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Creative Brief and Research
Document for Zynga
JOUR 3004W-Information for Mass
Communication
Advertising Account Planner
By: Celess Valk
Account Planner:
Celess Valk
Date: 12/6/11
Client: Zynga Corporation
Strategic Team: Swaggers
Account Planner: Celess Valk
OVERVIEW
Zynga Corporation is a social gaming producer that is currently transforming the game
industry. In July, Facebook instituted a virtual payment system dubbed Facebook Credits, under
which the social network takes a 30% cut of all game-developer revenue. This and the 11.1 million
daily player increase in Zynga’s mobile games, has resulted in Zynga filling an IPO. Due to the
changes surrounding Zynga’s company, they have asked us to create a campaign for their mobile
games.
OBJECTIVE
The goal for this campaing is to raise awareness of our brand in the mobile market,
increase revenue, and persuade consumers to move to Zynga’s mobile gaming platform in the test
market we have chosen. The ad campaign for “On-The-Go” gamers is meant to stimulate their
game play time even when they are not at the computer. The advertising and campaign should
make them feel that you can always count on Zynga games to be there, and creating new games
for you. We want to create a personal appeal so that we can keep our game players on facebook
and try intrigue to them to use the mobile games as well.
TEST MARKET
We have decided to market Zynga mobile users in Minneapolis MN for three main
reasons. First, out target market makes up a majority of the majorly populated ares (Downtown,
Uptown, Dinkytown, and U of M). Second, the market has the highest population of bus users
which will allow us to better aim our ads at the “On-The-Go” gamers. Third, Minneapolis contains
one of the largest colleges, U of M, which also is why our target audience is so thriving in this test
market. We found that the mean population for men and female was between 20-34 years
household income was 45,625 which is perfect for our target market.
AUDIENCE
This campaign will be aimed at Zynga customers in the test market of Minneapolis, MN.
The target will be male and female, 18-35 YO, with a mobile phone. The target description is “OnThe-Go” gamers. According to Nielsen, this audience is made up of college graduates who enjoy
athletic activites, night life, and the latest technology. The median household income is $53,521. .
The median household income is $53,521.
TONE AND IMAGE
-Zynga has a very solid game production record
-Zynga creates an escape from reality through its games
-Zynga offers game-play on a wide range of platforms for busy gamers
-Zynga mobile will be another way Zynga game players can rely on their services to always be
available
MESSAGE
We need to convince our audience that they should play Zynga’s mobile game, because
they provide an escape from reality no matter where you are.
For example: Zynga’s “On-The-Go” games for “On-The-Go” gamers now allows you to escape into
your own virtual world regardless of where you are.
VISUALS
One medium that would be beneficial to advertise in is the City Pages located in
Minneapolis. Their website brings in about 3.5 million views per month and their target audience
matches ours to the tee. Our advertisement should be posted on their site on the main page, bars
and club page, or restaraunts page to better market our product.
A second medium that would benefit Zynga’s company would be to place advertisements
on the outside of the major metro buses in the Minneapolis area. In doing so, we would not only
accomplish the goal of catching the eyes of our “On-The-Go” audience who rides the bus, but we
would also be able to market to our “On-The-Go” audience who walks, bikes, or drives as well as a
larger market in general.
CREATIVE STRATEGIES
Giving our audience a name such as “On-The-Go” gamers would allow us to create an
association between Zynga and its mobile game players. could create the advertisements to
emphasize how the games relieve the consumer and are a reliable when they need to escape from
their busy life. Afterall, they are “On-The-Go” gamers. A catchy slogan might be: “Zynga’s mobile
games. Your mobile escape is only a touch away”. An article stated that Wayne Brady thought
mobile games gave him an “escape”. We could see if he would be in some of our advertisements
so we have a celebrity image.
BUDGET
Based off of the SEC form for advertising Zynga spent $83.4 million in 2010 on advertising
and marketing. Since this is a test market we should spend a reasonable amount. Zynga wants a
major change in consumer awareness and has allowed us to use up to 3 million dollars for the
Minneapolis area.
.
Account Planner:
Celess Valk
Date: 12/5/11
Monitoring Techniques
Observation
For an observation technique, it would be useful to find out an estimated usage rate of
people playing Zynga games. One way in which this could be done is by observing people at
the bus stops, on the bus, and who look at the side of the bus ads in Minneapolis. By observing
people in ways they are spending their time outside the houseId, we can accurately see who is
playing games on their phone. By doing so, we can better find out what media outlets would
better suit our target market. One way in which we can do this is by sitting on each of the metro
transits that go through very populated areas of Minneapolis and see where people’s eyes seem
to fall more with advertising. You can sit by the window that would be on the same side of the ad
on the bus and see how many people look at the ad the bus already has versus the amount of
people who look at the ads on the inside of the bus. We would need to find the buses that run
through Minneapolis and pick out which of them run through populated areas. For example, we
might want to pick a bus that runs through the U of M campus, Downtown, Uptown, and Dinky
town. The idea is to figure out where to place the ads to get the most contact with our target
market so we can switch those game players’ interests to our mobile games.
For the next observation method, we need to understand another area in which our
outdoor ad would be beneficial. We need to go into the mind of our consumer and understand
the travel and activities they may engage in to better suit where they might see our
advertisement. We would have to observe people’s cell phone usage, in general, while they’re
walking down the street, while their at fast food places, and while they are waiting for the bus.
The best places to do this observation technique are once again in Downtown, Uptown, Dinky
town, and on the University of Minnesota campus, since they are the most populated areas for
our target market. This observational method of watching people’s cell phone use can help us in
reaching our cell phone users, as opposed to just people who look at advertisements. We can
also see where we found people used their cellular devices most and target in those areas more
as well as know what environment people tend to use them in more. If people used them
outside more, we would advertise in outdoor ads such as billboards and posters. If people used
their phones inside fast food restaurants more we could target around the fast food places or
inside of them. Also, knowing in what areas they used their phone more, we can plan a heavier
advertising strategy in that area (Uptown, Downtown, Dinky town or on campus).
Tracking strategies
Google Alerts would be a great way for us to track new and up-to-date news and articles
published to Google. By plugging in words such as “Zynga” AND “Mobile games” into the
Google website, the articles containing these words would be tracked and made available to us
for the monitoring of any changes, updates, new information on the Google site surrounding
Zynga’s mobile gaming. It will be sent to us through the emails we chose to track the Google
Alerts. This could give us a plethora of information that could be used to help us understand
what is going on in the market currently. Each article has the possibility of giving us statistical
data, consumer feedback around mobile gaming, and how we can use Zynga’s benefits to
create or back up our chosen an angle.
Another tracking strategy would be to have an RSS feed linked to your email from a
given site. A great site to get RSS feeds from would be Mashable. Mashable is an online news
site that covers social media, technology and digital culture. It has a very engaged online new
society. It is located in New York City and is a site in which many news sources surrounding
mobile gaming, Zynga, and other competitors can be found. This is a way in which we could
keep an eye on Zynga’s competitors and strategies as well as see where they have advertised
their mobile gaming so we can get ideas of where to advertise after we have run our campaign
through our test market.
Social Networking strategy
Zynga has a large affiliation with Facebook. They both have had a lot of success by
feeding off of each other. Zynga’s Facebook, for this matter, would seem to be a useful social
networking site that would benefit our message in many ways. Through the site, we could see
the number of monthly active users on Facebook and can assume that a majority of these users
would be interested in the mobile games as well. The page also has help for trouble shooting
apps onto the consumers’ phones which tells us the marketing that has already taken place, as
well as the ease of downloading an app onto a phone. The feedback given on the Facebook
page is also a great way to measure consumer perceptions and find what incentives they find
most intriguing for playing on mobile devices or on Facebook in general. It is a way to get a look
into who is interested or plays the games on Facebook, what feedback they have, as well as
what efforts are already being done to promote mobile gaming through the Facebook page.
.
Relevant Sources
Scholarly Journal Articles
1. Jon, Swartz. (2011). “Zynga Builds on Games’ Success.” USA Today, Retrieved December 7,
2011.
2. Raice, Shayndi. (2011). “Zynga Devises a New Plan To Break Its Facebook Habit”, Wall
Street Journal-Eastern Edition. 57. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
This entry talks about Zynga’s push away from Facebook. It explains how revenue has
decreased due to the Facebook Credits that require 30 percent of the cut of all game revenue to
go to Facebook. With the decline in revenue Zynga began plans to break away from Facebook.
Zynga Chief Executive Mark Pincus said the company's new direct-to-consumer strategy, called
Zynga Direct, allows it to have "a direct relationship with consumers . . . where we can give you
a whole sandbox and create socialness around the games." This just proves that that Zynga is
unique not only for its cheap and always popular games, but for its connections and
relationships with its consumers through game play in multiple channels.
It talks about the two ways in which Zynga has pulled away from Facebook which gives
us a good insight into why Zynga is attempting to increase mobile app use. Zynga has filed for
an initial public offering that could value the company at $20 billion to break away from the
dependency of Facebook.
Zynga is also launching a new play service called "Project Z," on Zynga.com. Through
this, Zynga is attempting to switch consumers play to their site rather than through the
Facebook website. It will give them the option to play the same session on either Facebook or
Zynga. So, for example, a user can start playing a game on Facebook and finish it later on
Zynga, and then go to the mobile apps on their phone if they please. This just enforces our
angle; that Zynga is a company that can be played anywhere, anytime and on whatever channel
of the many available they please.
3. Snider, Mike. (2011). Game on, Here, There and Everywhere. USA Today. Retrieved
December 6, 2011.
This article is particularly interesting, because it may be a way for us to find an actor to
promote our ads for us. This article has Wayne Brady talking about why he plays mobile games.
He describes it as a way to escape which fits perfect with our angle.
4. Winklrt, Rolfe. (2011). “Zynga Wants To Be More Than Friend”. Wall Street Journal-Easter
Edition. C12. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
Popular or Trade Magazine Articles
1. "FarmVille Spawns on the IPhone, Crashing and Freezing the Newest Feature - Mobile
Magazine." Mobile Magazine - Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Tablets, All the Cutting Edge
Tech You'd Expect. Mobile Magazine, 25 June 2010. Web. 05 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.mobilemag.com/2010/06/25/farmville-spawns-on-the-iphone-crashing-andfreezing-the-newest-feature/>.
2. Lee, Edmund. "Zynga's Not Playing Games When It Comes to Branding." Advertising Age. 22
Aug. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. < http://adage.com/article/cmo-interviews/zynga-s-karpplaying-games-branding/229391/ >.
3. Luscombe, Belinda. "FarmVille Social Game Maker Zynga Faces Trouble - TIME." Breaking
News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. 30
Nov. 2009. Web. 05 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1940668,00.html>.
4. Marchiafava, Jeff. "Zynga's Profits Fall 95%, Everything's Still A-Okay - News Www.GameInformer.com." Home - GameInformer.com. GameInformer Magazine, 24
Sept. 2011. Web. 05 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/09/24/zynga-39-s-profits-fall-95everything-39-s-still-a-okay.aspx>.
The game informer is a website that creates articles surrounding a large community of
games. The popular trade article helps consumers understand the trends and recent news in
the gaming industry. This particular article goes on to explain the quarter loses that occurred in
the Zynga Corporation. The losses were 95 percent, yet still Zynga wasn’t worried. This article is
good for understanding the background of Zynga as well as how freely it can spend money for
marketing our test market. As you read, you can see sales decreased t0 1.3 million dollars this
quarter, to last year’s 27.2 million dollars. Although this is substantial, their revenues continue to
increase. The background , drop in daily active users, and slow flattening of Zynga’s revenue
found in this article, helps shine some light on why Zynga is pushing to present itself in the
mobile gaming industry.
Government Documents
1. Dept. of Transportation. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. State Transportation Statistics
2010. [2011]. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
<http://www.bts.gov/publications/state_transportation_statistics/state_transportation_stat
istics_2010/pdf/entire.pdf>
Through the State Transportation report for 2010, we are able to see that among the
most populated urban areas Minneapolis is ranked 16th in the nation. This made it a potential
candidate for our test market. However, after viewing which areas used the transit/bus systems I
found that Minneapolis is ranked 2nd at 86% next to Detroit City (89%). Since we know our target
market is aimed at a population from ages 18-35 year olds who are considered “On-The-Go”,
we can deduct that with Downtown, Uptown, Dinky town, and the campuses large population
Minneapolis would be a better fit for a test market.
2. Minnesota North Star. City of Minneapolis, Minnesota - Official Web Site. Retrieved
December 7, 2011. <http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/residents/thingstodo.asp>.
We found that the mean population for men and female was between 20-34 years old
which fits our target market. We also found the median household income was $45,625 which is
also close enough to our target market.
3. US Census Bureau. American Fact Finder. State and County Quick Facts- Minneapolis.
[2011]. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
<http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/27/27053.html>
4. US Securities and Exchange Commission. The Next-Generation Edgar System. Zynga Inc.
July 1, 2011. Amendment No. 5 to Form S-1. [2011]. Web. 8 November 2011
<http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1439404/000119312511296778/d198836ds1a.
htm>
This S-1 filling allows us to look financial information for the last couple years for Zynga
Corporation. We can view where sales increased and decreased. I can see what strategies
were implemented at the time of the revenue deficit/raise. We are also able to look at when they
started to pay more for online games and advertising, as well as how well each individual game
was doing in previous years. We can also see what games seem to bring in the most revenue
and what types of users (DAU, MUU, MAU) bring in the most revenue as well. This will help us
better target our ad in the City Pages. This also allows us to feed off of past successes within
the company’s sales/advertising. We can notice Zynga’s slowing revenue growth from dropped
15% from Q1 to Q2. From Q3 to Q4 it dropped 10%. Zynga may have experienced this drop
because they didn’t release any new games or because of the concentration on their IPO and
the need to hire more people. The net income was also down 50 percent from the year earlier.
Daily active users also dropped 8.5 percent from the second to the third quarter. This might also
have been to the fact that no new games were produced. The amount of monthly active users
has also remained relatively constant. This provides us information that can be used to better
understand Zynga’s current market. The document also provides information that 11.1 million
daily player increased in Zynga’s mobile games this year. This is probably another reason why
they found a need to push their mobile marketing.
Internet Sites
1. City of Minneapolis, Minnesota- Official Web. City of Minneapolis: Arts & Entertainment Site.
Retrieved December 7, 2011. <http://www.minneapolismn.gov/index.asp>.
This website would provide us information on test target region as well as target market. There
is a lot of information that would be useful in our marketing techniques. For instance, we are
able to look up things to do and see what events, restaurants, annual events, and landmarks
are visited. This can help us better understand some places where our “On-The-Go” gamers
might be able to view our ads. Since we are looking at consumers who spend a majority of their
days traveling outside of their homes or work, these are all useful ways in which we can
understand the possibilities Minneapolis provide. We are also able to look up transportation and
view the bus systems, the Minnesota road maps, and commuting resources. These are all
useful in understanding where our ads would potentially reach our “On-The-Go” target market.
2. Mashable Inc. Social Media News and Web Tips-Mashable-The Social Media Guide.
Retrieved December 7, 2011. <http://mashable.com/follow/topics/mobile-games/>.
3. Zynga Inc. Zynga | Connecting the World Through Games. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
<http://company.zynga.com/>.
Books
1. Hughes, Jeffrey F. IPhone and IPad Apps Marketing: Secrets to Selling Your IPhone and
IPad Apps. Indianapolis, IN: Que, 2010. Print.
Hughes’s book talks about how apps on phones have become overwhelmingly popular
at a fast rate. This book is about how to better create an app or advertising to stand out from
other apps. He also emphasizes on the fact that some apps are free and others are not. This is
another level of competition we will take into account when we are marketing to our audience.
He talks about different types of apps. The apps that Zynga’s would fall under are “Big Win
Apps.” These apps make a lot of money and deliver themselves as well as new games quickly.
They also are extremely popular and charge a low price. He talks about things to watch out for
such as extreme competition, price sensitive customers, and minimal promotional impact. This
book has a lot of information about the market we are going into with mobile phones and
prepares us for how the market might react with our product. The excerpts from this book just
prove how important it is with the fast pace market we are in to gain a relationship with our
consumers where they can rely on us to create new games and always be available on
whatever platform they please.
2. Krum, Cindy. Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are.
Indianapolis, IN: Que, 2010. Print.
Interviewees
1. David Ko
David Ko is Chief Mobile Officer at Zynga and would be a great source to interview. He
not only is a highly important figure in the Zynga corporate, but he also is Senior Vice President
of Zynga’s mobile efforts. David will most likely have a bias view about Zynga, because he is a
major part of the company. He is the head of mobile games, so his opinion would be very in
favor of his work and most likely shine a positive light on the subject and potential expansion of
mobile gaming with Zynga.
He would be able to answer many questions due to the mobile atmosphere of Zynga.
Beneficial questions to ask would include questions regarding what Zynga has done to increase
its mobile gaming format, what it wants to get out of its mobile gaming, and how the company
has already attempted to become more unique than their competition. I would ask questions to
better understand the targeting techniques Zynga has already implemented through mobile
gaming and who it plans to segment to. The angle is that Zynga is unique in the fact that it can
be played on multiple platforms, including mobile. I would ask him what trends Zynga is noticing
with the mobile game industry that makes it so important to capitalize on. It would also be
important to ask what they hope to get out of the push from casual to mobile games. Knowing
what the company would plan to get out of a mobile gaming switch, the trends that created this
need, and what they have already that makes them superior to the competition are all important
questions that need to be answered.
Contact information for David Ko:
Twitter- @dkomobile
Company Address- 699 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
2. Kevin Hoffman
Kevin Hoffman is the Editor in Chief for City Pages in Minneapolis Minnesota. As an
interviewee, Kevin would be able to provide us with information about City Pages so we can see
if it is the correct advertising mechanism for Zynga’s push to mobile games. Kevin would also
have a biased opinion due to his position in the company. We would be able to look at the
information he provides and see if it matched up to the criteria necessary for advertising our
mobile gaming push.
It would be very important to ask him about success stories with companies who have
advertised on their site before, as well as how well the Zynga company will fit in the City Pages.
Asking what the general target market is for the magazine would also be very beneficial. We
could even go further and ask demographics. Once the major questions are out of the way, we
should ask about the ways in which they can monitor, if they can, how successful our
advertisement was via clicks or views. Asking all this information will better provide us with the
ability to know if City Pages is a perfect fit and if our research matches the interview answers.
Contact information for Kevin Hoffman:
Twitter- @panopticon13.
Company Address- 401 N. 3rd St. Suite 550, Minneapolis, MN 55401
3. Informal Source
Asking someone who is on the bus would be a great place to get personal opinions
about the effects of advertising in the bus as well as outside the bus. If we were to create a
survey asking about the awareness level of advertisements on the bus and outside the bus, we
could ask a bunch of people riding the bus to take the survey. These informal sources would
give us some insight into how effective advertisements on the bus and outside the bus really
are. This could be done by asking a few random people or one random person on the bus if
they noticed the ads, cared about any of the ads, or felt they were reaching a larger audience
when put on the bus. We could also do this through a survey to be less intrusive. By asking
someone on the bus, there will be no way of telling what their opinion is until they talk about it.
There is no preconceived idea that they have a bias leaning towards or against advertising on
the buses. This is a great way to understand what our audience thinks about our advertising
techniques and get an idea of what would be useful. However, survey distribution to informal
sources would be a more accurate way in which we could find these answers.
Contact Information for Informal Sources:
You can contact them by going to each of the bus routes and picking out random people on the
buses in Minneapolis.
