Daniels on a motorcycle and    you´ve got gold. It´s funny, memorable and delivers the essence of the movie. 

2. Her life was in their hands, now her toe is in the mail- The Big Lebowski. It´s such an unusual and awkward line that it completely matches the Coen´s cult movie. It´s also memorable and quite unique, I´m sure you haven´t seen it before in another poster.

3. A romantic comedy, with zombies- Shaun of the Dead. And    that´s just what it is exactly, blunt but true. 

Lets take a look at the movies that are opening this week and their taglines

THOR: Courage is inmortal: They´re trying to keep the solemn look of their posters and the superhero feel to it, but, do they really have to take it that seriously? Not a fan of the tagline this time. It doesn´t bring anything new to the table and is quite forgetable.

SOMETHING BORROWED: It´s a thin line between love and friendship: This same tagline could have been use for the other zillion romantic comedies out there or just every Kate Hudson film.  I think having such a great repertoire of actors and A-listers they decided to give up on selling it, thinking it already sells itself. Fail

THE BEAVER: He´s here to save Walter´s life. It talks about the movie plot, it´s sentimental and it raises the stakes. I think it works, at least better than its counterparts. The poster works very well with it aswell, showing Mel Gibson falling apart but holding a stuffed beaver in one hand. It keeps us wondering and sparks the     audience´s curiosity.

And to end this list with a great guilty pleasure, rejoice with me and read this great tagline form the 90´s: One dream. Four Jamaicans. Twenty below zero. 

You gotta love it. For those who want to remember what I´m talking about here is the trailer: