deal united’s PAY.BY.SHOPPING is now available in Frogster’s international hit online game Runes of Magic. Players in Spain, France, Germany and the UK can get 300 virtual diamonds for use in the game when they complete a deal united offer.

Sound cool? Click here to play, and don’t wait too long — diamonds may be forever, but the deal only lasts through May 8.

 

deal united tips our hats to game publisher Ubisoft for their success at the German Computer Games Award 2011 on March 30. Ubisoft’s Die Siedler Online won the prize for “Best Browser Game,” while Yves Guillemot, Chairman and CEO the company, took home the prestigious LARA of Honour –  a distinction reserved for an individual who has significantly impacted the history of computer or video games.

We also get to enjoy a slice of the pie here at deal united, since Ubisoft recently integrated PAY.BY.SHOPPING into their award-winning game. Users can now earn gemstones for Die Siedler Online by shopping and purchasing in deal united partners’ online stores. Start building your own empire at www.diesiedleronline.de and collect some precious stones courtesy of deal united and our shopping partners.

Note: Game available in German language only.

The world’s largest professionals-only game industry event – the Games Developers Conference – will take place from March 02-04 2011 in San Francisco, California. Programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others have the opportunity to join exhibitions or participate in conferences and summits. They can also attend events like award ceremonies or festivals covering current topics in the game industry.

deal united is a sponsor at GDC and we have our own booth No. 802/04 in the German pavilion. Our team on-site consists of Jürgen Weichert (Chief Sales Officer, Co-Founder), Daniel Shefer (President of deal united Inc.) and Torsten Bongartz (Senior Sales Manager). If you would like to meet them please contact merchant@dealunited.com or call +1 (650) 241-9120 (USA) /+49 (0) 89 381 535 860 (Germany) to make an appointment.

The Social Gaming Summit + Virtual Goods Summit will take place from November 11- 12, 2010 in London.

The Social Gaming Summit focuses on helping social game developers build, monetize and grow their social games, while the Virtual Goods Summit will focus on the increasing influence of virtual goods and currencies on the development of social networks, community sites and other markets.

Jürgen Weichert, Chief Sales Officer and Co-Founder of deal united, and Torsten Bongartz, our Senior Sales Manager, will attend the events and present deal united’s alternative payment method PAY.BY.SHOPPING. To meet them or make an appointment beforehand, please contact merchant@dealunited.com

The Virtual Goods Summit West 2010 will take place at the Moscone West Conference Hall in San Francisco on October 12th and 13th. Several experts will present and discuss the future of virtual goods.

deal united is a sponsor for the event, which Jürgen Weichert (CSO), Daniel Shefer (Head of US Business Development) and Torsten Bongartz (Senior Sales Manager) will attend. If you’d like to meet with them, please visit our booth No. 11 or to make an appointment beforehand, contact merchant@dealunited.com or call +1 (650) 241-9120 (USA) /+49 (0) 89 381 535 860 (Germany).

From September 15th to 16th, 2010 the biggest German online marketing conference dmexco will take place in Cologne. This year, deal united will be present with our own booth: Hall 8.1. Booth A-81 – B-080.

This will be the perfect oppurtunity for curious visitors to get a better understanding of our alternative payment method PAY.BY.SHOPPING. deal united will also introduce the new platform GamesClubCard, especially interesting for our advertising partners.

Markus Steiner (Head of Advertiser Marketing), Christine Bialowons (Senior Sales Manager), Veronika Beuschel (Junior Marketing Manager), Tanja Penning (Junior Marketing Manager) and Melanie Richter (Sales Manager) will be representing us, and they would be glad to welcome visitors at our booth, answer questions and discuss potential business partnerships.

To meet up with us there, please contact service@dealunited.com or call +49 (0) 89 381 535 860. Or you can just stop by at our booth: Hall 8.1, booth  A-81 – B-080.

Free2Play browser games, massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) and social games are still a growing market. But since high user numbers don’t automatically generate revenue, the problem that almost every game publisher faces nowadays is how to monetize users.

Most players are not willing to spend money on virtual currency or premium features, the source of revenue for game publishers. Many Free2Play online games try to get as many players as possible to generate advertising revenue by clicking on ads. This strategy works only short-term though, and is not the best method of achieving successful monetization.

Customer Care – What do I know about my players?
Every game publisher should be able to answer the following questions about their users:
How did the player find out about my game?
How often does he play?
Which features does he use frequently?
Has he ever paid for additional features?

