More than just fun and games: Social media marketing and games

If the proverbial Old MacDonald had a farm in 2010, he is also likely to be one of the 20 million people around the globe who daily check on their virtual farms with FarmVille, the wildly popular Facebook game. More than just a “moo-moo here and an oink-oink there”, FarmVille players harvest pretend crops, create alliances with neighbouring farms, and try to prosper online in a way Old MacDonald would never have imagined.

FarmVille’s players themselves are a diverse crowd. The Bangkok Post reports on the growing number of retired and senior citizens in Thailand who join Facebook and MySpace – traditionally seen as the domain of Generation Y – in order to play games such as FarmVille. Sixty-year-old Naruvorn Panyarachun, for instance, stated that, “"I can honestly say that if I did not use Facebook, I would feel as if something were missing in my life, particularly during the red-shirt protests, because I could not go out then.”

While FarmVille, like most social media games, is free to play, its users are increasingly able to spend real money in their virtual domain. They might purchase farm-specific goods like a faster-growing crop, or they might buy gifts to entice others to join their farms. It is this junction of virtual goods and actual money that is beginning to attract other retailers  

In recent months, FarmVille – and its creator Zynga Game Network – has been integrating the offline world with the virtual one even more through real-world marketing partnerships. Retailers like 7-11 implant their products and services within the realm of FarmVille.

Most recently, Cascadian Farm, a subsidiary of General Mills that specialises in organic food products, has offered Farmville users the chance to plant a Cascadian Farm organic blueberry crop for a limited time. Furthermore, players can also find a $1 coupon on the FarmVille site for use in actual stores.

A recent New York Times article by Elizabeth Olson about the partnership quotes Tim Goldsmid, the marketing manager for Cascadian Farm, as saying, “We’re at a crossroads for the brand.…We’re looking to get our message out in a bigger way, and we wanted a creative way to do that.” Though Cascadian Farm is active in the social media sphere – it has the usual Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube accounts – Goldsmid said, “FarmVille has a scale that we lack.” With 20 million players a day, the direct brand exposure is unprecedented for Cascadian Farms.

Instead of trying to lure potential consumers to its various social media platforms, the Farmville promotion allows Cascadian Farm to bring its products and brand directly to players, who then interact with the brand on a personal level. The inclusion of the coupons also gives players further incentive to go to stores and buy the Cascadian Farm product directly. Thus, with just one promotion, Cascadian Farm could both increase its brand’s equity with consumers and increase its bottom line – the eventual goal of all social media marketing.