[casual_games] promotion

[Lee Crawford]

The portals do indeed have limited promotional inventory and most have poor
algorithms for optimizing use of that inventory. Often it's either fixed or
deterministically rotated. The question is whether or not this is the way
they'll go as they get smarter about using their inventory.

At the risk of stating the obvious, consumers click on the links they see
first and promoted games see correspondingly higher traffic than less- or
non-promoted games Conversion rate per title tends to be stable over the
lifetime of a game on a given portal (audience effect) so its very much in
the interests of the publisher/developer to try and maximize the promotional
inventory they receive. Basically, revenue per title tends to be linearly
proportional to the level of promotion received (ignoring saturation effects
and assuming fixed conversion based on quality). Promoting game A instead of
game B cannibalizes would-be game B purchases and shifts those dollars into
game A purchases (conversion rates being equal).

In the absence of MDF-like fees, the portals are better off focusing on
favoring high-converting games with their promotional inventory. And in the
mid-term I think you have to assume that they get smarter and start to
optimize in this fashion. Otherwise, what we're talking about here is just
compensating a portal (in higher margins) to promote a lower-conversion game
and/or to shift rev. share dollars from partner B to partner A.

--lee

On 1/2/07, Dave Selle <Dave.Selle at wildtangent.com> wrote:

>

>

> The first example carries an assumption that a portal can create as many

> "marketing" slots as the developers demand at a constant price.

> Promotional space is more finite than this, and in any case it is

> doubtful the marketplace would support such an approach for very long.

>

> The ad-words analogy is apt: this is exactly the kind of approach that

> would be required for long term viability. The market should determine

> "prices" based on supply and demand--this is good for everyone. It also

> has the twin virtues of being both a proven and familiar approach.

>

> So to elaborate on my original query: would there be interest from

> developers in an auction based approach to marketing placements that

> allowed developers to bid rev share percentages per title for a defined

> period of time against specific promotional and marketing opportunities?

>

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org

> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Tom Hubina

> Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 3:36 PM

> To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'

> Subject: Re: [casual_games] promotion

>

> What happens when "everyone" decides to take the reduced revenue for

> more

> exposure? Seems like the more people who go that route the less

> effective it

> becomes. Which means the portal then starts offering multiple tiers of

> royalty cuts .. each larger than before .. for incrementally better

> placement. That doesn't sound too healthy for anyone other than the

> portal.

> Particularly given that tracking the results of reduced revenue share vs

> regular share is quite challenging if you can't change it over the life

> cycle of the product.

>

> I'd rather pay a fixed rate to the portal for ad placement over a

> limited

> period of time instead of an across the board percentage change.

>

> It would be interesting to see this working like Ad-words where

> developers/publishers bid for the promotion slots available within

> different

> areas of the site. Automating the process makes it much more sustainable

> for

> the smaller guys who probably don't want to have a separate sales

> staff/marketing staff to fight for ad placement within all of the

> various

> portals ;)

>

> Anything where I can control the amount of exposure, and how much I'm

> paying

> for that exposure during a specific time period would be very valuable

> to

> me.

>

> Note - by exposure I'm meaning promotion on the site in the form of ad

> banners, featured game slots, etc. I don't think stuff like the Top 10

> list

> should fall into that category since that should be performance driven.

>

> Of course I also consider the exposure given to titles by being on a

> major

> portal to be a large reason for them to be taking their currently large

> cuts. I'd very much like to see them reduce their rates to 20%, and

> replace

> those revenues with the above idea of paying for placement / promotion

> inside the channel. This means the cost of promotion is higher, but if

> there's no promotion then you at least get a good cut of whatever sales

> you

> create.

>

> Tom Hubina

> Mofactor

>

> > -----Original Message-----

> > From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org

> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]

> > On Behalf Of Dave Selle

> > Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 2:09 PM

> > To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List

> > Subject: Re: [casual_games] promotion

> >

> >

> >

> > The comment on allocating revenue share points in exchange for

> > promotional opportunities is an interesting line of thought, and one

> > that we have discussed.

> >

> > Just out of curiosity would any of the developers out there like to

> > comment if this general approach is an appealing one?

> >

> > --Dave

> >

> > -----Original Message-----

> > From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org

> > [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Andreas Krogh

> > Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 4:41 AM

> > To: casual_games at igda.org

> > Subject: [casual_games] promotion

> >

> > Hi all

> >

> > I was wondering if casual games are promoted at all? Here i'm thinking

> > of casual games made by third party developers and sold via a portal.

> > Does a contract between the developer and the portal state that the

> > portal must provide some promotion or do they just put the news of the

> > release of the game in their newsletter and in the "top 10 newest

> games"

> > on their website, and leave it to fate?

> >

> > Any examples of contracts made where the developer presumely would get

> a

> > lower royalty precentage in exchange for the portal investing money in

> > the game by promoting it?

> >

> > Regards

> > Andreas, Casual Kings

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