Play is Functional – IIMA Seminar November 25th
by Michael FergussonOn November 25th, Selma Zafar and Michael Fergusson are giving a talk for the International Internet Marketing Association on how to apply the well-proven principles of game design to make your business (marketing program, application) more engaging, and to produce concrete measurable business value. Be there or be square!
Regardless of your product or industry, the job of a marketer is to motivate customers to act. There is no denying that games command incredible loyalty and mindshare. In this talk, we’ll explore the principles of game design for techniques we can apply to dramatically increase the effectiveness of our own marketing programs and applications.
Speakers Michael Fergusson of Ayogo and Selma Zafar of Openroad Communications.
Where? When?
Wednesday, Nov 25th 2009 (6:00pm – 8:00pm) in the Wosk Board Room (Seventh Floor) at the Vancouver Public Library.
What you’ll learn
Are you rewarding, or punishing your customers for engaging with you?
- How play is essential to how we learn, socialize, compete, consume
- Examples of where game design principles have been applied successfully in business applications
- The underlying human instincts that makes play engaging, and how to trigger them
- Practical techniques you can use to get results right away
Tags: Ayogo, IIMA, Social Networking, Web 2.0
Michael, I just read a couple of your FAQ responses over at Techvibes and I was blown away. It’s really nice to hear someone else who “gets it”.
I’ve been playing multiplayer games online since 1996 (starting with Quake CTF), as well as building community sites around these games, both personally and professionally (i.e. I was a team lead for a web firm in Vancouver that built community hubs & product sites for Sierra, Activision, and Konami).
What I’ve realized since ‘96 is that games are important social spaces for learning about community and culture. In effect, they give us the opportunity to learn about ourselves and how we can improve our ability to communicate and collaborate with one another.
Where we probably differ though (not sure) is that while I’ve seen amazing teamwork and collaboration within games (i.e. CS, WoW), I see very little of these same principles being applied within companies themselves. For example, you said play is important and I couldn’t agree more. Yet many companies today are afraid of taking risks, experimenting, and getting their hands dirty which is such a critical part of playing. In effect, to really play, you have to be confident enough to take off your marketing mask and make fun of yourself.
[...] Ayogo creates innovative gaming experiences enjoyed on social networks and mobile platforms. We help brands use "fun" to engage users and motivate specific behaviours, and help game developers monetize their creations and port them across networks and platforms. « Play is Functional – IIMA Seminar November 25th [...]
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