With all the talk about "gamification," traditional media companies have jumped on board in unique, entertaining and innovative ways to gamify their properties -- all with the goal of standing out in a crowded market, vying for the attention of increasingly fragmented audiences and deepening the "fun factor" that people associate with their brands. More and more, traditional media companies are making bold moves to deliver their content in new and refreshing ways, many of which involve elements of gamification.
Hear from stakeholders in the new gamification of media properties movement -- tech-focused content owners and media companies willing to share insight on their current gamification strategies and various success stories -- all with an eye on how this blockbuster trend will reshape our experience of media.
Audience members will hear first-hand how gamification happens at all levels of traditional media and the forces that will shape our interactive future.
Bio
Manny Anekal
Manny Anekal oversees the development and sales of Brand Sponsorships for Zynga’s network of games. He focuses on creating high impacting ad integrations, which provide immense ROI to brands through the reach of TV, the measurability of online, and the most engaging advertising products.
Before joining Zynga, Manny ran Global Ad Operations for Electronic Arts, which managed advertising across online properties, in game dynamic and static ads for Xbox 360 and PS3, mobile and social networking. Prior to that, Manny spent 2 years at Microsoft/Massive Incorporated, developing new in game advertising technology and worked with the world’s top game publishers and developers to drive advertising revenue.
Manny has also held positions at The Nielsen Company, Time Warner, and Accenture. Manny holds an International Finance and Marketing degree from the University of Miami and graduated with Honors.
Jay Baage
Jay Baage is Vice President of Content & Business Development at Digital Media Wire. Baage, both a "suit" and a creative, is a Sweden-born media professional, focused on shepherding media and brand properties from an analog to a digital world. Since 2006, Jay plays a key role at Digital Media Wire (DMW), a leading provider of news, financial information and conferences for media professionals.
He keeps tabs of the most innovative companies and manages many of DMW’s most significant advertising and sponsorship relationships across its events and publishing properties. His clients range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups and cover such industries as games, music, film, television, publishing, mobile and internet commerce. He has furthermore transformed the company’s approach to marketing by audience and community development through social media.
He has during his career established high-profile strategic partnerships with other leading industry organizations such as PGA, SAG, GDA, CTIA, E3 and Canadian Music Week and connected senior executives in the media and entertainment industries, leading to high level deals.
Ian Bogost
Dr. Ian Bogost is a video game designer, critic, and researcher. He is a Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC. His research and writing considers video games as an expressive medium, and his creative practice focuses on games about social and political issues.
Bogost is author of Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism, recently listed among "50 books for everyone in the game industry," and of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, along with several other books and many other writings. He is a popular speaker and widely considered an influential thinker and doer in the video game industry and research community.
Geoff Cook
Geoff Cook is now the CEO of his third multi-million dollar Internet enterprise, myYearbook, all grown from zero traffic and zero revenue to significant market-leading properties.
In 1997, at age 19, Geoff founded EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com from a Harvard dorm room. Each property dominated their respective niches: admissions essay and resume writing help. He then sold his companies to The Thomson Corporation where he led the Consumer Market Group for a Thomson Learning division, departing Thomson in 2005. Geoff has been featured in Wired,Rolling Stone, ABC News, CNBC, and USA Today. In 2005, Geoff became the CEO of myYearbook, joining forces with his siblings.
Geoff was instrumental in raising $20+ million in angel financing, venture capital, and venture debt to build the young company into the largest US social media site. Geoff has a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University and lives in New Jersey with his wife Kerri and daughter Madeline.
Greg Johnson
Greg Johnson is Vice President of Digital Ventures at Playboy Enterprises, where he oversees new digital initiatives and development of strategic partnerships. Since joining Playboy in February 2005, Johnson has been instrumental in defining Playboy’s lifestyle-content strategy and recently completed the second iteration of Playboy’s Miss Social program, the company’s first foray in to social gaming and game mechanics.
Previously, Greg was Director of Mobile, where he launched Playboy’s North American mobile business, produced and syndicated Playboy’s award winning mobile series INTERNS and broadened Playboy’s mobile distribution footprint globally.
Jesse Redniss
Jesse Redniss is the Senior Vice President of Digital for NBC Universal/USA Network. In this position, he oversees all digital efforts for the various USA Network properties. Since joining USA in April 2005, Redniss has played a pinnacle role in the digital restructuring and growth of the usanetwork.com properties, which has driven a major shift in the industry and competitor’s online efforts. During his time at USA Redniss has lead the digital team to achieve unprecedented growth, resulting in triple digit increases in traffic metrics year-over-year. Before joining USA, Redniss worked as a digital supervisor at Tangible Media on the Atari and Midway games accounts and several leading advertising agencies specializing in media planning, buying and interactive strategy. Redniss has also held positions within the music industry at Volatile Media and SONY 550DMV. Follow Jesse on Twitter @jesseredniss
Zynga's Manny Anekal points to the Nissan Leaf's "Carwings" intelligent transport system as a telling example of how social gaming has begun to work its way into our everyday lives. The feature transforms eco-conscious driving into a competitive game.
Branch of applied mathematics devised to analyze certain situations in which there is an interplay between parties that may have similar, opposed, or mixed interests. Game theory was originally developed by John von Neumann and Oscar Morgenstern in their book The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944). In a typical game, or competition with fixed rules, “players” try to outsmart one another by anticipating the others' decisions, or moves. A solution to a game prescribes the optimal strategy or strategies for each player and predicts the average, or expected, outcome. Until a highly contrived counterexample was devised in 1967, it was thought that every contest had at least one solution. See alsodecision theory; prisoner's dilemma.
