Games – WebProNews

Merch By Amazon Is Amazon’s New On Demand T-Shirt Service For Game Developers

Amazon announced a new self-service program aimed at game developers to help them sell t-shirts. It’s called Merch by Amazon and encourages developers to “take their fans to the next level.”

You design the shirts, and Amazon produces, sells, and ships them. It’s a print-on-demand service so shirts only get made when someone actually wants to buy one. The developer earns a royalty for each one purchased.

“To get started, simply set-up your Merch by Amazon account, upload the artwork for your t-shirt, and push submit – Amazon takes care of the rest,” says Amazon’s Mike Hines. “In a matter of hours, your custom t-shirt is available for sale worldwide on Amazon.com. Once you’ve created your custom t-shirts, you can also promote them in-game on the Android, Fire OS, or iOS versions of your game via Amazon Mobile Ads. Merch by Amazon allows you to delight your players and convert them into advocates for your game.”

“With Merch by Amazon, you can give your players a fun new way to interact with your brand and take your fans to the next level,” says Hines. “You can start in the morning, and have t-shirts with your artwork available for sale on an Amazon.com product page before the end of the day. To get started, follow the 4 steps outlined below.

The designs require a 15x18in, 300DPI piece of artwork and a bank account to receive direct deposits for sales.

Game developers can get started here.

Image via Amazon

September 30, 2015

Study Finds People Are ‘Practically Addicted’ To Email

When it comes to email, people just can’t seem to get enough. That’s the main takeaway form a new study conducted by Adobe. Sure, the conventional wisdom might be that people are sick of getting so much email, but the reality paints a different picture. People are checking their email constantly.

Adobe surveyed over 400 white collar workers in the U.S., 18 and older, about their email use.

“We found that Americans are practically addicted to email, checking it around the clock no matter where they are or what they’re doing,” says Kristin Naragon, director of email solutions at Adobe. “In fact, more than half of millennials check email from the bathroom! On average, survey respondents report using email six hours a day, or 30+ hours a week. Nine of 10 respondents say they check personal email at work and work email from home. More than one third report having multiple personal accounts.”

When you think about how we’re constantly carrying around our mobile devices and that these tend to include email apps and their associated push notifications, the findings really aren’t that surprising, but are a reminder of just how engaged people are with their email accounts.

Subject: Email, We Just Can’t Get Enough from Adobe

“Email is a cornerstone of workplace culture as well as a powerful tool for productivity and collaboration — thirty-five percent say they prefer communicating with colleagues via email, putting it on par with face-to-face collaboration,” says Naragon. “But, the pervasiveness of email across all life activities is even more striking. We found that outside of work, Americans most commonly check their email while watching TV (70%), from bed (52%), on vacation (50%), while on the phone (43%), from the bathroom (42%) and even—most dangerously—while driving (18%).”

The study also found that millennials are more likely to check work email outside of normal work hours and that a third are comfortable using emojis to communicate with a direct manager or senior exec. 88% use a smartphone to check email. 70% check email from bed, while 57% check from the bathroom and 27% (admittedly) while driving.

A study from Yesmail found that consumers are opening and engaging with emails more than they ever have before, and that the “never active” subscriber segment fell to its lowest percentage ever.

We looked at another study from Constant Contact this week looking at open rate factors. Check that out here.

August 28, 2015

New Study Looks At Email Open Rate Factors

Email marketing software company Constant Contact just released a new study looking at open rates, finding that subscriber email domain and industry are major factors. According to the firm, segmented, personalized subscriber lists see higher open rate success and mobile devices now make up over half of all opens.

The study pulls data from over 100 billion emails sent from Constant Contact this year and last.

According to the study, personalized campaigns can result in open rates being raised by 150%. Those sent to 35 people or less (which suggests a more personalized campaign) saw open rates of 55% compared to the average rate of 22%. Those sent to over 7,500 subscribers (lower personalization) averaged about 14%.

“This study provides conclusive proof that personalizing the emails you send, so that you’re speaking directly to specific interests and wants of a subscriber, not only strengthens the relationship with subscribers, it results in better campaign performance,” said Constant Contact chief analytics officer Jesse Harriott. “Small businesses tend to be great at developing authentic customer relationships and this data underscores the marketing value of those relationships.”

As mentioned, the study found subscriber domain to play a significant role. It found that campaigns sent to Comcast, Verizon, and Cox email addresses had the highest open rates. AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo addresses were at the opposite end of the spectrum.

It also found that nonprofits get higher click-through rates than B2C and B2B campaigns. They also get better open rates. The average is 29% compared to 23% for B2C and 20% for B2B.

Here’s a look at industry:

“Whether it’s a religious organization or school, nonprofits generally have a passionate and engaged subscriber base that enjoys seeing regular updates and communications,” said Harriott. “However, the data also shows that—with the right type of execution—it is possible for businesses to replicate that kind of engagement. For example, if a fitness center keeps tabs on which exercise classes their members have taken in the past, sending relevant upcoming class schedules to the right members will inevitably result in higher open rates and well attended classes.”

51% of all emails are opened on either a smartphone or tablet, the study found. 38.8% are opened on a smartphone and 11.9% are opened on a tablet.

“Constant Contact has found that three-quarters of subscribers say they will delete an email if they can’t read it on their mobile device,” said Harriott. “When combined with these recent mobile open findings, the conclusion is clear: Small businesses must have a mobile-first mindset when it comes to their email marketing.”

Earlier this year, we looked at what various professionals from the industry think it takes to improve email open rates. You can read that here. Also check out this infographic running down ten tips for doing so.

Image via Thinkstock

August 25, 2015

Important Email Marketing Findings To Consider Ahead of the Holidays

Email continues to be one of the best ways to reach consumers, and thankfully, many of them are happy to get it from businesses they’re interested in. This is good to know as the time for holiday marketing planning approaches.

To you intend to make email a substantial part of your holiday marketing mix? Let us know in the comments.

Recently, we looked at a study from Yesmail, which suggested that email marketers shouldn’t be afraid of high volumes for the holidays. It found average monthly email volume increased 46% quarter-over-quarter for Q3 and Q4 2014 while average open rates remained steady at 15%. Meanwhile, holiday-themed open rates jumped from 14.2% in 2013 to 15.1% in 2014.

Digital River’s Bluehornet has now released the 2015 edition of its Consumer Views of Email Marketing study, which surveyed nearly 2,000 consumers to gather insights into how they interact with and perceive marketing emails.

“So, what did we discover? Well, for starters, email is not only still alive, it’s kicking. Hard,” the report says in its executive summary. “Consumers readily acknowledge the impact that email marketing has on their purchasing behavior. With the proliferation of mobile devices they are more connected than ever – with more than a third now checking email continuously throughout the day. And our target audiences are savvier than ever… they know what they want, and their expectations are personal. According to our data, consumers now expect us to understand who they are, and what they do and don’t want. They expect us to give them control of how frequently we email them. They expect a seamless experience across, and informed by, all channels.”

“When we say the email channel is ‘alive and kicking,’ we mean it,” Bluehornet says. “Our consumers acknowledge that they are impacted by what they receive every single day. They get daily emails from flash sale sites. They are connected 24/7 and receive personalized content from their favorite brands on most of those days. They are asked not only to convert, but to engage, interact, and share. Simply put, all this digital exposure means our audience is smarter than ever when it comes to digital communications. They’ve reduced the number of email addresses they use (who has time for all those accounts?), and use multiple devices to stay connected throughout the day. Today’s consumers expect personalized content and when they get it, appear to be happy with higher frequency.”

The study found that the most common number of email addresses people have is two, while more people have three than have one.

While many have multiple email addresses, most don’t use a separate one specifically for marketing emails. 28.6% do while 71.4% don’t. 39% check an email account where they receive marketing emails one to three times a day. 33.8% actively check their email throughout the day. Here’s what the device break-down looks like:

Another recent study from Return Path suggested that the frequency that generates maximum response without excessive complaints differs among brands as well as based on account type. It maintains that marketers can send more messages without suppressing response, but not necessarily to users’ primary accounts.

“As complaints increase, read rates decline with increased frequency, however the threshold at which more complaints offset the benefit of more reads is quite high,” a spokesperson for Return Path told WebProNews. “Among highly active email users, most tolerate up to an average of five messages per week before complaints offset increases in messages read.”

“Primary users, whose accounts are most actively checked, are the key audience marketers should optimize their programs for, as they represent the majority of reads as well as complaints,” they added. “Primary accounts make up only 24% of all email accounts yet they represent 83% of all messages read. While primary users are highly engaged, they are also not shy in voicing their displeasure, accounting for half of total email complaints. Secondary accounts holder, whose accounts are less actively checked, are more tolerant; they are less than half as likely as primary account holders to complain.”

The Bluehornet study found that most people prefer to hear from companies with marketing emails on a weekly basis, and by a wide margin. That’s the preference of 43.8% compared to 18.8% for monthly, 14% several times per week, and 13.9% for every couple of months.

You can find the full 32-page report here (via MarketingCharts). There are a lot more interesting insights where these came from.

In terms of volume, another study from Return Path released earlier this year looked at consumer email behavior in Q4 2014 finding that people did not experience “email fatigue” during the holiday season, but instead welcomed more messages from retailers – more evidence that volume shouldn’t be an issue for marketers.

