Monday, October 6, 2014

An Open Invitation to Play Candy Crush

Social media networks are extremely popular and people are spending a lot of time engaging with content across different platforms.  Facebook is the largest player, with more than one billion people actively using it each month.  American users specifically spend an average of 40 minutes per day on Facebook.  Other than surfing the newsfeed, how are consumers spending their time on the platform?

They are playing games!  In a study performed at the end of 2014, Facebook found that roughly a quarter of all its active users, or 375 million people, play at least one Facebook-connected game in an average month.  No wonder I get an invitation to play Candy Crush at least once a week.  I don’t play any games (so I’m in the 75%) and if you send me an invitation to play Candy Crush, I will defriend you.  Does anyone else feel the same?

Nevertheless, the number of users playing Facebook-connected games has grown tremendously over the last few years.  Gaming apps encourage users to spend more time on the social platform, offer additional sharing opportunities, and of course, more ad opportunities.  One unique format that Facebook offers advertisers is incentivized views.  That means gamers have the choice to watch a branded video in exchange for virtual currency or Facebook credits.  Consumers are more likely to engage with the content if they are rewarded, right?  It begs the question of whether these “views” are quality or not.  If the user is rewarded after they watch, are they more likely to be engaged during the video or are they just waiting for it to be over?  I’ve seen research on both sides.  

What do you think?  Have you ever watched a video in exchange for a reward?  Tell us if you were engaged or can at least remember the brand.

2 comments:

  1. Cheers to the 25 percent playing candy crush! (okay I stopped, but I
    played for MONTHS) very addicting.. and I can't remember one ad. Perhaps if it hadn't been weeks ago I'd recall a name, but no ad has ever persuaded me to buy a product or play the "other game" it was promoting while playing candy crush.

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  2. I play candy crush and I can tell you that I never watch the ads or listen to them, usually my phone is on mute. I count down the seconds until I get my free life and could not even tell you what was on my screen. Now if there was question I had to answer in order to get my reward I would absolutely pay attention to the ad.

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