An estimated 250 million people play games on Facebook every month, there are thousands of games of different genres to choose from, people spend hours in them to relax and have fun with their friends and other Facebook members from all over the world and all These reasons brands are using them to connect people with their products.

For almost three decades, game consoles have invaded homes, becoming an important axis of modern entertainment and its application in social networks allows the public to be trapped and interact with the brand in a prolonged manner, much more than the minor contact per minute. of an advertisement.

Steps of a Game Strategy on Facebook

Posing a marketing strategy using games with the objective of positively influencing, positioning the brand, increasing its visibility and then selling the products requires certain steps.

It is essential that the company has a clear reason why they want to develop games or have a presence in them. These objectives, as in any other area of ​​the company, must be measurable, add value to the brand, increase its visibility and sell the products, in a context based on the interaction between the company and the users, whether clients or not.

Second, the company must analyze very well the target audience to which the company is directed, evaluating the activities it performs, the way it communicates, its values, interests, what social networks it uses, what it uses, how often and the reasons .
Having clear the objective and the profile of people to whom it is going to direct, the company must select the game that better fits to its general strategy, the use that will give him, the contents to spread and the tone that will use in the communication.

The key lies in finding the way to interact with users in a sustainable way over time, offering games that are entertaining and offer a satisfactory experience, with contents that meet expectations according to their age and social composition.

Routes of implementation of the games

Companies can make their own game and launch it on Facebook. The game would have to be related to the product of the company to create brand awareness among its players, looking for people to have fun with their games, while indirectly informing them of their product and positioning the brand.

You must adapt the game to the characteristics of your audience so that your campaign is more precise and not just expansive. Understanding the psychology of players is of vital importance to the use of games as a marketing strategy. This is where the “game mechanics” comes into play, being important to create a game that is enjoyable and encourages the player to continue playing.

Some companies have chosen to advertise in certain games that are considered within the niche of their businesses with games that appeal to their interests offering a fun way to engage with their customers through a common passion.
For example, fertilizer companies would probably prefer to be the brand of virtual fertilizer available in Farmville, the game where the role of farmer is interpreted, harvesting, harvesting, keeping an eye on the animals.

Another example is RestaurantCity, a game with 6 million players monthly, where players can design and manage their own restaurant and employ their Facebook friends, such as waiters and cooks, prepare special recipes provided by the chef, visit the property restaurants of friends on Facebook, help them with their own recipes and if all the recipes are completed in a certain time, receive a virtual prize.

A third application alternative is what has been called “gamification”, where concepts and techniques of the games are applied to establish relationships and disseminate the brand of the companies; It consists in the process of extracting mechanics from videogames and applying them to platforms that are not videogames.

Some of the variables that are imitated are the points, the levels, the player rankings, the challenges and the access codes. Users are rewarded for watching videos, posting on the website and sharing news on Facebook and Twitter, rewarding, allowing them to watch exclusive videos and receive personal messages from personalities.

Examples of its application in companies

Microsoft launched a tutorial for PowerPoint that invites users to use it by providing rewards for progress, such as unlocking new animations that are not usually available and also has an application on Facebook that allows competition among users about their progress with the Program.

Its exponential diffusion

The true value of games as a marketing strategy is to promote the competitive spirit of people, encouraging them to invite their friends to participate, indirectly spreading the brand. It is the typical “word of mouth” but in online format, which allows to increase the dissemination and knowledge about the brand.

To encourage users to share their invitation to the game with their network, we can install the Share feature on the site and a navigator with a Facebook account interested in that content can automatically post it on their account so that all their friends will see the message ; and if it attracts them they can play it.

Even the best ideas are not sold if they fail to reach the heart and interest of the public. So the goal is to make people talk “about the game of the company”, and consequently about the brand. They can be friends, relatives or co-workers, everyone loves to share with someone something they just discovered and compete. These people will do the same with their network of contacts, and so on.

For this reason, the promotion based on word of mouth through games is highly valued by the vendors. It has credibility because of the source from which it comes, because people believe more in people they know than in more formal channels of promotion.

conclusion

Posing a marketing strategy with games with the aim of positively influencing, positioning the brand, increasing its visibility and then selling the products shows to be a highly effective marketing tool in these times of a great advertising bombardment to consumers.

After years of aggressive advertising, the consumer has become waterproof and reticent. Establishing this sincere and open communication where the consumer interacts with the brand through a game is therefore one of the most effective alternatives to reach the consumer.