Experian Marketing Services, looking at Q3 2014, found that both mobile device usage and email engagement were up with 53% of emails being opened on a mobile or tablet device. That number is likely going to be larger this year.

With that in mind, I’d urge you to take a look at this article: What Not To Do In Mobile Email Marketing.

In its holiday recap, Custora fond that last year, email marketing and search were the dominant marketing channels for the holiday season.

It’s time to start planning for this year. First, you’re going to need to get people to sign-up. Here are some tips for getting better at that.

Here are some ways to improve your open rates. Here are some more.

Do you expect to increase your email efforts for this holiday season? Keep them the same? Let us know in the comments.

Images via Thinkstock, Bluehornet

August 17, 2015

You Can Now Direct Email To Slack Channels

There have been countless reports about how Slack is “taking on email” or trying to “kill email” in the workplace. While these certainly seem like an exaggeration, such comments aren’t completely unfounded. Slack has quickly become a popular communication tool for teams, and has some features that just work better than email in some ways.

Today, however, Slack is actually adding a new feature that lets all teams on its Standard and Plus plans have email directed into Slack channels.

If you’re a Slack user, you can set up any channel for email integration by just picking the channel and getting a secret email address that will route directly to it. You can do so for as many channels as you like.

“Here at Slack we’ve found this feature useful for all kinds of cases where we might have otherwise forwarded emails around internally or used mailing aliases,” says Slack in a blog post.

It suggests using the feature for things like customers filling out a contact form appearing in the support channel; stats and alerts about web server health going into company-wide channels; new client contacts for CRM going into a sales leads channel; daily newsletters related to your industry appearing in appropriate groups; monthly sales summaries in the appropriate channels; etc.

“If there’s a service you’ve used for years and always wished they integrated into Slack, chances are you could get most of what you want today by giving them a channel-specific secret email address so that the email they already send you arrives in the desired channel,” Slack says.

To set it up, go to the Slack Integrations page, select a channel the email will post to, give it a label, name, and icon, and hit “save integration”. Then, copy the generated email address and add it to any service you want to have sent to the Slack channel.

Just like that, Slack channels have become inboxes.

Image via Slack

August 14, 2015

Here’s What Those New Netflix Emails Look Like

As reported earlier this week, Netflix is changing the way it emails its DVD subscribers. I found this interesting because I’ve been a member for over a decade and can’t recall a time when this has changed much at all.

Essentially, they’re reducing the frequency of emails by consolidating information. They also promoted separate social media accounts for the DVD brand. Here’s what they said:

Here at Netflix we are always looking for ways to improve your entertainment experience. In the coming week you’ll notice a change in how you receive emails from us. We’re consolidating your shipment transactions into a single email to help you streamline the amount of emails in your inbox.

Your new shipment email will tell you what’s on the way, acknowledge what we are receiving, plus give you the option of adding new releases or personal recommendations to your queue. We hope you enjoy receiving more relevant content in the new format while dealing with less email.

You can also now find DVD.Netflix.com on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Connect with us to stay up-to-date on new movie releases and entertainment-focused content; join our conversations or simply share what you’re watching.

I just got my first of these new emails. Heres’ what it looks like:

For comparison, here’s what the emails used to look like:

In case you’re thinking to yourself, “Who cares about Netflix’s DVD service,” the company released its Q2 earnings report this week in which it revealed that it currently has 5.3 million DVD members. That is down from 5.5 million in Q1, but Netflix still sees it as a businesses that will continue to have value for quite some time to come.

“Our DVD-by-mail business in the US continues to serve 5.3 million members and provided $77.9 million in contribution profit in Q2,” CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells said in a letter to shareholders. “The broad selection of titles, including new release movies and TV shows, remains appealing to a core user base and means that the tail on this business should be quite long.”

Believe it or not, Netflix’s DVD offering still offers a lot of titles that just aren’t that easy to find from other (legal) online services.

Lead image via Netflix (Twitter)

July 17, 2015

Google Launches ‘Paid Search Best Practices’ Email Newsletter

Google announced the launch of a new email newsletter, which it will send out once a month to subscribing advertisers. It’s called Google Best Practices, and aims to give advertisers advice on improving their campaigns.

“We get it. You’re busy. Staying on top of your AdWords game is important, but there are only so many hours in the day (or week {or month}) to read guides and watch webinars,” Matt Lawson, Director of Performance Ads Marketing at Google writes on the Inside AdWords blog. “That’s why the Google Best Practices team put together a brand new newsletter. It’ll be an email per month, and we’re designing it to take approximately three minutes to read in its entirety. We want the insights and recommendations in it to be worth the time you put into reading it. Even if it only takes three minutes to read, we want those to be three valuable minutes.”

