deal united @ Gamescom 2010

From August 18 to August 22 2010 deal united presented the marketing solution pay.by.shopping and the new platform GamesClubCard. Our booth A-013 in hall 4.2 was highly frequented and we met several new future business partners.

2010 was deal united’s first time with an own booth at the Gamescom. We were a bit nervous beforehand about how it would work out and if we did think about everything. Sadly our Carrera race track wasn’t appriciated as much as we hoped it would be. But despite of that, the Gamescom 2010 was a great success for deal united and we surely come back in 2011.

deal united thanks all partners who met with us at the Gamescom, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments who also stopped by and everyone who visited our booth at the Gamescom. Hopefully we will meet again next year!

From now on Runes of Magic players are receiving game diamonds for free,when they shop online at renowned partners like buecher.de, OTTO, myToys or Neckermann. deal united, the reward shopping platform for monetization of virtual and digital goods, is implementing this offer together with the aforementioned online shops and Frogster Interactive Picture AG, publisher of the Free2play Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG).

Runes of Magic is a free MMOG, in which gamers can purchase diamonds to open up additional features within the game, such as mounts and potions. With deal united, gamers now receive 300 diamonds free (worth 15.- € or 12.50 £) for their online purchases.

More fun with diamonds
This offer is aimed at giving our gamers the opportunity to test out the features of our diamond shop,”explains Björn Koschin CEO at Frogster. “They receive the diamonds as a reward for shopping with our cooperation partners. This promotion is a fantastic opportunity to combine online shopping with great gaming!

Online shops give away diamonds
Online gamers can now literally dig for diamonds when they shop online,” says Jarg Temme, CEO at deal united. “Our advertising partners – the online shops – are funding the campaign. They are giving away diamonds to everyone who finds their shop through the roll-playing game and makes a purchase.” deal united is responsible for realizing the rewards promotion for gamers from Germany, France, Great Britain and Spain.

Increased turnover for the gaming industry and for E-commerce
deal united is bringing games publishers and online shops together with the cross-selling solution Pay4You. Pay4You is aimed at rewarding gamers for their online purchases. The cross-selling concept is designed to boost turnover for products, digital goods, online services and software as part of seasonal events or over a longer period of time.

deal united at GamesCom
deal united is showcasing the concept to interested gamers and publishers at GamesCom from August 18 to 22 in Cologne (Hall 4.2, booth A-013). Interviews are also possible throughout the event on prior agreement.

Advertising at the point of transaction

Sucessfull advertising on the internet has become more and more difficult. Internet users tend to simply ignore banner promotions and close pop-up / -unders without bothering to read it. As a result, companies are now starting to approach potential customers with almost guerilla-like marketing strategies: Video commercials which are laid over the largest part of the website or hidden close buttons on pop-ups that force users to click on the advertisement. Not to mention the seemingly infinite range of ads that flash, blink, vibrate and somersault around the users’ browser window.

Those kinds of advertisings do get a lot of attention, but fail to leave a positive impression. Why? Because watching and listening to those ads is truly annoying for the users. And even if most companies seem to think differently, the benefit is not worth angering most of the potential customers: If you put a big ad in front of 100 people, you will possibly get about 2 of them to click on it. If you make it really annoying and hide the close button very well it might be about 5. So as a company you should ask yourself: Is it really worth spending a lot of money on a marketing strategy that will get 10% of the users to click and 90 % of them angry and annoyed.

A completely different approach to address users comes from offline retail: Advertising at the point of transaction. In every supermarket or shop selling physical goods (books, clothing, electronic and so on) the customer will get a range of products displayed near the counter. Everyone knows the sweets, bookmarks, beauty products or various accessories which can be seen near the cash desk. So why not adopt this strategy into Ecommerce as well?

deal united’s Pay4You deal is designed to enable online-shops and services the advertising at the point of transaction. How? Pay4You is a cross selling marketing solution: Customers like players of online-games can get virtual currency for free if they make a purchase at one of the advertising partners’ shops. So in order to take part in the offer, the player gets to the payment section of the game, clicks on to the button and then gets a range of advertising partners displayed and needs to select one of them.

