Connecting Mobile Game Advertising with Local Stores

With the growth of mobile market, mobile advertising and mobile game advertising are becoming more and more important. On one hand, mobile advertising is able to deliver relevant ads to targeted users based on their locations and behaviors. On the other hand, as the number of mobile game players and free-to-play mobile games are increasing, mobile game advertising forms one important way of monetization. It is important to increase the advertising effectiveness while producing friendly user experience. Local stores find themselves difficult to keep up with the pace of the Internet. The research on mixed reality merges communications between the real and virtual worlds, which could create a friendly user experience. The author has tried to use mobile game advertising to help local shops to increase their sales and brand awareness by merging the game play with the real items in local stores. This thesis presents a solution to connecting mobile game advertising with local stores. It uses virtual assets of games as incentives to encourage players to view ads and to have purchase behaviors in local stores. Furthermore, a prototype as a proof of concept has been implemented, using QR codes as a portal for players to claim rewards from local stores. In addition, the author interviewed two owners of local shops, and received positive feedback on the prototype

Mainonta mobiilipeleissä

Mainonta mobiilipeleissä käsittelee mobiilipelien sisäistä mainontaa. Työn tarkoituksena oli selvittää millaisia mainostenvälityspalveluja kehittäjille on tarjolla ja miten mainokset integroidaan peliin. Työssä kerrotaan pelien sisäisen mainonnan historiasta sekä mobiilipelien sisäisen mainonnan nykytilasta. Yksi tärkeä osa opinnäytetyön sisältöä on tutustuminen Chartboostin mainostusalustaan, joka auttaa pelinkehittäjiä löytämään uusia pelaajia ja ansaitsemaan rahaa peleillään. On hyvä huomata, että opinnäytetyö ei käsittele mainospelejä, jotka on tehty täysin mainostamistarkoitukseen. Käytännön osuudessa toteutettiin mainokset Unity3D -pelimoottorilla tehtyyn mobiilipeliin. Mainokset lisättiin käyttäen Chartboostin mainostusalustaa. Käytännönosuudessa tarkastellaan myös Chartboostin ominaisuuksia. Opinnäytetyön tulokset osoittivat, että mainosten integroiminen on varsin yksinkertaista ja helppoa mainosverkkojen ansiosta. Opinnäytetyössä käy ilmi mainonnan tärkeys etenkin uusien pelaajien ja näkyvyyden hankkimisessa. Käytännön työn tuloksena syntyivät mainokset Crimson Battles -peliin.This thesis is about in-game advertising in mobile games. The goal was to research different ways of doing in-game advertising and how to integrate ads into a mobile game. The thesis examines the his-tory of in-game advertising and the current state of mobile game advertising. One key point in this thesis is testing Chartboost technology platform that helps mobile game developers to find new users and to monetize their games. It is important to note that this thesis is not about advergaming. The practical part is about integrating ads into a Unity3D game for mobile platforms using Chart-boost. The features of Chartboost are more closely examined in this part of the thesis. The research and analysis revealed that integrating ads into a mobile game is made rather simple by different ad-networks. Advertising was found to be important especially when game developers need to get coverage for their game in order to get more players. Full-screen interstitial ads were integrated into Crimson Battles game as a result of the thesis

A grounded theory of affiliate marketing performance measurement in the tourism and hospitality context

Although the measurement of offline and online marketing is extensively researched, the area of online performance measurement still presents a number of unaddressed gaps, such as fragmented research and predominance of practitioner-driven measurement approaches. With a focus on affiliate marketing in tourism and hospitality, this thesis addressed these gaps and evaluates the effectiveness of practitioner-led online performance assessment. More precisely, the study explores a potential shift in affiliate marketing measurement practices, and develops a theory of affiliate marketing performances measurement in tourism and hospitality. Relying on a grounded theory research strategy, the work undertakes qualitative analysis of 72 online forum discussions, 37 interviews and 40 questionnaires with the major affiliate marketing stakeholder groups from the tourism and hospitality industry - merchants, affiliates, affiliate networks and affiliate agencies. The findings of the thesis add value to both theory and practice. The theoretical contribution of the research is twofold. First, the work furthers the broader marketing theory and in particular the distribution and promotion literature by exploring an under-researched online marketing channel - affiliate marketing - that can be employed for both promotion and distribution purposes. The study provides a detailed description of an affiliate marketing ecosystem and defines the key affiliate marketing constructs. Second, the work contributes to the performance measurement research by developing a substantiative theory of affiliate marketing performance measurement in tourism and hospitality. From the practitioner perspective, the work brings value by proposing a change in existing performance measurement practices and offering a process-oriented model of performance measurement in affiliate marketing, which details the phases and steps that managers can undertake in assessing performance. To further the findings, future research can explore the applicability of the proposed model to other industry sectors and online channels, and can develop the proposed substantive theory to a formal theory by employing other research methods, for example case studies and action research