“Whether it’s a quick video or recommendations on using a new feature, we hope to include the type of insights that make you better at doing what you do, all while getting you back to doing what you actually do as quickly as possible,” he adds.

There’s a sign up form here, which lets you o[pt in to receive email communications from “the latest in digital marketing news, research, insights, product updates, and event invitations from Google.”

From the form, they’ll let you choose your industry and platform of interest so you can limit the emails you get accordingly.

You can also keep up with our own AdWords coverage here.

Image via Google

July 8, 2015

Email Marketing Study Suggests Sending More, Just Not To Recipients’ Primary Accounts

Return Path recently released an email marketing study suggesting that the frequency that generates maximum response without excessive complaints differs among brands as well as based on account type. It maintains that marketers can send more messages without suppressing response, but not necessarily to users’ primary accounts.

The study makes use of data from over 600,000 users over the course of three months. It focused on consumers who receive email from at least five commercial senders.

“As complaints increase, read rates decline with increased frequency, however the threshold at which more complaints offset the benefit of more reads is quite high,” a spokesperson for Return Path explains in an email to WebProNews. “Among highly active email users, most tolerate up to an average of five messages per week before complaints offset increases in messages read.”

“Primary users, whose accounts are most actively checked, are the key audience marketers should optimize their programs for, as they represent the majority of reads as well as complaints,” the spokesperson adds. “Primary accounts make up only 24% of all email accounts yet they represent 83% of all messages read. While primary users are highly engaged, they are also not shy in voicing their displeasure, accounting for half of total email complaints. Secondary accounts holder, whose accounts are less actively checked, are more tolerant; they are less than half as likely as primary account holders to complain.”

A study from Econsultancy last year found that frequency is the most common reason recipients unsubscribe from email lists.

“It is important that you achieve a good balance between underexposure and overexposure when it comes to optimizing your email marketing strategy,” said promotion company MyGuestList in a blog post in response to that study. “Underexposure means lost opportunities and sales from your customers due to infrequent contact with your brand or venue. Conversely, overexposure will cause engagement with your readers to spiral because they simply don’t have the time to keep up.

“Your emails should be frequent enough to enable you to build strong relationships with your customers and increase your brand’s ‘top-of-mind’ awareness when considering venues to visit,” it added. “More exposure to your brand leads to greater awareness that directly increases your venue’s patronage and sales revenue.”

The full Return Path study can be found here. You may want to do some testing with secondary accounts based on its findings.

Related reading: 5 Potential Ways to Increase Email Signups

July 6, 2015

Apple Is Removing Apps with Confederate Flag Imagery

In the wake of the Charleston church killings and the wave of companies and state governments moving to ban confederate flag imagery, Apple has begun to yank games and other apps featuring the symbol from its App Store.

According to Touch Arcade, various civil war games such as Ultimate General: Gettysburg and all Hunted Cow’s Civil War series have been removed. They report that Apple is pulling apps that simply contain the confederate flag – regardless of context.

One developer said that the rationale put forth by Apple is “because [the apps] include images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways.”

Apple has pulled the tablet version of the game from Appstore because of the Confederate Flag. details coming…

— Ultimate_General (@GeneralUltimate) June 25, 2015

The team behind Ultimate General: Gettysburg has taken to its blog to respond to Apple’s decision.

“We accept Apple’s decision and understand that this is a sensitive issue for the American Nation. We wanted our game to be the most accurate, historical, playable reference of the Battle of Gettysburg. All historical commanders, unit composition and weaponry, key geographical locations to the smallest streams or farms are recreated in our game’s battlefield,” says Nick Thomadis.

“Spielberg’s Schindler’s List did not try to amend his movie to look more comfortable. The historical Gettysburg movie (1993) is still on iTunes. We believe that all historical art forms: books, movies, or games such as ours, help to learn and understand history, depicting events as they were. True stories are more important to us than money. Therefore we are not going to amend the game’s content and Ultimate General: Gettysburg will no longer be available on AppStore. We really hope that Apple’s decision will achieve the desired results.

Earlier the week, Apple CEO Tim Cook called for “eradicating racism and removing the symbols and words that feed it.”

My thoughts are with the victim's families in SC.Let us honor their lives by eradicating racism & removing the symbols & words that feed it.

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 21, 2015

As of the writing of this article, an App Store search for Civil War-related apps yields plenty of games and other apps. It appears that either Apple is just getting started with this removal campaign, or that the existing apps are allowed to remain due to lack of confederate flag imagery.

I’ve reached out to Apple and will update this article accordingly.