That’s basically the same situation as explained before. But instead of goods, the users are presented a wide range of other shops. They already have selected a product (free virtual currency/software) and in order to redeem it, go shopping in an online-shop that has no connection to the original business (gaming, software, online-services). Imagine standing in an electronic store and get offered a free coffee machine if you buy a book at the store across the street!

All deal united campaigns are based on CPO (cost per order). This means that every advertising partner only pays for customers who really get into their shop through the campaign and really buy something. Not for every click on the displayed advertisement.

  • Double turnover: Clever cross-selling beats bridge between gaming and Ecommerce
  • deal united presents monetization concept at the GamesCom 2010 hall 4.2, booth A-013

How can the marketing of online retail be fruitfully combined with online gaming? At this year’s GamesCom in Cologne, deal united GmbH is presenting new marketing approaches for increasing profits in both business areas.

According to the study by greentube and gamematrix published in July, casual gamers don’t just congregate on the net to play games, but also to shop. deal united’s business model makes use of this fact to the advantage of the e-commerce and gaming industries. The reward shopping platform for monetization of digital and virtual goods develops cross-selling campaigns for games publishers, in cooperation with renowned advertising partners such as buecher.de, OTTO or myToys.. Gamers receive a fixed amount in virtual currency as a bonus for their respective online game when they shop with one of the partners. With the game currency, they can then buy additional functions for their characters.

Online retailers gain new customers

Dr. Jarg Temme CEO deal united

Dr. Jarg Temme CEO deal united

Our advertising partners re-finance the shopping deals. Every gamer who finds their way to the shops via an online game and makes a purchase, receives a bonus,” says Jarg Temme, CEO of deal united. The so-called Pay4You campaigns are intended to bind gamers in the long run and to increase profits in gaming and online retail. “Games offer great potential for growth in sales that has not yet been fully exploited by any means. Through the cooperation with well-known online shops, it is easier to enthuse gamers for fee-based features in the game. At the same time, online retail acquires more new customers.”

Ingame messages, interstitials, banners or buttons make gamers aware of the deals. The Pay4You offerings are suitable for both seasonal events as well as over longer time periods. “Special offers, for example for mother’s day or the summer sales, are very popular. The games provider decides how long the cooperation with the advertising partners is to last,” Temme explains further.

Conversations at the GamesCom

deal united is presenting its marketing concepts for games publishers and online retailers from the 18.08 to the 22.08.2010 at the GamesCom in Cologne (hall 4.2, stand A-013). Conversations and interviews are possible at any time upon agreement.

Company contact:
deal united
Daniela Reichert
daniela.reichert@dealunited.com
t: +49 (0) 89 381 535 868

PR agency contact:
Agentur Frische Fische
Anja Gorille
anja.gorille@frische-fische.com

The holiday season started and this means a lot of people do short-term shopping to get the last supplies for their holidays – offline as well as online. For example the holidaymakers buy new beachwear, camping equipment, toys for the kids, first aid kits or even a last minute holiday trip via the internet.

The holiday season has the same value for Ecommerce as for offline retail nowadays: A great possibility to create real turnover with a seasonal event. But what about software vendors, game publishers or online services? deal united gives those also the opportunity to benefit from the holiday season. With Pay4You deal, they can offer software or virtual currency free of  charge if the user shops at one of our top advertising partners with a wide product range for holidays, summer or travelling. The “free” product will be refunded to the merchant by the advertising partner the customer chose to make a purchase at.

The benefits with deal united’s Pay4You deal:

  • Incremental revenue: Use the internet-shoppers willingness to pay during the holiday season
  • Monetization: Address users directly with attractive offers and create real turnover!
  • Seasonal Event: Benefit from the holiday season, even if your products / sector has nothing to do with it
  • No additional marketing or advertising costs!
  • European orientation: deal united is European market leader and available for 11 countries and regions

 

These companies already cooperate with deal united

 

For further information check out www.dealunited.com/merchants and register free of charge or contact us at merchant@dealunited.com.