The key to successful monetization is not high user numbers, but rather active customer support, which involves three crucial steps:

1. Continually acquire new players
2. Draw players’ attention to your products
3. Convert your registered users into paying customers

The more you get to know your players, the better you can respond to their needs. If players feel like they are addressed personally, they will respond by developing a more stable and intensive relationship with your game. This approach is based on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which is used in eCommerce: The “customer life cycle,” the click rates and the customer value analysis are used by online traders to get to know online shoppers better. These methods can also be adopted by game publishers.

The Five Phases of a “Customer Life Cycle“
The customer life cycle goes through five phases. Game publishers should adjust marketing measures according to these:

1. Awareness of the Product
The user hears about your game but has not yet registered. Your goal is to get the user to sign up via various marketing and sales measures.

2. Registration
In phase two, the interested user creates an account on your game site and starts playing. As a publisher, you’ll create incentives to keep the player playing your game. Now is the time to get to know your new player in terms of preferences and future behavior.

3. Identifaction
A new player who identifies him or herself with your game will become a regular user now. This is the phase in which you can get your player to pay for features and to reward them with special items.

4. Retirement
In this phase, the player retires from your game and might even go to a competitor, often due to a change of interests. Active CRM can prevent a player from leaving and never returning to your game or brand.

5. Inactive Player
The player still has an account but does not use your game anymore. In this fifth phase, you might be able to reactivate your player by offering vouchers or benefits.

Players in phase 3 bring the company the most revenue. These players know the game, talk about it, recommend it and are most likely to spend money on additional features. Another thing that gaming can learn from Ecommerce has to do with RFM: Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value. High user numbers usually generate huge databases, but there are better ways than selling data and risking disgruntled users who never come back. Analyze your databases and find out what your players do:

Recency:
Did the player buy something? When was the last time he or she did?

Frequency:
How often does the user play and which features does he/she use?

Monetary Value:
How much money has the player already spent on additional features?

These questions allow you to divide your users into two categories:

1. “More valuable” — players who have already paid for additional features once or do so regularly.
2. “Less valuable” —  players that never spend money on additional features.

You as a publisher need to know these categories in order to address the players. If you pinpoint a person in your database (e.g. through calculations) who is likely to do something, what will be your part in it? Contact that person.

Knowing what your players do while playing your game is the first step in monetizing them. If you are aware of their preferences in the game, you can act on them, and if the player  feels like they are appreciated, they will bound with your game and stay. The next step is to realize that your players have a life outside of your game — one you should think about as well!

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 year having our own booth at Gamescom, and we were crossing our fingers that everything would work out. Sadly, our Carrera race track wasn’t appreciated as much as we hoped it would be, but despite that, the Gamescom 2010 was a great success for deal united and we will definitely come back in 2011.

deal united sends our a big thanks all partners who met with us at the Gamescom, as well as to Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments and everyone who dropped by our booth. Hope to see you all next year!

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

How can online retail marketing be successfully combined with online gaming? At this year’s GamesCom in Cologne, deal united will present 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 eCommerce and gaming industries. PAY.BY.SHOPPING, 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 and myToys. Gamers receive a fixed amount in virtual currency as a bonus for their respective online game when they shop with one of our partners. The virtual currency then allows them to buy additional functions for their characters.

Online Retailers Gain Customers

 

 

“Our advertising partners pr0vide the shopping deals. Every gamer who finds their way to the shops via an online game and makes a purchase and receives a bonus,” says Jarg Temme, CEO of deal united. The so-called PAY.BY.SHOPPING campaigns are intended to strengthen the bond between gamers and games while increasing 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 get gamers interested in fee-based features in a game. At the same time, online retail acquires more new customers.”

In-game messages, pop-unders, banners and buttons grab gamers’ attention and notify them of the deals . PAY.BY.SHOPPING campaigns are an ideal long-term conversion solution and are particularly effective for garnering revenue during seasonal events like Mother’s Day and Christmas, allowing games publishers to profit from popular yet unrelated events.  “Special offers, for example for Mother’s Day or the summer sales season, are very popular. The games provider decides how long the cooperation with the advertising partners will last,” Temme explains further.

Conversations at GamesCom

deal united is presenting our marketing concepts for games publishers and online retailers from the August 18-22 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

E3 Expo, the world’s premiere trade show for computer and video games and related products, will take place from June 15-17, 2010 in the Los Angeles Convention Centre. The show is owned by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers and the Internet.

deal united senior sales manager Torsten Bongartz will be present on the event. To meet with him, please contact merchant@dealunited.com.