Image via Ultimate General

June 25, 2015

You Can Now Play a Game in Facebook Messenger

In March, Facebook launched what it called “Messenger Platform” and “Businesses on Messenger”, two initiatives that the company hopes will turn Messenger into more than just a simple messaging platform.

Facebook now lets developers build apps for Messenger – the first slate of which let users quickly pull up GIFs, sound clips, videos, and more. Last month, reports indicated that Facebook was actively seeking games for Messenger.

Well, there’s a game in Messenger now. If you check the third-party apps list inside Facebook Messenger, you’ll see the option to install “Doodle Draw Game”. First spotted by TechCrunch, this is the first-ever game available inside Facebook Messenger (you have to install it on your device first, of course, but it’s playable inside Messenger).

Doodle Draw gives you a topic, lets you draw pictures, and has your friends guess what you drew.

Facebook told TechCrunch,

“Currently, we think Messenger Platform is best suited for apps that focus on content creation and curated content. But, one of the reasons we were excited to announce at F8 that Messenger Platform is open to all developers is to see what people build. From there, we’ll think about what else might make sense.”

So, maybe more games? Hopefully, the next round of games offered up in Facebook Messenger will be a little more promising than Doodle Draw Game, a copy of Draw Something (you remember Draw Something, right?). Doodle Draw lets you earn in-game currency by getting friends to compete – so say hello to spammy game requests.

Then again, if Facebook wants to turn Messenger into its own ecosystem – let’s say, like the main Facebook product – then spammy app requests will fit right in.

June 10, 2015

Your Customers Want More Of This From Your Business

Personalization. Consumers want offers from businesses to be more personalized. The question is: are you doing your part? And to what degree?

Are you making efforts to ensure your offers are highly personalized for your potential customers? What are your most effective personalization methods and/or channels? Discuss.

Consumers want more relevant offers, but they’re also not really into being tracked, so that makes it difficult for businesses to get such offers in front of them. Meanwhile, consumers are losing confidence in business’ ability to effectively leverage their personal data. That seems to be the main takeaway from a recent retail survey by Boxever.

According to that, 60% say they prefer offers targeted to where they are and what they’re doing, but 62% don’t want retailers tracking their location. That’s a problem. Unfortunately, it’s hard to highly personalize an offer without knowing much about the recipient.

“Retailers are losing consumer trust for failing to effectively leverage personal data; it’s negatively affecting the customer experience and retailers’ ability to market and sell effectively,” said Boxever CEO Dave O’Flanagan. “While today’s consumers crave a personalized, value-added shopping experience, they’re unlikely to continue sharing personal data because they aren’t seeing enough value from the data that retailers already collect.”

The survey found that for over 50% of consumers, 75% of sales offers they received were irrelevant to them. According to Boxever, this means millions are being spammed daily, which is negatively impacting future sales, conversion rates, and customer loyalty. The survey found that 40% are less likely to buy from such a company moving forward, while 50% are less likely to open the next offer they get from that company. 59% said they’d unsubscribe from the company’s content, and 31% said they’d delete the company’s app.

“The stakes are extremely high for retailers. When brands inundate a customer or prospect with untargeted offers, they may lose the opportunity to ever market to that person again,” said O’Flanagan. “The two biggest mistakes retailers make are failing to personalize offers based on where a customer is and what he or she is doing, and failing to align communications with a customer’s unique needs and interests.”

Email is by far the most preferred channel to get offers and communications from companies, the survey found, with in-store and direct mail following. Only 2% identified mobile as their preferred channel, and only 4% chose social. Those numbers are greater for millennials, however.

Personalization is key to an effective offer, based on the findings. That goes for any channel. 70% said when an offer adds value to something they are already doing or plan to do they’re more likely to act on it. 42% said that’s the case for when the offer revisits a product or event they’ve expressed interest in previously. 21% said this is true for when the offer is targeted to what they’re doing at that moment in time.

“Location-based push offers can also be valuable tools for retailers, but only when the offers are targeted at the right population,” Boxever said. “Of those survey respondents between the ages of 18-29, more than 50% said they would find location-based push offers valuable or extremely valuable, as long as they were timely, targeted, and within reason – which is true for only 32% of consumers who are 45 and older. That said, only one of the 507 respondents identified wearable technology as his or her preferred channel for receiving communications from brands.”

“The days of personalizing offers based on high-level demographics are long gone, and continuing along this path will actually hurt, not help brands,” said O’Flanagan. “Brands need complete visibility into the preferences of every customer, and the ability to integrate contextual customer intelligence and value into each marketing offer sent.”

So how can you convince consumers to give you their data, which you can use to provide them with offers that are highly relevant to them? The easiest way is to give them something in return. Things like email newsletters, ebooks, whitepapers, contest prizes, events, and premium content are some of your options. But you have to make this stuff worth their while, and you should educate them about why you’re collecting the data you’re collecting. Be as specific as possible. If they actually want the kinds of offers you’re willing to give them, they’ll likely be more willing to give you the data you need to deliver it to them when the time is right.

