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Category: Video

iSummit Diary: "Wife Crack" and "Branded Entertainment"

Published April 19, 2006

I attended, and was a speaker at, iSummit 2006, March 29-31, 2006 in Toronto, Canada. This entry is the second of two featuring my notes from the sessions I attended.

Xbox 360 Live Arcade

John David, the Lead Program Manager for Xbox Live Arcade, gave attendees a tour of this next generation videogame console’s Arcade service and revealed some other interesting factoids about the 360:

  • Arcade gives Xbox 360 owners who connect to the Xbox Live service the opportunity to download and sample ‘simple’ arcade games. All are free to sample, but in most cases a small fee is required to play the full game.
  • 50% of Xbox owners so far have connected to the Xbox Live online service.
  • According to John, Arcade is a way for Microsoft to get the game console "back into the family room" where it will be used by all members of the family, not just the hardcore gamers.
  • 3 million arcade games have been downloaded through Arcade.
  • Microsoft had expected an average 8.5% conversion rate of Arcade game trials to purchase, but have been getting a remarkable 20% conversion rate instead.
  • I learned a new term; John referred to a few of the Arcade games as "wife crack," meaning a game, usually puzzle based, that is highly addictive to the female spouse of a male gamer. (Of course, lots of women play videogames, but "wife crack" refers to games that appeal to spouses who normally never play videogames.) Microsoft is very interested in these "secondary" gamers (the spouse) because that’s where the growth in the videogame market lies. See also "gamer widow."
  • While Microsoft’s focus is still on making the 360 "an awesome games box" the Xbox 360 console has other capabilities that make it directly competitive with current and future offerings from other major players, including cable and satellite companies.
  • Microsoft will soon be adding music videos and song downloads to the Xbox Live Marketplace, some free, some paid. Hello, iTunes? It will be interesting to see what will happen when (not if) Microsoft adds TV shows and movies to the menu. Background downloading of large media files is apparently in the works.
  • Xbox Live is also a communications platform: 600,000 text messages a day are exchanged on Xbox Live between its members.
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iSummit Diary: 3G Content and Machinima Marketing

Published April 12, 2006

I attended, and was a speaker at, iSummit 2006, March 29-31, 2006 in Toronto, Canada. This entry is the first of two featuring my notes from the sessions I attended.

iSummit is described as "an international entertainment and media event dedicated to the business of digital content on interactive platforms." This was a lively and intimate conference focused more on interactive content rather the underlying technology. It was also a really diverse and international crowd made up of folks from the television, interactive, technology, and marketing worlds (or unusual combinations of each). Kudos to the New Media Business Alliance and the sponsors for putting on such a stimulating event.

The 3G Experience: Signals From Around the World

  • This session was devoted to the high-speed 3G mobile phone networks, coming soon (as early as this fall) to Canada but already quite popular in other parts of the world.
  • In Japan, teenagers account for 70% of the 3G network revenue, most of which is pay-per-use and pay-per-view service and data offerings.
  • One panelist suggested that Asia was ahead of the Australian market by 2 years, and that Australia was ahead of the US (and Canadian) market by 2 years.
  • In England there are already 3-5 million 3G subscribers, depending on who you ask.
  • In Italy, the most popular 3G content is ringtones (30%), ‘adult’ (25%), games (20%), TV clips (15%), music/songs (7%), sports info (3%), and ‘gossip’ content (2%).
  • Speaking of TV, short video ‘digests’ are the way to go versus long-form video.
  • Another interesting statistic: the typical mobile phone user changes their phone every 18 months.
  • One obstacle to success with 3G phones was said to be the user interface; the easier they are made to use, the more easily the revenue will flow.
  • We were shown a demonstration of Kemeleon, a very cool ‘animated messaging’ service that converts SMS messages into animated character video messages. Weird, yes, but also hugely popular with teenagers in Asia. (Apparently some of the most popular, and profitable, 3G services are completely ‘pointless’ from a rational or traditional point-of-view. Go figure.)
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5 Questions for Alex Pejcic, Sonic Boom

Published March 24, 2006

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_Alex Pejcic is the President & Co-Founder of Sonic Boom Creative Media Inc., an interactive agency in Toronto, Canada. For over ten years Alex has been a guiding force at the agency and provides strategic direction to clients including Citibank, Bell, Honda and Harry Rosen. Alex has also collaborated with many of Canada’s leading advertising agencies including Taxi, BBDO, GRIP and Grey in realizing profitable channel and integrated marketing opportunities for their clients._
*One Degree: Why “Sonic Boom”:http://www.sonicboom.com/ ?*
Sonic Boom is a tribute to a British musician of the same name who was in a band called “Spacemen 3”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacemen_3. As time progressed the name Sonic Boom took a life of its own for the agency. It stood for anticipation, reaction and impact which was demonstrated through our methodology, approach and ultimately results.
*One Degree: Sonic Boom is known for doing great “Flash”:http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/flashpro/ sites. Do you feel it is easy to get pigeonholed as a specialist shop based on the technologies you use on high profile projects?*

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