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Zynga planning "draw this brand" in-game advertising for Draw Something

B

butter_stick

Banned
http://adage.com/article/digital/zynga-s-ad-pitch-draw-draw-brand/234515/

Zynga's latest big-ticket acquisition has already figured out how to draw in users, but now Draw Something has an ad model that brings brands into the picture.

Until recently, the Pictionary-like game had only run spammy banner ads in its free mobile app that, including the paid no-ads version, has amassed a staggering 50 million downloads in five months. Now, with a direct-sales force that's been on the ground for a whole eight weeks, Draw Something is inserting advertisers' paid terms into the game for players to literally draw brands.

Here's how the game works: Pick a word from a list of three, then create a drawing so a Facebook friend can guess that word and you can win points. For the ad product, imagine inserting words like "Doritos" or "Coca-Cola" in among "golfer," "bikini" or "fireworks."
Click to expand...

Seems like a good idea to me. This way it doesn't stop the fun and instead just casually reminds you of the brands in question. Commercial sponsorship has long been ingrained in our society and this just takes it to the logical next level.

Do you still play Draw Something, or was it an early 2012 fad?
Is this a gamer-friendly form of advertising?
Is it better than looking at a boring banner ad?
Or is it corporate programming?
Can you think of other games that would benefit from this kind of model?
 
6

666

Banned
My heart must have known Zynga got involved as i stopped playing that shit. Deleted it tonight.
 
S

Somnid

Member
Great idea. I like the idea of seamless ad integration. I fucking hate banner ads and the like though.
 
S

sangreal

Member
So they can add brands, but I still see the same 100 other words? I have the paid version too which is supposed to add a bunch of words.

To be fair, I havent played in awhile so it might be better these days
 
S

SiegfriedFM

Member
I don't play it, but my friends constantly get "Warcraft" and "Metroid" as words to draw. I'm assuming free advertising like that is going away.
 
J

jokkir

Member
More words the better, I guess. What they really need to add is group guessing. Like, allow a group of several people guess what they're drawing and whoever guesses the word first, gets points. Adds a sort of competitive feel to it when against several of your friends and drives incentive to keep opening the app to check if he person finished their drawing yet
 
S

SovanJedi

provides useful feedback
I dunno, I feel okay about this. As long as it's big brands I know and not some obscure webhost service that none of my friends will have heard of then I'll be happy to draw Dr. Peppers, Coca Cola and Maccy Ds all day.
 
M

Meier

Member
Lol, glad I've quit actively playing. This sort of thing is just plain gross. It's one thing to use a brand in your drawing, i.e. "soda" and draw Coke, but to actively have brands as the clue itself? No thanks.
 
B

butter_stick

Banned
SovanJedi said:
I dunno, I feel okay about this. As long as it's big brands I know and not some obscure webhost service that none of my friends will have heard of then I'll be happy to draw Dr. Peppers, Coca Cola and Maccy Ds all day.
Click to expand...

Can't wait to draw the Go Daddy girls.
 
S

sangreal

Member
jokkir said:
More words the better, I guess. What they really need to add is group guessing. Like, allow a group of several people guess what they're drawing and whoever guesses the word first, gets points. Adds a sort of competitive feel to it when against several of your friends and drives incentive to keep opening the app to check if he person finished their drawing yet
Click to expand...

OMGPOP already makes this game actually, but its for PC

http://www.omgpop.com/#/arcade/gamelobby/drawmything
 
Fox Mulder

Fox Mulder

Member
planar1280 said:
and related to this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...-loses-5m-users-a-month-after-zynga-purchase/

Post Zynga purchase, Draw Something loses 5 million users a month later
Click to expand...

most of the people playing the game don't even know what zynga is. Draw Something is just naturally shedding users after going viral. At least omgpop made a crazy amount of cash for a flash in the pan.

Besides, losing 5 million only sounds bad if you forget to mention it was at a peak of nearly 15 million.
 
A

AdventureRacing

Member
Kinda funny that this thread comes up now. I hadn't heard of this game until about a week ago but now i've noticed that nearly all of them seem to play it. Seems like a pretty smart idea and i doubt most people would even notice or care.
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
How did these people not see this shit coming from a mile away? If you start adding shit (comments? what the fuck) and then start forcing this shit down their throats it's not going to make money anymore.
 
C

catapult37

Member
i actually think this is kind of a brilliant move. the shortcomings of their existing IAP strategy have been discussed elsewhere. this won't do anything to keep people engaged, but in terms of monetizing the existing user base, it's genius. I doubt many users will be scandalized by this; the word list is already chock-full of pop-culture references and probably already a few brand names. Plus, I guarantee some people will not just be unoffended, but delighted. "ooh, i know how to draw the pepsi logo!"

plus, anything that expands the pitifully short word list has got to be a good thing. :)
 
S

Somnid

Member
The Faceless Master said:
wait, people are seeing this as a bad thing?
Click to expand...

Some people are completely opposed to the idea of advertisement despite the fact that as a revenue stream it powers a huge amount of content they enjoy and services they use everyday and keeps them free and their creators paid. Or they really want to pay real money for some digital crayons and think that's a much better business model. Or they prefer traditional banner and eyeblaster style advertisement.
 
S

StuKen

Member
The Faceless Master said:
wait, people are seeing this as a bad thing?
Click to expand...

I would imagine the average American seeing nothing wrong with shilling shit for billion dollar corporations for absolutely nothing. The rest of the planet however, those that haven't voluntarily devalued their own labour capital and become sniveling wretches to please their randian overlords, their titans of industry, their benevolent corporate overlords might see something inherently degrading about it.

Yep, I have a little self respect so I find it disgusting.
 
T

Treefingers

Member
Somnid said:
Some people are completely opposed to the idea of advertisement despite the fact that as a revenue stream it powers a huge amount of content they enjoy and services they use everyday and keeps them free and their creators paid. Or they really want to pay real money for some digital crayons and think that's a much better business model. Or they prefer traditional banner and eyeblaster style advertisement.
Click to expand...
How is it not a better business model? At least I know what I'm getting and I don't feel like a corporate shill. Better yet. let me pay for the god damn app
 
C

Carl

Member
More like "write KFC" i only played for a week or so, but it seemed everyone just wrote the word instead of drawing it
 
Zomba13

Zomba13

Member
Somnid said:
Some people are completely opposed to the idea of advertisement despite the fact that as a revenue stream it powers a huge amount of content they enjoy and services they use everyday and keeps them free and their creators paid. Or they really want to pay real money for some digital crayons and think that's a much better business model. Or they prefer traditional banner and eyeblaster style advertisement.
Click to expand...

Isn't draw something a paid app? I had a look at apps on my iPod earlier and I was sure it had a price.

Yeah, it's £1.49. There is a free version that I assume is already supported by ads and I assume these 'draw some coke advert' things will also be in the pay for version so it's not really helping to keep it free.
 
B

BigDug13

Member
Part of the problem is it's not a game. There are no goals or consequences. There is no time limit either like pictionary has.

The big problem is that pictionary is a team game and it would be impossible to find a cheatfree experience if they added the team capability.
 
S

sonitii

Member
I think this is a good business idea to try to generate additional ad revenue by incorporating it into the game's existing game mechanics.
 
wolfmat

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
I think it makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, how is the tracking going to work? How can they assure reliability? How can they confirm uncheated ad impressions? Blablabla.

Plus, what kind of revenue can they possibly expect from this? I think it's gonna be marginal. Doesn't sound like something that leads to sales at all. I wouldn't advertise that way, it sounds incredibly pointless to me.

It's really whacky in my opinion. And noone really wants to paint 5 brands over and over again.
 
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