You have to make good on what they’re signing up for though. Make it worth their while, because if you don’t, they’re not going to want to buy whatever it is that you’re selling.

What have been your most successful tactics for getting customers to share personal data? Let us know in the comments.

June 9, 2015

Mobile Email Revenue Hit A New Record This Year

Mobile email revenue reached a new record in the first quarter of 2015, a new study from Yesmail finds. While it’s no surprise that mobile email revenue would continue to climb along with mobile usage in general, it’s interesting that it climbed quarter-over-quarter in Q1, following the holiday season which has historically seen declines due to seasonality.

According to the study, mobile revenue in the quarter grew to make up 22% of all email-generated revenue, a record 12% increase.

Q1 smartphone revenue accounted for 50 percent of all mobile revenue with mobile click-to-open rates increased to 13.7 percent, overtaking desktop, which dropped to 18.6 percent. Quarter-over-quarter, the proportion of mobile clicks increased by 10 percent and accounted for 45 percent of all email clicks, according to the firm.

“The smartphone has forever shifted the consumer’s path to purchase and has become the new normal for consumers; it’s not just a seasonal trend anymore,” said Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “By expanding their focus on mobile communication preference, especially via smartphones, marketers can remain in front of this shift in consumer behavior.”

“Marketers are starting to provide customers with a better mobile experience year-round, and the numbers reflect that,” he added. “The lack of post-holiday drop-off in mobile activity means marketers are recognizing that the mobile trend isn’t seasonal. It looks like brands may have turned over a new leaf.”

Among the findings was an 11 percent drop in email volume after the holiday season.

You can find the full report here.

An Experian report from earlier this year found that over half of emails are opened on mobile or tablets, finding at the time that email volume had actually risen 17% year-over-year.

June 9, 2015

Popular Social Media Sites Lean On Email For User Engagement

Remember the days when it wasn’t uncommon to read an article speculating about whether or not social media would kill email? In fact, if you count the increasingly popular business communication tool Slack, it’s still a subject that comes up.

These days, however, it seems like largely social-oriented services are utilizing email more than ever.

A couple weeks ago, stories circulated about new email effort from Instagram. It has a new email digest called “Highlights” that displays several posts from people the user follows in an attempt to drive some more engagement.

“Some people will surely bristle at the idea of receiving more email, especially one’s they didn’t explicitly sign up for,” wrote TechCrunch’s Josh Constine. “However, Highlights could solve an issue common amongst maturing social networks that show a live, reverse chronological feed of posts. It impacts networks like Instagram and Twitter, but not relevancy-sorted streams like Facebook’s.”

He did note, however, that even Facebook has tested various re-engagement tools including email.

Twitter has sent users emails about activity from their networks for a long time, and this is only one of many email options users can choose whether or not they wish to receive.

Even reddit recently launched a weekly email newsletter aimed at showcasing some of its top content to more casual users. On Product Hunt, Product manager Heath Black said this about reddit’s reasoning for getting into email after all these years:

First of all, we know that a lot of people interact with reddit content across the web on a daily basis. They love the content, but don’t necessarily understand that concept of reddit itself. This helps us build some context for those two things for new users, reddit lurkers, and folks that just can’t spend all day on the site.

Secondly, as the site continues to grow, and the amount of content submitted grows with it, finding good content can be incredibly difficult. Discovery is a hard problem to solve, and much of the best content can be found in some of the smallest corners of reddit. A weekly digest gives us the ability to call out those good content creators, no matter where they reside on reddit.

Third, since reddit content blows up pretty often, we want to make sure that the creators of that content are given the credit they deserve. Many publishers that use their content don’t credit at all and it absolutely pisses our users off. We want reddit users to know that we love them and the creative things they do.

StumbleUpon has also been using email to drive engagement. Earlier this year, we had a chat with Director of Marketing Anne Gherini to learn more about its strategy. She talked about running tests to gauge what content its users want to see and how its emails feature dynamic content generated by its personalization algorithm.

“StumbeUpon is in essence an entertainment company. What we are finding is that entertainment is judged by emotion and that emotion can sometimes be better determined by a human over just an algorithm,” she told us at the time. “Our approach to CRM is simple. It is a privilege to be able to be in a user’s inbox or to pop up on their newsfeed. We don’t take this privilege lightly, so we are dedicated to delivering the right mix of content to the right users at the right time. Finding this balance involves in-depth testing and proper data-mining. Segmentation, personalization and a fantastic CRM team are making this happen at SU. We are already seeing the results and there are many more changes and improvements in the pipeline.”

