Financial Entertainment

1. Financial Education Innovation: Financial Entertainment September 27, 2011 Engaging and Empowering Youth

2. Founded in 2000 by Harvard Business School Professor Peter Tufano Non-profit 501(c)3 headquartered in Roxbury, Massachusetts Mission: increase access to financial services, especially asset-building tools, for working-poor Americans Focus on innovation, scale, and real-world testing Doorways to Dreams (D2D) Fund

3. Agenda • Video Games and Financial Education • Financial Entertainment: D2D’s Innovation • Game Walk-Through: Farm Blitz • Distribution Partnerships • Summary and Next Steps

4. Financial Education Poses Challenges

5. Video Games • Popular • 72% of Americans play video games • A copy of Bejeweled is sold every 4.3 seconds • FarmVille has over 69 million active users • Accessible • Casual games can be learned quickly, played for minutes or hours • Inexpensive form of entertainment • Play on mobile devices growing fast Sources: NPD Group, August, 2008; ESA, 2009; Tech-Crunch

6. Video Games are… • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU • Addicting…. • So might as well make it good for you..

7. Agenda • Video Games and Financial Education • Financial Entertainment: D2D’s Innovation • Game Walk-Through: Farm Blitz • Distribution Partnerships • Summary and Next Steps

8. D2D’s Vision: Financial Entertainment • Working with and for lower-income Americans, D2D’s vision includes: • Engaging new media • Leading with fun to reduce anxiety • Building financial capability • To achieve this vision, D2D is currently working on: • Development – developing new financial entertainment • Distribution – testing channels to deliver financial entertainment to millions in a sustainable fashion • Evaluation – identifying research opportunities to measure impact, especially behavior change • Innovation – continuous R&D

9. Making games for and with youth Test Test Test • At each development milestone, we probe for: • Fun. Are players enjoying the game? What components of play are most enjoyable? • Learning Needs. What do players know about the teaching topics? What aspects of the game connect with real life? • Assessment. Are players engaged? Do we observe increases in self-confidence? Alpha Final Beta First Playable Codman House, Boston, MA (2011)

10. www.financialentertainment.org • Library of award-winning games: • Celebrity Calamity: Manage credit & debt • Groove Nation: Dance budget game • Bite Club: Vampire retirement savings • FarmBlitz: Manage resources to build savings • Refund Rush: Make the most of a tax refund

11. Disability Inclusive Gaming

12. Refund Rush- Jada

13. Agenda • Video Games and Financial Education • Financial Entertainment: D2D’s Innovation • Game Walk-Through: Farm Blitz • Distribution Partnerships • Summary and Next Steps

14. Today, We Will Focus on Farm Blitz

15. What Do Players Do in Farm Blitz? (1) • Players take on farmer role • Lining up a row of three identical crops causes the crops to be "harvested,” resulting in earnings/income • “Rabbit loans” are how players can borrow money • Rabbits live in onscreen pen, multiply at high, compounded rate, and can escape and destroy crops

16. What Do Players Do in Farm Blitz? (2) • Once harvest season is over, players can pay down debt and contribute to savings • Paying off debt reduces number of rabbits in the pen • Players may also buy trees for their farm—like compound interest on savings, trees grow slowly • Players can chop down trees to gain cash to pay down debt • Game goal—accrue as much money in cash account and as many trees (long-term savings) as possible without being overrun by rabbits (debt)

17. Farm Blitz Has Three Core Learning Objectives • High-Interest, Short-Term Debt • Like short-term debt products for low-income adults, interest rate for the rabbits is high • More rabbits living on farm, more quickly more rabbits will accrue • Just as high interest debt destroys financial reserves, rabbits destroy earnings by eating crops before harvest • Low-Interest, Long-Term Savings • Like savings account, trees grow in value through compound interest with a relatively low rate • Like US Savings Bond, trees bought in dollar denominations and redeemed at their value plus interest earned • Compounding Interest, Negative and Positive

18. Agenda • Video Games and Financial Education • Financial Entertainment: D2D’s Innovation • Game Walk-Through: Farm Blitz • Distribution Partnerships • Summary and Next Steps

19. Reaching Consumers via Channels & Partners • Channels & Partners (examples) • Financial institutions (banks, credit unions, investment firms) • Private Employers (retailers, hotels, fast food) • Schools / Universities (e.g., community colleges) • Government: (e.g. Massachusetts state-wide tournament) • NGOs (e.g. youth, asset building programs, VITA) • Military (e.g. Fort Hood tournament for troops & their families)

20. Distribution • D2D’s approach • Financial Entertainment “portal” • Distribution in schools • Different social marketing and outreach strategies • Results • 185,000 visits in testing pilots • Average time on Celebrity Calamity game page: over 26 minutes • Many schools across the US using the content regularly • Organic play in middle and high schools

21. Save Up Tournament 2011- City of Boston • Objectives • Introduce youth to important financial concepts • Open to all youth but particularly through Mayor Menino’s Boston Summer Jobs program • How • www.saveup.financialentertainment.org • In partnership with City of Boston • Play at home, library, or local community center or club! • 1,500 visits in the first week of the tournament • Tournament • Ran August 1st through August 22nd • Winners received certificates and trophies

22. "The goal of the Save Up initiative and Farm Blitz is to help all of the students employed this summer to learn some basic personal finance skills to better manage and save their own money," Mayor Menino said. "This is just the first step in promoting financial literacy through new, innovative means. If kids are motivated to play, they will be motivated to learn too.“

23. Agenda • Video Games and Financial Education • Financial Entertainment: D2D’s Innovation • Game Walk-Through: Farm Blitz • Distribution Partnerships • Summary and Next Steps

24. Summary and Conclusions • Americans face basic financial challenges, like establishing emergency savings and saving for retirement • Financial education is a difficult subject with which to engage • D2D is working on financial entertainment as a remedy to this situation • Video games have positive impacts on learning • Video games create demand for financial education • Build financial capability through player action-taking

25. OR.. Know the audience Show the method Teach the material

26. Next Steps • D2D would like your help to promote the Financial Entertainment tournament: • Visit www.financialentertainment.org and share the site broadly; • Leverage the game(s) in your current work and share best practices and feedback; • Encourage your constituents to check out the site and play

27. For More Information Denisse Dubrovsky Financial Innovation Project Coordinator Doorways to Dreams Fund (D2D) ddubrovsky@d2dfund.org www.d2dfund.org 617.541.9066