LITTLE GAMES THAT WILL ROCKS YOUR SALES (FOR FMCG & FRIENDS)

[observation]

Coke — the most recognized brand in the world is not sleeping and re-inventing itself constantly. Through better, safer products, investments, technology, innovation and of course the golden goose — the marketing. The list of the Coke’s achievements is long and fun to read. From really a lot of cool ideas, the one that surfaced globally — can be a book or a very long blog like this. The most and powerful tactic is still the same — the old good old “word of mouth” that is great idea but limited at the final destination of the - “mouth”. So, how do you “wire” brain sells to the mouth in a shortest possible time? Look at your kids (or your wife, secretly) … Games, my friend, games! And that’s exactly the point of Coke’s very own Ahhh campaign that gave teens with short attention span opportunity to experience really short fun and link it to Coke. And the best news — it cost them nothing on media. No TV, no radio, no expensive billboard. Nothing. One game.

[reflection]

But what is next? And is this sort of a short-span plan for a short-span vision? Well, Coke doesn’t think so, as so do we. Most of brands afraid to dive into gaming strategy because they don’t understand the mechanics of media and typical criticism — “Would this be very very expensive and time consuming?” The answer is — can be but doesn’t have to be. Another one we’ve heard: “Is this really complex space?” Yup, it is — but the non-complex space is an empty bus shelter with 3 other brands rotating all night. Well, if you don’t belive us — just “follow the money”. Most people you know (family, friends) spend a lot of time on their mobiles — most of them play games on their phones … hence they are spending LESS time doing something else. You got the idea …

The truth is — social gaming is not already over TV (that is OLD news) but is already over Console games as the recent WSJ article suggests. So, the living living room media strategy is a death sentence for any marketer, anywhere in the world. Game over, guys! You need to adjust your strategy and put your budget to where the interest is — i.e. the mobile. And don’t do banners — that just never worked and it will never work again and again.

[persuasion]

• start building your brand using the right channels in mind
• set up your brand recognition goals with mobile-first in mind
• experiment and treat your mobile strategy as data learning curve

About the author:

Shopper are no longer on-or-offline but rather at the moment of “convenience’. To get their business, brands and retailers need to create new types of interactions. Ilya Vensky is mobile-first strategist at PAG_Digital focused on direct to mobile brand engagements using mobile games to boost loyalty and collect valuable consumer data.

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