Advertising on Farmville

The popular game Farmville, created by Zynga, has led to the creation of more innovative ways for companies to truly engage with their target audiences. This is because Farmville doesn’t simply rely on traditional advergaming techniques. For instance, many advergames feature ads that are easily ignored by gamers and players are not encouraged engage or think about the brand. However, in Farmville, the players are provided incentives within the game to encourage them to interact with the advertising content because it can earn them free content within their Farmville game. Farmville is available to players as a Facebook and MSN Games application and is also iPhone, iPad, and iPod compatible. It has been called a “freemium game” because it is available to players free of cost, but gives players the option to purchase premium content. The game is currently the most popular application on Facebook and has about 215 million monthly users. With these statistics in mind, it is no wonder that Farmville popularity led the way for innovative advertising and marketing campaigns allowing advertisers to reach large populations in a relevant and engaging way.

Users are able to visit various company’s farms and receive items with company logos or colors. For example, the McDonald’s farm offers visitors the option of gaining a free McDonald’s air balloon or free McCafe products to be used within the game. Other brands such as 7 Eleven, Cascadian Farms, Farmer’s Insurance Group, Bing, and many more have created farms in the Farmville world. Another way companies use Farmville advertising to interact with customers is by asking users to engage with the brand in various ways such as watching an ad or playing an advergame and then in return, the company rewards the consumer by giving them free virtual Farmville dollars that they can use in the game. This specific type of advertising is through an ad platform called SVNetwork and has been very successful as far as engaging audiences with brand content.
In addition, the farming theme of the game allows great opportunities for agriculture-based companies to participate in a more creative form of advertising. For example, Cascadian Farms has partnered with Farmville providing promotional deals such as, organic blueberries to all farmers, coupons and organic and green living tips, as well as the ability to speed up the farming cycle. Farmville advergaming has also created an outlet for less thrilling services and brands to receive association with a fun form of entertainment. For instance, there is an option for players to buy virtual insurance for their virtual farm. This can be purchased from Farmer’s Insurance Group, a real insurance company that offers home, car, and life insurance. The goal of this campaign is for Farmer’s group to connect with their target audience using a more fun and hip message. Then, in the future when users are looking to purchase insurance they will remember the company who offered them protection in their favorite virtual game. The company offers players a virtual blimp to fly over their farm and protect them from plant damage.

These efforts are a great way for companies to reach youth audiences in a fun way since younger generations are so active in the social networking world.  Undoubtedly, in order for companies to keep their brands in the minds of youth, they will need to continue to find relevant and entertaining ways to reach the audience and provide legitimate incentives for the consumer to learn more about the brand.