1. SOC
CIAL GAMING A
G AND STRAT
TEGIC
C
BRA
AND PLACE
P EMEN
NT
by Steve P
Pacinelli on No 20th, 2012
ov
According t the 2012 NAR Profile of Hom Buyers and S
to R me Sellers, the #1 de
emographic of h
home buyers las year was betw
st ween
25-34 years of age.
s
This age group happe to coinci with a la
ens ide arge portion of gamers ac
cross the cou
untry. In a thhree
year span starting fro 2008, the number of gamers in th country ha grown 2.5 times, due to
n om e he as 5
video gam becomin more acc
mes ng cessible to th average pe
he erson. People no longer just game o
r on
dedicated consoles; gamers use a variety of p
d g platforms fro their sma
om artphones to their tablets and
s
yes, even on social media websit
n m tes.
This is go news for Century 2 as they do head firs into the social gaming arena with o
ood 21 ove st one
of the mo recogniz
ost zable titles in gaming his
n story – SimC
City
.

2. SimCity Social can be found on Facebook and it must not be too hard to find considering they
have 1.4 million fans right now. If you are not familiar with SimCity, here is an excerpt
from their site which should give you a good idea of the premise of the game.
From the creators of the original city building game, interact with your friends, buildings, and
cities like never before in SimCity Social on Facebook.
Watch your friends move in automatically and houses self-upgrade as you place beautiful
decorations nearby. Be the first among your friends to own a skyscraper, or two! Give birth to a
dynamic city with passionate citizens, ready to protest for clean air or celebrate economical
success. Build on the biggest playground in Facebook yet, with surprises at every turn. Watch
out for fire hazards, crime-prone areas, and much more!
Now gamers can give the gift of homeownership in SimCity through the Century 21 brand by
building real estate offices in their digital communities.
I spoke with Bev Thorne, CMO of Century 21, to get some insight on how the campaign was
progressing, as they are just wrapping up their main marketing push now. Obviously a lot of the
metrics they would use to measure success are not available yet, but they did gain 53,466 fans
since they launched on October 17, 2012. They also racked up 23,000 views of their in-game
commercial with a 94% completion rate. What’s interesting about that statistic is 95% of people
playing video games do not multitask. Which means, they have a captive audience soaking in
every word. Another statistic that should be noted is 90% of gamers who watched an
advertisement in a Facebook game were able to recall the message of that ad a week later.
What does all of this mean? If gamers continuously interact with a brand in a game, do they
actually turn into customers? Well, that remains to be seen, but I am going to follow this one
closely. I do think people consciously or subconsciously might be more attracted to choosing to
work with an agent from that brand, due to the continual exposure they will get while playing.
Century 21 is definitely thinking outside of the box and testing uncharted waters. If we see
Century 21 doing something simliar with a different gaming franchise in the future, we will have
our answer on whether or not it was effective.