PilotFish Communications: Stage 3: Marketing and Communication Strategy

In order to position our game and to maximize its success, we had to review the existent social games and app that are available through mobile platforms. Social games constitute a growing market within which strong competitive threats exist. The Pigeon Watch is a game inspired by a social cause, yet it still possesses the entertainment value similar to a purely commercial game. The social message behind our game is our unique selling point and thus will lead our marketing strategy. It is also important to note that we consider our game as part of a boarder project that is aimed at raising awareness about cultural heritage amongst our target audience.

More narrowly, our game competes within these categories: 1) 2-d games with simple mechanics/aesthetics) (i.e. Bad Piggies, The ninja Chicken, etc., Bunny Shooter, various editions of Angry Birds). 2) Other serious games: even though our game has the added entertainment value, it is considered a serious game because it aims to raises awareness about the preservation of cultural heritage and sustainable tourism. Thus, it other G4C games can also be understood as our competitors to certain extent. In order to our game from these two categories, we follow a two-tiered strategy that will highlight our cause to the part of our audience that will be attracted to the product due to its cause, and also we will emphasize entertainment value to those who will firstly be attracted to the game itself and will learn about the cause later on.

We also needed to understand the presence of cultural heritage on mobile platforms. Several mobile apps have been developed to deal with various issues surrounding cultural heritage. Field class of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan has developed an app that illuminates the processes by which objects become artifacts by leading users around Michigan State’s campus to the sites of various archeological digs. While creating the msu.eum app, the developers tried to answer the question why mobile apps should be used within cultural heritage. The creators of msu.eum highlight the fact that cultural heritage can go wherever the user is. Also mobile apps make cultural heritage dynamic. Our game builds upon these to features as it deals with distinguished threats to certain monuments that can be experience by a global audience.

It must be noted that whilst the existing cultural heritage apps can reveal the tendencies within the mobile platforms, they cannot be understood as competitors because they lack the gamification element. (For example, UNESCO World Heritage app that allows the user to explore all the World Heritage sites at home or on travels). We understood that in order to attract a younger audience, we will have to communicate the stepped-up gamification element of the Pigeon Watch. We will do so by creating a compelling storyline around the main character of the game that will help us impart the sustainable practices and promote cultural heritage in a subtle manner.

Strategic plan for Pigeon Watch:

· Vision: Appreciation and preservation of cultural heritage sites achieved through sustainable tourism practices

· Mission: Imparting knowledge about cultural heritage and sustainable practices

· Strategy: Young people having fun through our game and creating a community around our game

Three main features of our strategy:

The Cause: Appreciation of the cultural heritage is inherent in our game. Throughout its development we will continue to emphasize the meaning of cultural heritage to our target audience. We will encourage the conversation about the cultural heritage that is important to them. We will also develop our audience by providing a continuous stream of easily accessible information about cultural heritage and sustainable practices.

The Unique feature: we are going to highlight that Pigeon Watch is a game that makes a difference. We are going to communicate this unique feature through the story line of our game. We will utilize the idea of a comical, traveler pigeon that has set out on a mission and illustrate the ordeals he has to encounter.

The Community: we are going to build a community around our game that will unite those who are affiliated with our social cause as well as those who will be engaged by our game. We will facilitate a conversation about cultural heritage. We will make sure to maintain the on-going exchange of ideas between the makers of the game and gamers. Our audience will also engage in the story line of our game and will be able to influence decisions on further game development.

The tweetup concept:

The global launch of our game will be marked by three events happening simultaneously in three locations that are featured in the initial edition of our game. (The detailed marketing and communication strategy will be further discussed in Sukriti’s blog).

Within the early stages of the community building, our supporters will be able to participate in a selfie with a monument campaign that will be promoted through various channels such as our game’s website and social media profiles. The winners/attendees will be chosen by the community through voting on Facebook.

During the tweet up’s the attendees will be able to play the game, interact with each other. The three locations will also compete with each other. Their objective will be to generate the most tweets #pigeonwatch, thus making our game the trending topic on Twitter. We will also seek celebrity endorsements and involvement.