Entries from June 2010 ↓

This new Old Spice spot feels a little, well, sequel-y (is that even a word?), but it’s still inventive–and sells the hell out of the product.

Glad these ads are getting the recognition they deserve. They’re a testament to the power of a great–and fun–idea.

George Parker is not going to like this.

Draftfcb is opening the Institute of Decision Making, devoted to finding out more about the instinctual ways that consumers behave along with the rational and emotional ones. The unit will concentrate on emerging fields like behavioral economics and neuroscience.

The institute has formed ties with assistant professors of marketing and psychology at Stanford and the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Fassnacht, global chief strategic officer at Draftfcb, said, “Our clients are getting involved in this, and we need to have an expertise, a point of view.”

“When we merged four years ago,” he added, referring to the decision by Interpublic to combine Draft Worldwide with Foote Cone & Belding, “we invested a lot in data analytics. This is the next step.”

[via The New York Times]

Last week we took up game theory in this space. Today, with the help of Reuben Steiger, CEO of social media agency Millions of Us, we’re looking at game mechanics, and the impact these mechanics can have on marketing.

Writing in Ad Age, Steiger says:

Today, the research on buying behavior is beginning to be reframed in terms of gaming mechanics. Game mechanics are the rules and rewards that make a particular game fun and gratifying. I eat a ghost in Pacman and get 200 points. I pull a lever on a slot machine, three cherries line up and bells ring while money pours into my hands. Farmville and other social games have mastered these mechanics to combine highly addictive positive feedback loops with viral social play. Users compete with each other for status, measured in “levels,” while paying real money for virtual items that enhance their gameplay.

Simply put, people like treats.

Steiger also points to Bunchball, a company that injects social gaming into your site and social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Bunchball says, “Gamification works because it satisifies our fundamental human needs and desires.”

“People have fundamental needs and desires – for reward, status, achievement, self-expression, competition, and altruism among others. These needs are universal, and cross generations, demographics, cultures and genders,” according to Bunchball.

I’m intrigued by this. What kind of social gaming might we bring to AdPulp? Do you want virtual currency for participating here? The experts say you do. What do you say?