Eight Ways to Improve the ROI of Online Games

Thanks Nat Factor for sharing this post on game ROI

Jun 30, 2009 6:02 AM, Patricia Odell for PROMO Xtra

The Subway Scrabble game, which incorporates hundreds of millions of game pieces on Subway cups and sub wraps, has just begun its annual run. Each year the response has improved significantly. So, how do they do it? Take a look at these eight best practices from Catapult Action-Biased Marketing.

1. Attainability Boost the odds of winning by offering more lower-level prizing. Last year, an online instant-win chance was added to every game piece, which doubled the number of game codes entered online and sent more people back to the stores to buy product.

2. Communicate Emphasize the number of prizes and odds of winning at all touch points: P-O-P, mass media, FSIs, tip-ins, paid search, search engines, banners etc.

3. Give away a free code This gets consumers to register for the first time, try the promotion and then drives them back to the store to collect more game pieces. It’s also a significant opportunity to boost op-in and build the in-house database.

4. Split registration Optimize the registration process by collecting only the necessary data up front—name, e-mail address, age—then on the back end collect redemption information—address, phone number. The benefit? A consumer who has privacy concerns is more likely to complete the registration, minimizing drop-off rates. “The last thing you want is for someone to come to your microsite and then drop off because its not a good experience,” says Jason Katz, executive vice president of emerging media for Catapult Action-Biased Marketing.

5. Offer multiple ways to enter Expand entry points for an online promo with a text-to-win option. Some 10% to 50% of sweeps entries now come in through SMS, according to John Ross, account supervisor at Catapult.

6. Virtual prize partners Build excitement by seeking a partner to use for prizes that can be instantly won online, like music downloads or ring tones. This allows for an immediate reward to the players and increase response and viral sharing.

7. Build relevant landing pages These pages should be grounded in insights about your target audience; how, when and where would they like to be intersected and what’s the most compelling message. For example, a female, 35 plus should see a very different landing page than an 18-year-old male.

8. Paid Search This also allows marketers to optimize response by moving marketing dollars around based on response to key search words.