 

deal united@ Casual Connect 2010 in Seattle

Casual Games Association Events are the premiere events for the casual games industry with over 3,000 professionals attending Casual Connect Events each year. Casual Connect Seattle brings together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the casual gaming field to further the casual games industry with the best of networking and learning from July 20 to July 22 2010.

deal united’s Senior Sales Manager Torsten Bongartz and Sales Manager Matthias Niedermeier will be present at the Casual Connect 2010. If you want to meet with us there please contact: merchant@dealunited.com.

Speaker at the Software Industry Conference 2010 in Dallas, Texas: On July 16, Matthias Niedermeier, Sales Manager of deal united,  will show software vendors in his session Incremental revenue – get more out of your European trial” ways to create more turnover with trial versions.

Matthias Niedermeier Sales Manager deal united

Matthias Niedermeier Sales Manager deal united

Successful monetization is a challenge, every software provider faces currently. The average conversion rate for licensed software lies at about one percent. This means an enormous sales potential of more than 90 percent is completely lost since most users tend to stick to free software and are reluctant to pay for the full version. deal united, the reward shopping platform for monetization of digital and virtual goods developes cross-selling campaigns for software vendors that approach exactly the challenge of monetization.

deal united’s marketing concept Pay4You combines free software with renowned advertising partners like OTTO or myToys. If users shop at one of those partners they will get the full version of the software free of charge. The free product will then be refunded by the advertising partner the user chose to make a purchase at. In his session, Matthias Niedermeier will show different ways to integrate cross-selling campaigns into the trial versions and how software vendors can create incremental revenue with Pay4You.

Together with Adriana Iordan of Avangate, Matthias Niedermeiers session will take place on Friday 16 2010 from 10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. in Track If you want an interview or talk with our Sales Manager at the event, please contact merchant@dealunited.com to make an appointment. Also attending the conference will be deal united’s Senior Sales Manager Torsten Bongartz.

 

deal united @ Games Convention Online 2010

The Games Convention Online in Leipzig is not only a tradeshow for online and mobile games, but also a place where professionals can learn from professionals, network and exchange. As stated previously, Dr. Jarg Temme, CEO of deal united will show game publishers how to increase conversion with cross-selling. His lecture “Online games and successfull conversion” will be held on July 8 from 2:30 to 3 p.m. in Leipzig’s congress centre room No. 4. For interview or meeting request please contact info@dealunited.com or +49 (0) 89 381 535 868 to make an appointment.

 

The deal united team @ GCO 2010

The deal united team @ GCO 2010

But not only our CEO, but also deal united’s CSO Jürgen Weichert, Senior Sales Manager Torsten Bongratz and Junior Sales manager Melanie Richter will be present at the GCO in Leipizig. If you want to meet with them please contact merchant@dealunited.com.

 

How to offer coupons and vouchers

Vouchers and coupons are some of the most used tools to promote online shops. However there are some basic guidelines to consider if you don’t want their usage to backfire. Here are three tips you should keep in mind for your voucher/coupon offer.

A) Do not offer a prominent voucher field in your payment process

When shoppers arrive at the payment page they will often get distracted by a prominent voucher field asking “Do you have a voucher code?” as illustrated in the image below:

A lot of the customers will start wondering at that point: WHY did I not get voucher code?. As a consequence, they will start to google for a voucher of your shop.

This will lead to three possible scenarios:

  1. In the worst case scenario, the user won’t find a voucher for your shop but for a competitor. As a result he will cancel the ordering at your shop and walk off to the competitor.
  2. The customer finds a voucher for your shop and you will then have to grant a price reduction and pay an affiliate bonus for a customer that would have bought at your shop anyway.
  3. The customer can’t find a voucher for your shop or for a competitor’s shop. He might continue his purchase in your shop (though heavily distracted), but with a slight dissatisfaction that he didn’t feel before he spotted the voucher field. When this customer considers buying in your shop in the future, this tiny negative connotation can very well prevent him from doing so

All those three scenarios have a highly bad impact for your shop. Therefore, a  too prominent position for a voucher field should be avoided in the payment process.

Instead of doing so, place your voucher field in a less prominent area – but keep in mind: It still has to be easy to find for customers who want to reedem their vouchers, otherwise they will be annoyed. Consider designing it the following way:

Customers with a voucher at hand will actively look for a voucher field. If they can’t spot it initially, they will search for it in the “Additional options” area.

