brands

Social Media Week London generated so much coverage that it’s taken us a little while to pull together all the information. This review brings together the video, tweets and speaker presentations from Game On! Games & Brands sponsored by Nokia and JWT.

Traditionally two separate industries, games and social media have meshing together in a variety of ways, providing opportunities for brands.

Traditional games companies are embracing social media, social gaming market is set to hit over $1bn this year and brands are combining game mechanics and social media to drive campaigns.

Opportunities exist, all are benefiting from targeting a wider demographic, increasing engagement and create rewards and status to drive behaviour both off and online.

The social gaming market is predicted to reach $1bn in 2011, a result of investment by big brands using games to engage consumers. One of the drivers for this investment is the development of technology leading to a deeper integration of social technology and online gaming, making it more attractive to a wider audience (as shown in both US and UK research).

Branded social games and virtual world environments can provide consumers with the chance to immerse themselves in an online environment dedicated to their favourite film franchise (such as Lord of the Rings Online) or book (like Scholastic’s upcoming Horrible Histories world, based on our HuzuTech platform).

But the most important development that’s opened up the market is the ability to include a social element to games. This stops the game becoming the domain of a single player and opens it up to allow players to chat to each other, share scores and information, and effectively market the game on the brand’s behalf by bringing friends in and posting updates to their existing networks (like Facebook).