fun and games

Nothing can come from your workshop, however rude or unfinished, that will not give me more pleasure than the most accurate thing that another can write. So much does my affection for you recommend whatever you write to me.

This week we heard from Jagex and SMLXL about the impact of Social Media and viral marketing on Sales. Both our speakers were very experienced broadcast media marketers, and brought that insight to the new channels that are influencing consumers around the world. We had a very vocal audience of 90, including CTOs and Marketing Directors from members such as Abcam, AMI Software, Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge Consultants, Cambridge Online Systems, Fotoinsight, Linguamatics, Lumie, nCipher, Pi Shurlok, Red Gate, Softwerx, The Mathworks, Transversal, Ubisense, Unilever, University of Cambridge, and Zeus.

Jagex have had 130 million active players in their Runescape game since they launched in 2001, driven by freemium pricing giving 1,500 hours of free play with the option to pay for more. Each day around 500,000 play, and they know that those who also comment and discuss in their online forum have a substantially longer lifetime, a good return on the 130 staff supporting the forum and players online. By contrast just one person manages their presence in Social Media. YouTube is their primary presence, with 70,000 followers viewing and uploading video of their own gameplay; Facebook (60,000 followers) and Twitter (10,000 followers) are ancillary, driving traffic to YouTube. Yet hundreds of thousands click through to Runescape from social media, many of them new players. This return on the effort of one staff member is more cost effective than paying for online advertising. We've cut down on some competitively sensitive data for this blog - in the session Jagex shared very hard metrics with a business case and also illustrated new metrics for social strength coming out of sources like howsociable, socialmention etc.

Alan Moore (SMLXL) discussed how Open Source models already successful in engaging lead users in software development are being applied to other products, developing social engagement in the product and a distributed group of influencers driving adoption. Design competitions for automotive (Local Motors) or apparel (Threadless) attract an intensely loyal community who then want to buy the winning product (in the case of Local Motors, its also mandatory that they help build the car they buy, and again the videos go up on YouTube). In Europe we have 30% overcapacity in automotive: yet a Social Media collaboration can deliver a new car model for $1/2M in 1.5 years with strong sales and minimal capital investment.

Social Media makes it possible to actively involve the end user of the product, and make them more loyal. The major influence on purchase decision has always been personal recommendation by other users, and Social Media spreads that net of influencers globally. If Cambridge ideas are going to change the world, it will be because the world is changing those ideas - and owns them.

Comments

[Xbox 360 Games]

Social Networking sites are a force to help maximize the foothold of a company in the market. With over half a billion, Facebook is a major paying field that needs to be used.

[super teas]

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[hotels]

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