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Social Cause Gaming: Helping Millennials Develop Positive Saving Habits

How do you motivate someone to change their behavior to impact positive long-term change? One way is to encourage people to “game for good” by designing a game that changes people’s perceptions and behaviors around a social cause. In this presentation, the Ad Council’s digital team will share challenges and lessons learned when developing a narrative game about financial literacy. Given the changing financial landscape, saving is more important than ever. But for many young working adults, it feels overwhelming and impossible. The “Feed the Pig” campaign from the Ad Council and the American Institute of CPAs encourages young adults to adopt positive saving habits and provides simple tools to help them save for their goals, whatever they may be. In 2016, the Ad Council partnered with Games for Change to launch a Game Design Challenge inviting game designers and developers to propose a game idea that encourages young adults to make saving part of their daily lives. The winning concept Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Your Financial Adventure, is a narrative game experience that allows players to jump between life stages and ages to see how financial decisions have a tangible impact. Over the course of the project, we encountered many challenges, from navigating legal concerns to reducing implicit bias within the game’s storyline to be sensitive to the unique and distinct economic challenges that millennials face. Late in the game cycle, we made a big decision to cut stories and edit the copy to make sure the game embraced the humor and personality that are hallmarks of the “Feed the Pig” campaign, while remaining a useful learning tool. We will share best practices from our experience with Yesterday’s Tomorrow and the Game Design Challenge as well as other Ad Council gaming projects.

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Social Cause Gaming: Helping Millennials Develop Positive Saving Habits

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  1. Social Cause Gaming: Helping Millennials Develop Positive Saving Habits KAT ENGLISH, DIREC TOR OF DIGITAL REBEC C A MIR, DIGITAL PRODUC ER @ENGLISHKAT @MIRSEUM

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  4. Game for Good An effort to harness the power of games and the gaming community to drive awareness, engagement and impact on the critical social issues addressed by Ad Council campaigns. 4

  5. Game for Good Influencer engagement via events, livestreams and co-created content 1 In-game and IP integration 2 3 Media and advertising opportunities 4 Game development to address a specific campaign issue 5

  6. Financial Literacy Campaign Overview Objective Help people get on a path to financial security early. Issue Background Many young adults have amassed high levels of debt that they struggle to pay off but need to be saving for their future. Call to Action Target Visit FeedthePig.org for the tools you need to get started now. Young adults, ages 25-34, in the midst of establishing their spending and saving patterns. 6

  7. Upworthy Story concepts that give Upworthy’s millennial audience positive examples of success and frameworks to implement in their own lives. Truffle Pig Monthly series of introductory content for those who may not understand the importance of financial concepts, paired with a content strategy for those who understand the need to save.

  8. Feed the Pig: Game Design Challenge • A partnership between the Feed the Pig campaign and Games for Change (G4C) • An invitation to game designers of all levels to propose a digital game experience aimed at helping young adults think differently about saving 8

  9. Challenge Promotion • Challenge was announced via the G4C website • Direct outreach to game developers, university game programs + industry groups • Co-promotion across Ad Council and AICPA channels • Efforts resulted in 75 game submissions 9

  10. Live Pitch Event • The G4C Games and Media Summit is an annual event that highlights innovative speakers and creators in the gaming, technology and media space • 3 finalists pitched game ideas to judging panel • Winner awarded $10,000, two runners-up received $5,000 10

  11. Winning Game Design: Yesterday’s Tomorrow 11

  12. Game Development • Kicked off development in September 2016. • Project was awarded to Crafter.life Studios, a referral from one of the competition finalists • We decided to develop using Unity WebGL due to its ability to publish to multiple platforms • Content and stat-balancing were critical elements of the game design 12

  13. Playtest, Playtest, Playtest! • During three NYU Playtest Thursday sessions the game was well-received by students and game designers • Ad Council UX Committee reviewed beta and gold versions of Yesterday’s Tomorrow • Ad Council staff and AICPA staff, volunteer and member network all provided feedback 13

  14. Kongregate Partnership • Currently running on Kongregate’s Beta Program • Typically games get 500 - 2000 players in a week. • Kongregate also offered to distribute via their online platform 14

  15. Game Promotion Plan • Press release via national wire • Custom social media graphics • PR outreach to gaming, education, culture and technology focused reporters and blogs • Influencer outreach • Targeted Facebook ads and Google AdWords campaign • Grassroots outreach via AICPA and G4C network 15

  16. Game Development Challenges • Development timeline was extended by six months due to content review process required for a narrative game • Given the content-heavy nature of the game concept and issue (financial literacy) content took a long time to finalize. • Led with desktop web UI, very difficult to retrofit for mobile experience 16

  17. Ongoing Optimizations • Developing a mobile ad unit with Kargo that can be served as a teaser to users visiting via mobile encouraging them to play the desktop version. • Google Analytics allows us to closely track players through the game experience • Optimizing load time 17

  18. QUESTIONS? Play the game at game.feedthepig.org! KAT ENGLISH, DIREC TOR OF DIGITAL REBEC C A MIR, DIGITAL PRODUC ER @ENGLISHKAT @MIRSEUM

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