B) Be aware of the implications of promoting your coupon on coupon sites

You want to offer a voucher but are not sure how to distribute it? Many online retailers think it best to promote the voucher as widespread as possible in order to gain as much new customers as possible. Coupon sites offer an easy way to distribute vouchers this way.

However, coupon sites are visited mostly by bargain-hunters. Be aware that those users are rarely recurring visitors/shoppers. They  always search for the best deals indifferent where they get it. Their customer lifetime value is significantly smaller than one of an ordinary user. You should keep that in mind if you calculate the prizing of your coupons .

C) Do not offer coupons with a low value online

You operate a small online shop and consider to offer a voucher for it? Do it well or do not do it at all!

Why? A coupon with a small value, e.g. 5€/£/$, will hardly have any positive effect on your shop.

There are hundreds or thousands of other low value vouchers out there on the internet, lots of them for large, well known shops. If one of those bigger shops has a similar assortment to yours, then the users will tend to buy there. And if you own a niche shop and with no competitor who has a similar assortment to yours, well, then why offer a voucher at all? That money is better invested in target-oriented advertisments e.g. in Google.

AdWords or banner ads in topic forums.

However, the possible positive impact of vouchers is beyond controversy. In order to make your voucher offer work, choose a higher value – at least 15€/£/$. In this way your voucher will likely stand out in the crowd and attract new customers. If you worry about refinancing the voucher, combine your offer with a minimum order value.

 

 

Author: Bernhard Rubenbauer (Product Manager deal united)

Speaker at the Games Convention Online 2010 in Leipzig, Germany: On July 8, deal united shows how game publisher can increase conversion rates with cross selling.

Munich, Leipzig, June 29 2010

How to make more money with online games? Jarg Temme, CEO of the deal united GmbH, answers that question at this years’ Games Convention Online (GCO) in Leipzig. He will show game publishers in his lecture “Online games and successful conversion” how to increase conversion with cross-selling.

Dr. Jarg Temme CEO deal united

Dr. Jarg Temme CEO deal united

The fact that most gamers do not want to invest money into games is a challenge, every provider faces today”, says Jarg Temme. “Gamers are used to free deals and despite the fact, that the game would be more fun, they do not want to spend money on additional features for their characters. Our cooperation with renowned online shops helps to motivate players to pay for those features.”


Pay4You: Online Shops give away virtual money
deal united, the reward platform for monetization of virtual goods is developing cross-selling campaigns for game publishers with renowned advertising partners like OTTO or myToys.de. If players shop at one of those partners they will get a defined amount of virtual money free of charge. “Our advertising partners refinance the shopping deals. Every player that comes into the shop via one of the online games and makes a purchase will get free virtual currency as a give away from the online shops”, explains Jarg Temme. “Pay4You campaigns are designed to increase the loyalty of players and the revenue of game publishers.

Gamers are informed of the deals via ingame messages, interstitial, banners or buttons. Pay4You is suitable for seasonal events as well as for long term campaigns. “Special promotions for Mother’s Day or right now for the football world cup are very popular. How long the cooperation with our advertising partners continues is always up to the game publisher”, says Temme.

Arrange interviews at the GCO
The lecture „Online games and successful conversion“ will be held on July 8 2010 from 2:30 to 3 p.m. in Leipzig’s congress center, room No. 4. The Games Convention Online 2010 takes place from July 8 to10 at the exhibition centre. If you want an interview or talk with Jarg Temme at the event, please contact info@dealunited.com to make an appointment.

About deal united:
deal united has been successfully improving conversion rates for merchants using innovative marketing models since 2008. This is achieved by targeting communication users who, although interested, are hesitant buyers. deal united offers this user group buying incentives, such as free products, software or vouchers from partners including BASE, myToys, Neckermann or OTTO. In 2010 deal united was awarded with the Red Herring Europe Award as one of the most innovative private start-ups in the technology sector.

Company contact

deal united
Daniela Reichert
daniela.reichert@dealunited.com
t: +49 (0) 89 381 535 868