“The weekly recommendation emails have had the highest engagement and our continuous optimization of these emails has enabled us to keep increasing our KPIs,” she said, adding that they were still looking at building out additional email programs based on users’ usage patterns.

In the days when the desktop ruled, email overload was a legitimate concern. Nobody enjoys sitting down at their desk and sorting through an inbox full of messages, but the rise of the smartphone has changed our email habits. It’s basically just another notification you get throughout the day, which you can easily swipe away for later, delete, or open and engage with at your leisure. This is likely why email is such an attractive way for social networks to re-engage users.

Maybe you don’t have time to scroll through reddit, but you might want to take a quick glance at some top stories. Maybe you it’s been a while since you fired up the StumbleUpon app and thumbed through a bunch of pages from around the web, but if you see some interesting stuff from categories that you’re specifically into, pushed right to your inbox, well, maybe you won’t mind pausing to take a look.

According to Experian’s Q1 Email Benchmark report, 51% of total opens occurred on a mobile phone or tablet during the quarter. The majority of email opens ocurred on mobile phones or tablets for all industies except publishers and business products and services. The majority of total clicks occurred on mobile phones or tablets for media and entertainment (56%) and multi-channel retailers (51%).

Image via Thinkstock

June 3, 2015

Grand Theft Auto Maker Trying to Kill BBC Movie About the Game’s Tumultuous Inception

When the BBC announced that it was developing a feature-length film based on the making of the popular gaming franchise Grand Theft Auto, most assumed that it was at least OK’ed by the game’s creators – if not blessed by. Apparently, that’s not the case.

Rockstar Games’ parent company Take-Two Interactive has filed a lawsuit against the BBC, saying its goal is to “ensure that our trademarks are not misused in the BBC’s pursuit of an unofficial depiction of purported events.”

Here’s Rockstar’s full statement (via IGN):

Take-Two Interactive has filed suit against the BBC for trademark infringement based on their movie currently titled ‘Game Changer’ as it relates to Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto video game series.

While holders of the trademarks referenced in the film title and its promotion, Rockstar Games has had no involvement with this project. Our goal is to ensure that our trademarks are not misused in the BBC’s pursuit of an unofficial depiction of purported events related to Rockstar Games. We have attempted multiple times to resolve this matter with the BBC without any meaningful resolution. It is our obligation to protect our intellectual property and unfortunately in this case litigation was necessary.

The BBC first announced the project as part of its ‘Make It Digital’ initiative, which aims to “inspire a new generation to get creative with coding, programming and digital technology.”

Here’s the film’s, which we now know to be titled Game Changer, official synopsis:

Conceived for an adult audience, this special 90-minute drama tells the story of the controversy surrounding the computer game Grand Theft Auto – arguably the greatest British coding success story since Bletchley Park. Its triumph was down to a bunch of British gaming geniuses who had known each other since their school days, and at the heart of it all was GTA’s creative mastermind, Sam Houser. In autumn 2013 its latest iteration – GTA:V – earned $1bn in its first three days, becoming the fastest selling entertainment product in history.

But the violent gameplay coupled with its outstanding commercial success leads to fierce opposition: from parents worried about children immersing themselves in such a violent world; from politicians, alarmed at the values they say it encourages; and above all from moral campaigners, who fight passionately to ban it. At the vanguard of this crusade is the formidable campaigning lawyer Jack Thompson, a man determined to do whatever he can to stop the relentless rise of Grand Theft Auto.

Daniel Radcliffe is signed on to play Sam Houser, while the role of Jack Thompson has gone to Bill Paxton.

May 21, 2015

Facebook Messenger May Soon Have Games

Facebook is in the process of turning Facebook Messenger into much more than a simple messaging app, and the latest move might be the most ambitious yet.

According to The Information, Facebook is currently talking to game developers about putting games inside Messenger.

Facebook is in active conversations with game developers about the platform, according to three people briefed on the plans, although the company hasn’t laid out any definitive timeline for when games will be introduced into the Messenger app store. Ilya Sukhar, the executive at Facebook tasked with leading the product side for Messenger’s platform, confirmed the discussions but did not give any date on when they might roll out.

Of course, these are just “talks” at this point but it’s not a stretch to see why Facebook would want to use Messenger as a platform for pushing games. Facebook is reportedly “yet to even decide whether the games will live inside of Messenger or simply use Messenger as a way to link players together.”

In March, Facebook launched what it called “Messenger Platform” and “Businesses on Messenger”, two initiatives that the company hopes will turn Messenger into a much more realized platform.

Facebook now lets developers build apps for Messenger – the first slate of which let users quickly pull up GIFs, sound clips, videos, and more. Facebook is also urging businesses to start connecting with customers via Messenger, with real-time customer service updates, maps, and more.

