Lloyd Melnick
Chief Customer Officer

Lloyd Melnick
Chief Customer Officer

First, given that the game had a two month development cycle and it was Merscom’s first real Facebook title, the numbers are great.  With less than $10,000 in marketing, it already has about 250,000 monthly users (MAU).  It is also monetizing at a rate consistent with industry norms.

It’s not the monetization or quick growth, however, that I see as an indication of the value of brands.  It’s the way both Merscom and Starz were able to work together to get value that other social game companies are not able to achieve.  On Starz’s side, let’s not underestimate the value of the movie’s marketing campaign.  With over $30 mm spent on marketing, there was incredible awareness of the IP, which made it much easier for us to get people to try the game.  Additionally, that marketing spurred a lot of interest in the movie that Starz could then leverage for the game.  For example, the following post to Fans of the movie reached over 150,000 people:
 

From Merscom’s side, we were able to generate a lot of interest in the film.  An email to player’s of the game suggesting they go see the movie the weekend it premiered had a phenomenal 40 percent click-through rate to the Fandango link.  A link within the game driving traffic to the movie fansite generated over 25,000 clicks.  And we have just put the following pop up at various levels of the game to drive additional traffic to theaters:

It’s still early, but to say I am pleased at the way we were able to use a major media property in a social game is a great understatement.  I am now more confident than ever that we can replicate our success in the casual space that largely came from working with media companies in the social space. 

Lloyd Melnick
Chief Customer Officer

What it also suggests is that the vocal proponents of the I Don’t Care About Your Farm, Fish, Mafia, etc., groups really don’t get why their friends are playing and posting.  It’s not about the farm or the cafe or the mafia, it’s an object for your friend to interact.  What these people are saying is either I don’t understand social media/Facebook or I don’t care to interact with you: how rude.

Lloyd Melnick
Chief Customer Officer

Although I’d like to take all the credit for this success, what it really shows is the value of properties in social games.  The Crazies is based on the upcoming Overture movie and our game is co-produced with Starz, which provides the star power (get the pun, I’m funny) to overcome the limited marketing spend.  Definitely bodes well for our next few Facebook releases.

Lloyd Melnick

Chief Customer Officer

With millions of people forced to cut back on their shopping habit, they need to get their fix somewhere.  Enter the virtual stores on Farmville, Happy Island, Mafia Wars, Cafe World, and such.  There they can spend 30 minutes or more a day buying items without worrying about getting a call from Chase or Citibank the next day.  I really think that people’s desire to shop and the economic shackling of that desire is one of the key reasons behind the popularity of social games.

Lloyd Melnick

Chief Customer Officer

First, it was very interesting to see the breadth of games my friends are playing.  It’s not just Fishville, Happy Aquarium, Mobsters 2 and the other top games, but there is huge variance among people.  They also seem to be very open to trying new, innovative titles.  Though anecdotal, it shows people are not as set in their purchase patterns as they are in, say, the casual gaming space.  Although the games often share a core game play mechanic with leading products, it demonstrates that by fast following with a unique twist that reaches customers on an emotional level there are tons of opportunities.

My second observation is how aggressively the major social game companies are advertising on the game dashboard to people already playing their games.  This shows the importance of ensuring the games monetize well to justify the cost of bringing the player back (and I have seen these ads even for games that have a high level of organic engagement).

Although you will see many more posts across the industry about the Facebook games dashboard, these are my two cents (and you got them for free….how lucky!).

Lloyd Melnick

Chief Customer Officer

In three days, I have spent more real currency than I have in several months playing Café World, Tiki Farm, and Fishville combined.  It is just so seamless and easy to spend money that you can’t resist (or at least I can’t).  This is a game changer (pardon the pun, but again, my blog, I can do these type of things). 

It’s very exciting and I can’t wait until we get Facebook credits in our games.  Stay tuned!

Lloyd Melnick
Chief Customer Officer

Unlike with our core and casual games, our Facebook social games rely on an in-game economy to generate revenue.  While developers, especially ours, are brilliant at creating fun entertainment experiences, very few understand the principles of economics.  Even when looking at highly competitive products, it is obvious that they understand gameplay but do not understand economics.  In their defense, the leaders of many real economies really don’t understand economics either, present company included.  I am spearheading Merscom’s efforts to turn virtual economies in our social media games into something that both enhances game play and improves monetization… and I love it.  It is nice to step back from day-to-day activities building and running a business to really explore a situation analytically.

Lloyd Melnick
Chief Customer Office

This weekend, Merscom’s first app, Drinking Buddies, has more users than Big Fish’s Page has fans (8,598 to 7,351).  Now I love the folks at Big Fish (seriously, they are an awesome company to work with), but I am really proud of the Merscom team in putting together a project on a low budget that is growing so quickly. 

Lloyd Melnick

Chief Customer Office