The video gaming industry is a billion-dollar industry and is even bigger than the film and music industries combined. Not just that, but it is also more popular than giant social media sites like Twitter and Instagram.
There is evidence to show how the reputation of the gaming sector is misplaced. Games are played by all sorts of people and they can be stirred into meaningful action. The same was witnessed back in 2010 when Zynga organized a campaign to raise funds for the victims of the Haiti earthquake, raising more than $1 million in less than a week.
Jude Ower has spent half of her life in the gaming sector, creating games for training and education. She realized the kind of power possessed by the gaming community to bring about change. She always believed how games could be useful in other ways. This was when Playmob, her ‘gaming for good’ company was founded.
She quoted in her book Reality is Broken, that she was interested in Jane McGonigal’s theory. She believed that if every one of us had 21 billion hours of gameplay, then we could solve the major issues in the world. One of the world’s most-played sci-fi games is Stellaris. Stellaris receive a massive surge in its player base and has become the king of the spaceship games. However, if you plan to try out Stellaris, you’ll need to learn are Stellaris Resort worlds worth it in 2021.
June had been a successful businesswoman. She founded her company, Playmob by organizing in-game fundraisers. It helped her to raise millions of dollars for global causes. The advantage of this was they it was going to people who were already playing, while the problem is that only around 2% of people pay for items in a game.
In 2016, she switched the business model and opted for a more ethical media platform. This led her to work with some of the biggest brands in the world and build playable ads and distribute them through ad slots in mobile games. Her goal was to make players aware of the existing global issues and also encourage them to make a change.
According to June, they started the Oceans campaign in 2016/17. It included playable adverts that made people aware of the existing issue. The campaign had got a high engagement rate. Playmob has had the opportunity to work with top-class brands like Pepsi and Unilever. Taking advantage of this they wanted to educate players on the objectives of their brand.
The company has worked on specific issues, like self-esteem. Not just that, but they have also worked with the UN on a climate change project.
Jude says that her company is all about bringing much-needed change. Her idea is to educate people about sustainable development goals, which go across plastics, oceans, and climate change to education.
She tells that the process has been a very difficult one as it wasn’t easy to convince everyone. It was only a bit easier when they got the chance to talk to the brand directly.
One of the many ambitions of Jude includes improving their time to market. At the moment, it is around 12 weeks, but the group is working on a suite of templates to make it even faster.
Jude believes that they build a powerful platform. She adds that they not only know what people want, but they are also aware of what they care about. She says that forming an emotional connection is very crucial. This in return helps to build a long-term relationship with a brand.
Currently, the group is planning to switch to a subscription model. As per the new model, brands are required to pay a monthly fee in exchange for an array of services.
What are the pros and cons?
She said that she doesn’t want to go extreme. Instead, she has got better control over the whole thing. She finds it very joyous when games like this leave a positive and strong impact. This is what keeps her going.
So far, the results have been really good. They have got gamers to do 70 beach clean-ups through Pokemon Go. Not just that, but they taught also them to get help for cyberbullying.
In the end, she says that you need good advisers and good people around you to make it happen. For her giving up was never an option. The secret strategy was to take a step back and think of how far she has come in the last 10 years. Even if things are going great, the company at least has made progress.