• ads for virtual goods
    Virtual goods sales on games last year came to $2.3 billion -- which is, in a word, crazy. But a great audience comment at MPSMIS points out that you can easily convert sales to incentivized advertising: rather than asking someone to shell out bucks for a virtual good, you can just have them watch an ad.  Of course, there's a business model question from the game publishers' perspective: why settle for pennies for ad views when they can get dollars through direct sales?  Geoffrey Greenblatt of Mindshare also points out that it's crucial to incorporate detailed, relevant branding into the …
  • education on video games?!
    Here's an interesting suggestion from Chris Knoch of Kenshoo: incorporating educational incentivizing into video games for kids.  E.g.: you have to do half an hour of homework on a video game console before you can play your game.
  • gaming revenue is bigger than Hollywood
    Gaming revenue, including console games and casual games (Zynga) is a bigger business than Hollywood, according to Chris Knoch of Kenshoo.  I looked it up -- today is all about research -- and it's true: Hollywood's box office in 2011 was $10.15 billion, compared to $17  billion in sales for the U.S. video game industry.
  • games need to be designed to carry ads
    "Games need to be designed from the ground up with a scaleable advertising model in mind." -- Chris Knoch, VP, client services, Kenshoo Social
  • I thought I knew crazy gamers
    but Chris Knoch, VP client service, Kenshoo Social, just showed them all up: he has been playing for 25 years, he married a gamer, and he has a game room with two flat-screen TVs and multiple networked Xboxes and PlayStations.  Now THAT is a gamer.  Good lord.
  • Who Has The Most Interest In Pinterest, Amazon.com Or Rakuten? (What's That You Say, Rakuten Who?)
    Who has the greatest interest in acquiring Pinterest? It could be Rakuten, the biggest ecommerce player you’ve never heard of, according to Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer, The Buddy Group. Boettger, speaking on the “Where Does Pinterest Go From Here” debate panel  at the Social Media Insider Summit with Renegade chief Drew Neisser, predicted that Japan-based Rakuten was the most likely long-term acquirer of Pinterest, because it’s already its biggest investor, representing about $50 million of the $138 million in venture capital invested in Pinterest to date. Neisser disagreed, suggesting that Amazon.com had more muscle and a greater stake …
  • should Pinterest try to get more men? maybe not
    There's been a lot of talk about how Pinterest "needs" to get more male users, but (presuming they can do that) is that a good strategic decision?  Not necessarily, according to Drew Neisser, CEO and founder of Renegade, and Bryan Boettger, chief creative officer, The Buddy Group. According to Neisser, the company's intrinsic value to users might be greater if they keep the female-dominant vibe -- which makes sense to me, because that's where the company came from: the female user base has powered the growth thus far.  If you start tinkering with the overall vibe, it could trigger an exodus …
  • guess: Pinterest will be bought before the Rio Olympics
    That's a guess from Drew Neisser, CEO and founder of Renegade, who is presenting all his guesses couched in an Olympics context. Guess #2: Pinterest will find more ways to generate revenue than Michael Phelps. The revenue pool includes sponsored Pins a la Facebook. More likely is set up their own API, stores. Guess #3: Pinterest will spawn an ecosystem even the IOC could love -- meaning it will be a space brands can control and feel safe in. Guess #4: Pinterest will be on more platforms than the Chinese divers. Already integrated across a number of platforms, including WordPress, …
  • Go To The Video (Question)?
    Pictures are great. But what about moving pictures, you know, "video?"
  • next time: image vs. video throw-down panel
    A great suggestion from an audience member -- echoing an earlier shouted comment that, as great as images are, video is better.  In re: the earlier comment, the panelists rightly observed that images and videos occupy two different, albeit related, places in the media world (and I would add, in how they work on us cognitively). Also, Andy Wiedlin, chief revenue officer for BuzzFeed, points out the obvious: "This is the image panel. What do you expect?"
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