4. Libe Goad
Libe Goad is a blogger for a site called GamesBlog. She has created many blogs that
are around Zynga’s deals, new games, and relationship with Facebook. She also covers other
game producers as well as popular social games. She seems to talk a great deal about Zynga’s
games as well as the attraction around them. She would be a good source to ask about what
makes Zynga so addicting in her opinion as well as what would be successful for mobile games.
She also would be a good source to ask about the competition and what they might have that
could be more beneficial than Zynga in the mobile industry. She would be informed on this since
she covers many mobile and social game companies. She doesn’t always write positive news
about Zynga so it is hard to tell if she has bias towards Zynga or other companies. Seeing this in
her work is a positive sign, because we will be able to, if we are lucky, get somewhat of an
unbiased response. She would be able to let us know if Zynga has the advantage among the
multiple platforms that they provide compared to others. She would back up our angle and
support our theory that Zynga and its games are escape mechanisms for users.
Contact Information for Libe Goad:
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @libe_goad
Organizations
Zynga
One company that would be useful to contact about our scenario is, of course, Zynga is
a social network game developer that creates content for entertainment on the computer, mobile
phones, and tablets. Zynga is a company that is always creating new and “addicting” games to
intrigue their viewers. They are widely known for their partnership with Facebook. They have
created such games as Farmville and City Ville.
There are three main reasons Zynga would be absolutely appropriate to resort to for
information. First, it is good to get background of what games my company offers so we can see
what they are and how they are described by Zynga. It is important because we might be even
further reducing our advertising strategy to a certain game or couple games depending on what
the creative director and copywriter find necessary for an advertisement. A second reason we
would want to look at Zynga’s site is to see what kind of advertising they have already created.
It is good to know the techniques and wording they use to try to intrigue their viewers, and
maybe we can play off of this, since it seems they already have a great game base in the online
industry. It will also help us understand the target audience they are trying to gain attention
from. Lastly, it is good just to have the site as a reference in case we need to look up
information about games, forums on games, or what Zynga already offers in general!
Zynga would add a perspective from its side as well as its viewers. The site offers a
feedback link that can help us gain insight into the consumer’s ideas about Zynga’s games and
their perception of Zynga in general. There are press releases that can be viewed as well that
Zynga most likely speak positively of Zynga. This would give you the understanding of how
Zynga sees itself as well as its fans.
Contact Zynga:
Zynga’s address is 699 8th S, San Francisco, CA 94103.
The phone number is 800-762-2530.
The website’s URL is http://company.zynga.com/.
A person to contact would be Mark Pincus, the founder and chief executive officer of Zynga.
Facebook
Facebook is a major social networking website that provides individuals personalized
web pages and connections between people via the internet. It is a way to communicate with
people as well as a huge source of advertising content for companies. One of those companies
is Zynga. Facebook and Zynga have been able to share a bond through Zynga providing its
games on the Facebook webpage, and Facebook providing ad content for Zynga as well as a
platform.
Facebook is a great source of information, because it is important for us to understand
how we can intrigue the users of games on Zynga on Facebook to keep playing even when they
leave the computer. With the push to mobile gaming, it’s important we keep the users we have
and convert their game time to their mobile devices when a computer isn’t accessible. On
Facebook’s site we can see the numbers of users and what Facebook is doing to keep their
users. We can also see how they explain their connections with mobile games and Zynga in
general. This is just a general site we can be visiting to help us better understand how we can
go into the mind of our audience and keep them playing Zynga’s games once they are not in
front of the computer. It’s important to understand all we can about Zynga and Facebook to
keep the gamers playing the games they want continuously.
Through Zynga’s webpage on Facebook, we can also view what people like, who all
views the site, and read their feedback to certain promotions and games. This gives people the
opportunity to explain why they like a promotion or a new game. We can also get the
consumer’s insight from Facebook and with an even larger base than Zynga’s website.
Contact Facebook
The address for Facebook is 156 University Ave.Palo Alto, CA 94301-1605.
The phone number is 650-543-4800.
The fax number is 650-543-4801.
The URL to Facebook inc.informaiton is
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook is someone who would be useful to contact through
an email.
