Surveys and Sampling: A CO-BRANDING CAPABILITIES CASE STUDY IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY

PREPARE

Ensure the survey incorporates a data quality algorithm that doesn’t penalize good faith responders. Avoid yes/no questions in the screening phase so as not to encourage acquiescent and incentive- motivated responses. Use the ‘soft launch’ feature to confirm questions and answers are clear and all encompassing. + Ensure the sample size is large enough to generate reliable results. Aim for at least 300 completes. This study used n=460 active gamers. Begin with a research objective that clearly points to the desired target group.

Write a Clear Research Objective DO: Learn about gaming opinions, preferences, and behaviours of the average US adult in order to create more relevant marketing tie- ins. DO NOT: Do a gaming survey Select the Appropriate Targeting Option in Samplify Select ‘Census Rep’ option to use the US census defined specifications for gender, age, ethnicity, region, and Hispanic affiliation

Within a ‘check all that apply’ list, incorporate 2 brands or products that do not exist (web search to confirm). Responders who check BOTH fake brands fail this test. 2 ‘Red Herring’ Questions 1 Grid Question1 Open Ended Question + Insert or adjust several questions designed to identify and retain data from good faith responders. Ensure half of the questions will be answered positively and half negatively. Responders who straightline this grid fail this test. Design it so that it requests a lot of typing. E.g., “Please share 3 reasons why you prefer this product.” Responders who type 10 or fewer characters fail this test. One failure is normal for good faith responders but data from people failing 2 or 4 of these tests should be deleted. + In this study, 6.8% of responders were participating in a distracted mode and so were removed from this analysis

The ‘Soft Launch option in Samplify allows you to adjust early on any questions/answers that do not create good spread or are not all-inculsive. Add a couple of hours to your timeline to validate your survey. Generate at least 30 completes and examine the answers for oddities. Which options are selected too often or not often enough? Are responders complaining in the open-ends about survey design? In this survey, the initial pricing question had too many low dollar value options and not enough high dollar value options, problems that were rectified in the final question After a review of the open ends, other questions were edited to include additional game, website, and forum answer options.

+ To avoid acquiescent and incentive-motivated responses to the screener question, provide a range of popular and unpopular brands or activities for responders to select from DO: DO NOT: “Which of the following activities have you participated in during the last 3 months?” “Have you played computer games in the last 3 months? Yes/No” Responders cannot tell what is being ‘screened’ for and, as a bonus, you can learn about secondary activities that your target group participates in.

DISCOVER

+ If we know the psychographics of people attracted to each game, we can catch the attention of other people with those same characteristics and encourage them to also purchase. Which snacks should be shown in commercials with which games? Which TV shows should incorporate which games? Which celebrities should ensorse which games? Which games should be sold together in combo packs? Which games should be re-released in which retro gaming styles?

Celebrity Endorsements MARKETING TIE-INS:

CelebrityAssassins CreedCall of DutyDiabloGrand Theft AutoHaloLegend of ZeldaPokemonSimsSuper MarioWarcraft Bieber16%22%23%27%23%21%19%21%23%20% Damon70%67%73%65%70%68%65%69%67%72% Diaz63%67%63%65%67%62%64%61% 55% Fallon62%58%53%59%61%66%57%59%60%63% Feinstein17%15%17%13%19%15%10%17%15%16% Garner66%64%53%62%65%63%57%60%62% Kim K20%19%15%20%24%17%19% 18%16% Across 18 celebrities currently making media headlines, Matt Damon consistently generates the highest likeability scores and is therefore the main contender for a celebrity endorsement. Cameron Diaz is also an endorsement possibility for Call of Duty and Halo. Dianne Feinstein, Justin Bieber, and Kim Kardashian consistently generate low likeability scores by people who own these games and therefore should not be considered as endorsement possibilities. *Values represent the percentage of responses that were “Very” or “Somewhat” likeable on a 5 point scale, among people who own a specific game. “How likeable or unlikeable do you think each of these people are?

TV Placements MARKETING TIE-INS:

TV Shows Assassins Creed BattlefieldGrand Theft AutoHalo Kinect Adventures Legend of ZeldaMinecraftStarcraftWarcraft Breaking Bad74% 65%70%64%61%59%61%64% Big Bang Theory77% 67%75% 72%68%65%76% Under the Dome49%48%49%55%51%39%42%41%45% Greys Anatomy42%51%49%52%49%43%46%32%43% MythBusters71%69%67%74%76%74%72%73%67% NCIS75% 73%74%62%67%68%69%74% Across 11 television currently making media headlines, Big Bang Theory consistently generates high scores from game owners. It is therefore the main contender for product placement. NCIS, and Mythbusters also generate good product placement potential. However, Grey’s Anatomy, and Under the Dome consistently generate low scores by game owners and therefore should not be considered as product placement possibilities. *Values represent the percentage of responses that were “Excellent” or “Good” on a 5 point scale, among people who own a specific game. “What is your opinion about each of the following television shows?”

Snacks MARKETING TIE-INS:

Across all game-owners, salty snacks were most preferable. Owners of Starcraft were most likely to choose salty snacks, owners of Assassin’s Creed were more likely to choose sweet snacks, and owners of Sims, Kinect Adventures, and Starcraft were more likely to choose healthy snacks. Co-branding or co-packaging opportunities should focus on pairing salty snacks with games, though some considerations for sweet snacks would be appropriate for Assassin’s Creed. *Values represent the percentage of game owners who choose each snack. “While you’re playing video games, what kinds of food do you snack on?”

2-In-1 Game Packs MARKETING TIE-INS:

CorrelationsAnimal CrossingAssassin’s CreedBattlefieldCall of DutyDiabloGrand Theft AutoLegend of ZeldaMinecraftPokemonStarcraft Call of Duty Diablo Grand Theft Auto Halo Kinect Adventures Legend of Zelda Pokemon Starcraft SuperMario Warcraft Animal Crossing Players of Assassin’s Creed are also likely to play Halo, Legend of Zelda, and Warcraft. These represent obvious game bundling opportunities. Less obvious combinations that offer opportunities for reduced-price game bundling include Animal Crossing+Starcraft, and Legend of Zelda+Pokemon. *Values represent the percentage of responses that were “Excellent” or “Good” on a 5 point scale, among people who own a specific game. “What is your opinion about each of the following television shows?”

Retro-Gaming MARKETING TIE-INS:

Starcraft and Animal Crossing owners are more likely to own an Atari system suggesting that creating those games in the style of the Atari system may be appealing to them. Call of Duty owners are less likely to have outdated gaming systems and so represent less of an opportunity in the retro-gaming area. *Values represent correlations between games recently played. “Which of the following video/computer games do you own?” “Which of the following gaming systems do you own?”

SUMMARY

Data quality algorithm eliminated 6.8% of low-attention records Screening question styled as “check all that apply” from multiple categories held acquiescent and incentive- motivated responses low. ‘Soft launch’ allowed us to ensure questions and answers were clear and all encompassing

RESEARCH RESULTS + Matt Damon and Cameron Diaz are highly rated by gamers and are therefore possible game endorsers + Big Bang Theory, Mythbusters, and NCIS are highly rated by gamers and therefore represent opportunities for product placement + Salty snacks are preferred by gamers and are the preferred food to be featured + Animal Crossing+Starcraft, and Legend of Zelda+Pokemon are co-owned surprisingly frequently and could be a successful bundled combination + Starcraft could be successful as an Atari retro release

460 US Census representative adults who have played a video/computer game in the last week. Randomly Selected from the Peanut Labs online research panel. Margin of erorr for a probablity sample of n=460 is 4.6 points.

Thank You!