Facebook is also turning Messenger into a payments platform.

Having games on Messenger would add another layer to the app – and another layer might be needed. The Information hints that part of the reason behind this move is less-than-enthusiastic response to Facebook’s initial run of third-party Messenger apps.

May 18, 2015

Nintendo Is Finally Going to Make Smartphone Games

By the end of this year, you’ll be able to play a Nintendo game on your iPhone.

Wading into a market its always been wary of, Nintendo is finally going to start producing smartphone games.

The first one should be out by the end of 2015, and the company says it plans to make a total of five by March of 2017.

“You may think it is a small number,” said Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata during an earnings call, “but when we aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business.”

“Even with highly popular IP, the odds of success are quite low if consumers cannot appreciate the quality of a game. Also, if we were simply to port software that already has a track record on a dedicated game system, it would not match the play styles of smart devices, and the appropriate business models are different between the two, so we would not anticipate a great result.”

Translation: Nintendo’s not just going to throw a bunch of games against the wall and see what sticks. And it’s not just going to port already existing titles because they might such when played on a smartphone.

Nintendo is taking this venture slow, and that’s no surprise considering how long it took them to even begin making games for the smartphone.

Nintendo is also taking its massively popular characters to the real world. Nintendo and Universal Parks & Resorts just announced the creation of “spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo’s wildly popular games, characters and worlds” to Universal theme parks.

May 8, 2015

Nintendo Rides At Universal Theme Parks To Become A Reality

Gamers everywhere rejoice.

Nintendo and Universal Parks & Resorts just announced that they will be creating “spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo’s wildly popular games, characters and worlds” to Universal theme parks.

The agreement between these two giants is seen as a major move by Nintendo to expand the reach and popularity of its characters and intellectual property.

Nintendo may be getting into developing new video content based on its characters, according to reports. It’s even been rumored to be developing a live-action Legend of Zelda series with Netflix, but Nintendo has denied that.

“This is a first of its kind deal for Nintendo, which previously has been extraordinarily protective of its IP,” writes Variety reporter Chris Morris. “As the Wii U console has struggled against the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, though, the company has been aggressively exploring other ways to capitalize on its holdings. Two months ago, Nintendo announced a partnership with Japanese mobile giant DeNA to bring games featuring its characters to Android and iOS mobile devices.”

The announcement says:

Universal theme parks offer incredibly popular, innovative themed family entertainment experiences based on compelling stories and characters – using powerful storytelling and innovative technology. Nintendo has created remarkable and imaginative worlds filled with captivating stories and beloved characters. Now, for the first time, those stories and characters will be brought to life in entirely new ways – only at Universal theme parks.”

The immersive experiences will include major attractions at Universal’s theme parks and will feature Nintendo’s most famous characters and games. More details will be announced in the future, as the Nintendo and Universal creative teams work to create specific concepts.

One can only assume there will be a whole lot of Mario and his friends and enemies involved. Characters like Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Wario, and others have been capturing the imaginations of children and adults alike for decades. And that’s not to mention the Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, Kirby, Star Fox, and Pokémon franchises. Personally, I’m hoping for some Punch-Out themed attractions.

Whatever Nintendo and Universal come up with is sure to draw a huge amount of people beyond what the theme parks already have to offer.

Images via Nintendo (Facebook)

May 7, 2015

‘Myst’ TV Show Coming to Hulu

Remember all those frustrating hours trying to figure out what the hell to do in Myst?

Well, get ready to relive those frustrating moments on TV, as Hulu has apparently landed the streaming rights to an upcoming show based on the classic 90s game.

According to Deadline, the show is penned by Divergent writer Evan Daugherty.

Myst blends elements of science fiction and fantasy. It will explore the origins of the island of Myst from the game where a man wakes up on a mystery island with absolutely no idea who he is, where is, or how he got there.

Not much to go on there, but you know, it is Myst.

The show was first greenlit in October of last year, when Legendary TV & Digital Media singed a deal with Cyan Worlds (Myst‘s original developers). If you were wondering, the show will likely feature a tie-in game.

“Cyan’s goal in working with Legendary is not just to create a compelling TV drama but to develop a true transmedia product that will include a companion video game that extends the story across both media,” Cyan said last year. “Seventy percent of tablet owners use their device while watching TV at least several times a week. Cyan sees the potential to push the boundaries of interactive storytelling to a new level.”

Myst was first released in 1993. In the game, players naviagte a mysterious island called Myst. It’s a puzzle game, and players must find clues to progress. Myst was the best-selling PC game of all time until it was dethroned by The Sims in 2002.

May 6, 2015

Tag: Games

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