City Pages
City Pages is a weekly newspaper that provides information and entertainment for the
Minneapolis and St.Paul areas. The content in the newspaper ranges from the bar life, movies,
restaurant reviews and other main events in the area. Obviously this company would try to get
every ounce of advertising from companies to show up on its web page possible. City Pages
would obviously have some bias in whether or not we would fit their online newspaper
advertisement system.
This newspaper is great for our target market because it is very popular in Minneapolis
and the events in it are all geared towards busy life in the cities (events, movies, bars) as well
as the correct age. Seventy-eight percent of the viewers have also graduated with a college
degree which also fits our target market. The City Pages reaches a wide variety of viewers as I
stated in the creative brief by administering 42,000 papers out of 80,000 weekly in the
Minneapolis area. Through the media kit we are able to examine how many readers get the
newspaper a week in each area, the average age and gender of the readers, as well as how
many views per month they have. All of this information can tell us if we have the right target
audience as well as if we would be able to reach a large portion of our audience. The media kit
also gives us information about how large our ads can be in their online site, the clients they
already have, and tips on placing your advertisement. This all helps us understand the
competitive atmosphere in the advertisements already in the online paper, as well as the criteria
for our ads.
Contact City Pages
The address for City Pages is 401 N. 3rd St. Suite 550, Minneapolis, MN 55401.
The phone number is: 612-372-3700.
The fax number is: 612-372-3737.
The URL to City Pages media kit is http://www.citypages.com/mediakit/
Kevin Hoffman, the editor in chief, would be a good person to contact through calling the
number given above.
Titan Worldwide
Titan Worldwide is a company that creates out-doors advertising for many different
companies. They provide sales, marketing; research and maintenance for outdoor advertising
on bus and rail. They are responsible for advertising content on the metros that circulate around
Minneapolis Minnesota. Their site allows you to look at the possibilities they can create with
advertisements, what they have created and research they have done about the effectiveness
of the bus ads. The site talks about the advantages of bus advertising as well. They, of course,
will also have a biased opinion due to the need for sales; however, at least they have research
to back up their sales pitch. They even go deeper into our market and have a webpage for
Minneapolis’s advertising that they have done. They claim that Minneapolis uses the Metro
Transit as 95 percent of the 73 million bus trips taken annually. They also claim that the average
round trip commute takes 42 minutes so advertising on buses is a great tool to catch many
people’s attention and awareness.
Contact Titan Worldwide
The address for Titan Worldwide is 3601 Minnesota DriveSuite 675Minneapolis, MN 55435
The phone number is: 952-562-8620
The fax number is: 952.562.8638
The URL for Titan Worldwide is http://www.titan360.com/usa-index.html#
Tom Cummings, vice president and general manager, would be a good person to contact
through the phone number given above.
Survey
Pop Cap Survey
2011 PopCap Games Mobile Phone Gaming Research is a survey that was used to find
out how many people who own mobile phones play mobile games, and to understand current
mobile phone game play activity preferences of consumers. They had 814 responses from
people who own a mobile phone and had played a game on a mobile phone within the past
month. By only choosing people who own a mobile phone they are excluding the unnecessary
market. However, by asking if they played in the last week, might be creating some selection
bias. What if someone has been without a phone or if someone just hasn’t had time to play?
They are dismissing a potential target market by excluding those people which creates some
flaw in their sampling methods.
However, they found a lot of information that is beneficial to our own analysis. They
found that 83% of mobile phone gamers who have a smartphone have played a game on their
phone in the past week. This is a very high number and means that just having a smart phone
helps boost mobile game business alone. Avid mobile phone gamers are slightly younger with
48% less than 34 years old, and the annual income of cell phone game players and avid players
is comparable, with half earning less than $50,000. These two findings fit our target market
perfectly. This means that we have the right target market for our mobile audience. The primary
benefits, according to their survey, derived from playing mobile games include a distraction
from the issues of daily life (57%), relief from boredom (56%) and relaxed and less stressed out
(56%). These all support our angle that Zynga’s mobile games can create an escape for the
consumer from reality.