Social gaming to deliver new opportunities for brand engagement
Social gaming promises to deliver mass market appeal, as well as fresh opportunities for brands to engage with consumers, according to the results of a new survey from Lightspeed Research and Trendstream.
The large majority of UK respondents (54%) claim that playing games is one of the main reasons they use the internet. Online games are competing head-on with PC games, the research found: 28% of users play online games and 24% of respondents play short/casual games on a social network.
And at 27%, women are more likely to play online games and social games than men (22%)
Tom Smith, managing director of Trendstream, said: “Women are particularly attracted to short, casual games involving an active community like Farmville, Cafe Wars or Pet Society.
“Women also spend more time on social networks in general. Social games are accessible, free and they don’t take up much time. Plus they are distributed through the network, which is a key factor driving their take up.”
Playing games is now the sixth most popular activity (46%) on social networks, although emailing and sending messages to friends remains the main activity for two thirds of users.
Playing games is also ranked higher than watching videos (43%) on social networks. The UK has the second most active social gamers in Europe at 46%, after France (56%).
While we might have the second most active social gamers, the 2009 UK National Gamers Survey from TNS and Gamesindustry.com found that Britain has more online and console gamers than anywhere else in Europe.
Almost 75% of respondents said they regularly play games, with many ranking gaming as their favourite pastime, ahead of going online and watching TV.