Nachi Junankar

(An excerpt) When I wrote a thesis on Internet Market development (in 1995) there was clear evidence that technologies take decades (and most almost exactly 30 years) to go from the ‘ lab’ to consumer acceptance. Having done a lot of research in the ‘Online Gaming Based marketing’ world, it is clear to me that the time for Retailers and Consumer Product Marketers, to seriously look at Gaming Media as the next pretty big thing has come. Look at any serious research on the proliferation of Online Gaming and it is clear that more and more people, in all age groups, are starting to become ‘gamers’ and I don’t mean the World of Warcraft type gamers but more in terms of their entertainment ‘instinct’. I would even go out on a limb here to say that people who enjoy the thrills of winning and the disappointment of losing a bid on eBay are kind of gamers. What is auction but a game where you outsmart and out-compete your adversary? The question is: how do smart Retailers and Marketers make use of this development? In other words, what is the smart way to approach Gaming Media? Well, the correct answer is “ Depends on what your customer’s want”. In this case, the simple explanation is the right one. According Shar Vanboskirk , an Analyst at Forrester who has had her eye on the Gaming Business for a while now (her expertise is in the entirety of online marketing though) “Marketers are too focused on identifying a game with their brand, rather than evaluating whether a specific gaming solution works for their CUSTOMERS (there’s that word again!) or Asking their customers if they’d be interested in a gaming model” Shar, who is very passionate about this business, also believes that a lot of marketers are missing the point of online gaming, specifically for the reason I just quoted. Gaming related promotions are starting to take shape in small but meaningful ways, signaling acceptance of the marketing opportunity in a fast shrinking space due to the obvious movement of the 19-34 year olds to ‘on demand’ non-traditional media. (See chapter on “Social Networking and On Demand Media”). Dell.com has done a couple of games online to offer discounts on particular products, a campaign credited to the 1 Online Promotions agency, ePrize. Other companies such as SMC (Networking Products) and Orbitz (online travel) are also experimenting with games that foster education among a certain set of customers and brand building. SMC actually uses a Trivia game that tests the knowledge of a Network Engineer of specific SMC Networking Products. SMC even offers discounts to high scoring individuals for SMC products.