It's Child's Play: Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food to Children

Provides an analysis of content on corporate web sites that advertise food products to young children. Examines the features that distinguish the online environment, and the responsibilities associated with advertising that specifically targets children

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Utilizing distributed web resources for enhanced knowledge representation

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Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy

The metaverse has the potential to extend the physical world using augmented and virtual reality technologies allowing users to seamlessly interact within real and simulated environments using avatars and holograms. Virtual environments and immersive games (such as, Second Life, Fortnite, Roblox and VRChat) have been described as antecedents of the metaverse and offer some insight to the potential socio-economic impact of a fully functional persistent cross platform metaverse. Separating the hype and “meta…” rebranding from current reality is difficult, as “big tech” paints a picture of the transformative nature of the metaverse and how it will positively impact people in their work, leisure, and social interaction. The potential impact on the way we conduct business, interact with brands and others, and develop shared experiences is likely to be transformational as the distinct lines between physical and digital are likely to be somewhat blurred from current perceptions. However, although the technology and infrastructure does not yet exist to allow the development of new immersive virtual worlds at scale - one that our avatars could transcend across platforms, researchers are increasingly examining the transformative impact of the metaverse. Impacted sectors include marketing, education, healthcare as well as societal effects relating to social interaction factors from widespread adoption, and issues relating to trust, privacy, bias, disinformation, application of law as well as psychological aspects linked to addiction and impact on vulnerable people. This study examines these topics in detail by combining the informed narrative and multi-perspective approach from experts with varied disciplinary backgrounds on many aspects of the metaverse and its transformational impact. The paper concludes by proposing a future research agenda that is valuable for researchers, professionals and policy makers alike

The Impact of internet social networking websites on the gay community: Behavior and identity

The hypothesis of this thesis is that social networking website design can exert a mediating influence upon the culture of a site by supporting certain behaviors more than others; this influence can be analyzed in an active and structured way that takes into account the culture of the community it addresses. Evidence will be offered by case study, demonstration of specific mediations, and analysis. This hypothesis will be tested with specific reference to the gay male community. The scope of this paper will be limited to the analysis of gay-oriented social networking websites as new media, in general and through specific examples. I will present frameworks for categorizing and analyzing these websites that consider the mediating influences associated with site design. In the last chapter, I will propose community-enhancing design. The method of analysis first takes into account the nature of new media. It then discusses the concepts of cultural mediums and mediators in terms of site-wide typology and specific forms of mediation. It then identifies common elements of gay social networking sites and their associated usage as well as the design decisions that are related to them. Next user goals and site goals are correlated to these design decisions. Virtual personas and real communities are discusses as a concept. Using the proposed methodology, gay.com and other sites are analyzed and compared. Conclusions are drawn from the results of this analysis and evidence presented. The impact of social networking websites upon sexual activity is discussed. Finally, conclusions are summarized and recommendations are cited related to what these sites could be

Reconceptualizing the Work of a Content Provider for an Online Audience: A Case Study for How Pedagogical Strategies Can Provide Models of Engagement for Producers of Entertainment

With the interconnectivity of the Internet, and the availability of affordable media compositional tools, the proliferation of online media continues to grow exponentially. However, each day is still comprised of a fixed 24 hours, with far fewer hours spent in active media consumption. Considering the global potential for content to be found (Moreville), discovered (Cormier) or spread (Jenkins), content providers are looking for ways to attract, cultivate and hopefully expand their audiences amid all this digital clutter. In the field of entertainment, this challenge is complicated when small content providers are not aligned with an online, curated network such as Netflix or Hulu. Online education has developed practices designed to communicate expectations/objectives and increase engagement. Although the outcomes/objectives between the entertainment industry and those of online education are quite different, it is possible that both industries could find commonality and share mutually beneficial approaches. Conceptualizing the audience as students might offer content providers a quicker path to assessing what their “work” is online and following a cyclical process of evaluation, as in education, offers a logical and almost narrative approach to data collection and assessment. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this project examines several phases of audience activities surrounding three versions of an online animated comedy series on YouTube and a related official web page: (a) the original version created before an eLearning framework was employed; (b) a second version six months later, where some practices were implemented; and (c) a third version six months after the second phase, which employed more changes. Examination phases before and after the series had ended provide additional opportunities for study. The data suggest that modifying entertainment content with an educational framework helped increase audience engagement in that more viewers consumed content and participated in related creative acts. Viewership jumped after the original episode formats and webpage had been modified. However, after the main phases ended, other Internet activities also impacted viewership. This cyclical, educational framework could be useful to other small entertainment providers who struggle with social media and seek to enhance audience engagement in a cluttered social space