GameZone Inc. is a growing company in digital interactive entertainment. It started its business in the video gaming industry in 2009 in San Francisco. Some of their related projects:https://pocketgems.com/ (Links to an external site.) https://www.supergiantgames.com/ (Links to an external site.)https://cloudcade.com/ (Links to an external site.)

• Mission – To inspire the world to play.
• Desires a global reputation as the leader of the video game industry
• Develops and delivers games, content, and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices, and personal computers.
• Over 30 million registered players globally.
• It is recognized for brands in sports games, strategic games, zombie games, etc.
• Requests to incorporate feedback from customers
• Sells both online and directly through retailers (such as Target and Walmart), which helps keep better consumer trends.
• It looks for positive publicity and a greater market in the U.S. and around the world.

They have three main beliefs:

• Creativity: Striving to bring imagination, original ideas, and excitement to everything they do.
• Pioneering: Acting with the curiosity and courage it takes to experiment, innovate, and lead.
• Passion: They are at their best when they pursue what they love while having fun doing it.

Although the company's market share and revenue are not bad, they have no clear marketing strategy. They mainly focus on word of mouth based on their products' variety, price, quality, and after-sales services. Now, they have decided to take advantage of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). Therefore, they have invited four marketing consulting groups to develop a sound online marketing strategy. In this game, the four consulting teams describe four different approaches as follows:

Approach 1: Customer-centered approach: Viral marketing and crowdsourcing

This consulting team needs to explain how this company can take advantage of viral marketing and crowdsourcing to improve the quality of products/services, come up with new ideas, reduce errors and bugs, and increase revenue. It would help if you described your proposing strategies for viral marketing. Why could crowdsourcing be a promising way to influence organizational performance? Give one example of a crowdsourcing project that best matches the company.

Approach 2: Network-centered approach: Influencer marketing

This consulting group needs to focus on the influencer marketing approach. You need to explain how the company can use influencer marketing to get more followers and likes, increase the number of actual users, and improve revenue. It will help if you articulate your plan. For example, which influencer (s), celebrity (ties), or Viner (s) will you pick? Why? How will this choice affect the company's bottom lines?

Approach 3: SM- centered approach: Social media (SM) platforms and social media management tools

This consulting team needs to convince the management that the best way to improve marketing and advertising activities, enhance reputation, elevate brand awareness, retain and manage current customers, attract potential customers, and increase revenue is by choosing the best social media platforms. It would then help if you highlighted that the company should use SM tools to manage and harmonize the SM channels. You need to explain what social media is the best option for them. Why? What tools do they need to use to manage them? How to draft their SM policies?   

Approach 4: Online word-of-mouth approach: Outrageous marketing approach

This consulting group needs to provide enough evidence to convince the management that being outrageous is the best marketing approach. For instance, you can use competitive analysis to show some successful outrageous strategies. Why do other companies (in a related or unrelated industry) use this approach? What are the advantages and possible risks associated with this approach? You also need to either draft your idea about your outrageous plan and describe it or prepare a short video (or any multimedia materials) to offer your solution practically.

Deliverables in this role-play (what to include in your report):  

1. Each student needs to pick one of the mentioned solutions. 
2. Then, you should explain why you picked that solution? You can provide solid reasoning, describe your proposal, identify the primary plan to implement that proposal, and show some supporting documents, analyses, statistics, and materials.
3. Desirable format:
   • Introduction: a very brief explanation about the company and the problem they faced
   • Body: describe which of the four solutions is selected by you and why? (e.g., Why is this the best solution? analyze the pros and cons of that choice, explain how to implement this proposal?, what resources (such as budget) are required?, provide supporting documents to justify your proposal (such as analyses, trends, and statistics about the gaming industry)
   • Conclusion: write a persuasive paragraph to the company's management team and emphasize that although the other solutions (that you did not pick) have some potential advantages, the solution you picked would be the choice for the company to solve the problem.
   • Page limit: The report should be at least three pages.
   • The font should be Times New Roman 12pt and double-spaced.
   • Deadline: July 16th, 11:59 pm.