Chapter 7: Social Entertainment

Branding and Social Entertainment

Hello Everyone! So today I decided to play a game that I have never played before in order to explore the different uses of brands and advertising. By playing "Farmville" through Facebook I found that my experience was fairly enjoyable. I am not too much in to games because when I get stuck on a level I usually get frustrated and stop playing. However, Farmville was very user friendly and the concept I got from it was the use of social gaming. Although this game is not multiplayer I found it to be very goal oriented and interactive with the rest of Facebook such as through sharing and leader boards.

This game used different branding and advertising components through the use of display ads. As I was playing I noticed a variety of ads that were being offered on the side window. The ads consisted of movies, television shows, and recommendations for other games. What I found most interesting is while I was playing the game I had a tendency of looking to the side of my window to see what the moving ad was. This has changed my attitude towards branding by giving me a better understanding of how social games can be utilized to refer specifically to a brands target audience. It also taught me low intrusion methods of promotion. By integrating display ads into a gaming environment brands can reach a higher level of engagement.