So in fairly awesome news our client SELF got a letter from the White House for SELF Workout in the Quad. The college selected for it was based on a competition in our game SELF Workout in the Park.

Yesterday SELF received a personal letter from Michelle Obama on ‘The White House’ letterhead — which we will be reading on center stage today at American University in Washington at SELF’s first ever ‘Workout on the Quad’.

Mrs. Obama congratulated SELF Magazine on promoting health and wellness across our country — as it dovetails with her defining mission as First Lady. She stated that she was grateful to both the magazine and the social game because   — “by promoting physical fitness through an interactive experience, SELF is changing the way its readers approach what it means to lead a healthy lifestyle, and for that I am incredibly grateful”.

More on this Monday.

It’s the New Year and SELF Workout in the Park is still making headlines.

Yesterday, in an article titled Self Magazine Refocuses for a Younger Audience, the New York Times had a lot to say about SELF redirecting itself towards youth culture. Some key bits read as such:

The brand has also licensed its name to a new line of fitness gear including yoga mats and kettlebells and is considering extending that to healthy food products. Self is also capitalizing on its annual event, “Self Workout in the Park,” by announcing a college-themed contest, “Self Workout on the Quad,” where college students who participate most heavily with the Facebook “Workout in the Park” social game can win an event at their school.

 

Self Workout on the Quad is a contest in which participants in he social game compete to bring the real life SELF Workout in the Park to their school.  Talk about an incredible synergy! The contest helps expand the reach of the social game and bring in a new demographic for the real world event it is based on. It’s another example of how SMERC is helping to pioneer transmedia marketing.

SMERC’s Brian Wane is speaking today at the Social Media Club on the panel “Gamification and Social – Come Level Up”. Come out and support us!

Social Media Club, Inc.
Thursday, January 17, 2013 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (CST)
New York, NY

Event Details
Gamification has gained the attention of companies around the world as an effective means of increasing customer and employee engagement, loyalty and adoption. But yet many people still see gamification as just another buzzword in marketing. Join Social Media Club NYC to learn more about gamification and behavior management from leading strategists – and why some believe gamification has the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate, learn, collaborate, work and live our every day lives.
Guests include:

Paul Hearing, Sr. Producer at Badgeville
Brian Wane of SMERC http://www.smerc.com/
Others to be announced.

Light refreshments will be served.
1/17/13 Arrive at 6pm for networking, 6:30 panel.

Thank you to PR Newswire as our new venue host.

Venture Beat recently published an article about game company acquisitions and investment – “Game acquisitions set new record at $4B in 2012, but investments tumble 57 percent“. You can see form the title that the acquisition part of the story is great news for the industry while the funding aspect is a bit discouraging.

Publisher and investor appetite in the gaming market seems to be diminishing as social games are losing their get rich quick luster. However, there there appears to be a new hero – crowdfunding. I’m sure you’ve all had a friend hit you up to contribute to their Kickstarter campaign to make that limited edition set of drink coasters the world has been waiting for complete with the repeated Facebook posts and the “we’re-almost-there’s”. What’s amazing is that it’s turning out to be a legitimate source for real funds for games. Lickstarter alone now generates 6 percent of game investment!

“Kickstarter, meanwhile, complemented VC investments. The crowdfunding site account for 6 percent of all investment ($49 million, excluding board games). Kickstarter was 63 percent focused on PC games and 23 percent on hardware. About 87 percent of the value was in just 7 percent of the projects, such as Ouya, which raised $8 million for its Android game console.”

While most of these Kickstarter projects are for relatively modest sums a growing number are breaking out and raising significant sums. In February of last year Double Fine Productions turned to Kickstarter and destroyed their $400,000 goal to raise $3.3 million. It set the gaming community ablaze.

Then in November the creators of Wing Commander raised a devasting $5.7 million. Here is a summary from Kotaku.

$3,821,900 of that comes from direct contributions on the Roberts while Kickstarter accounts for the other $1,910,818.

Almost more amazingly – the game is is a PC space sim! So both of these examples are from very well established game developers that made their names on games that are more or less cultural icons. It is debatable whether or not this level of funding will be reachable for less well known developers.

Only time will tell to see if the trend continues and if crowdfunding will become the dominant form of game investment. Either way, it is a fantastic development that is evolving the game market is ways no one would have predicted 2 years ago. The public will give to play the games they want.

Fun facts about how social media is killing us from Social Media at Work. But it is a sweet death.

How social media drain productivity.

One, two, tree!!! Play our halloween game Timber Terror for a fright!

SMERC's Halloween Timber Terror

Here are some handy dandy statistics on who is playing social games in 2012.

Infographic to the rescue courtesy of Social Buzz Blog:

Infographic: Social Gaming Demographics 2012

Hot off the presses! Our blow by blow discussion of the groud breaking social game SELF Workout in the Park. How we brought the first major publishing brand to the social gaming space.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE JUICY DETAILS.

As we’ve reported SELF Workout in the Park mobile which is the companion to the Facebook game has launched. Check out the new review of our on Games.com.

Nutrition mini-game

Self Workout in the Park puts mobile gamers to work on iPhone, iPad

This mobile version of the social game of the same name brings many of the same concepts over to a smaller screen, like mini games that are fitness and health-themed. But perhaps the most interesting features are those that drive players to make a change in their lifestyle, like the My Goals feature. This keeps track of players’ real-life goals, rewards them for staying the course and makes it possible for players to motivate their friends to join in on the action.

Read all about it on Games.com!

How It Works

Chase and Living Social are awarding small businesses $250,000 grants.

Help us receive 250 votes on the Mission: Small Business℠ page to get closer to qualifying for a $250,000 Grant. After clicking “Support” on the home page, look for our business and vote for us!

What We’re Making

We are building a location based gaming infrastructure that will be used to gamify events and real world activities. The goal of our platform is to bring together people and places through play.

Our first use of this will be to create a real world gaming festival that involves the businesses and community of Williamsburg Brooklyn.

We are making the future happen now in a way no one else is.

Here is an example of how local businesses would be able to participate in a Local Scavenger Hunt. Players will download a list of clues for local destinations.

When they think they are at the correct location for a clue (most likely a local business) they will check in via their phone and receive notification if they are correct.

When the player completes the scavenger hunt they could earn a prize or coupon from a local business such. Player’s will reconnect with the neighborhood in an exciting way and business will have a chance to be introduced to new customers.

While there are other location based services out there, none do what we propose in a way that so directly engages and excites the players and the community.

Vote For Us by Midnight June 3oth 

So help us win. Help us bring promise to other startups. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Go to the chase mission small business website.
2. Click the “login and support” button in the lower right corner on the homepage.
3. Enter “SMERC” into the business name field and click Search.
4. Vote!

Enter "SMERC" and hit "SEARCH"

Thank You!

Thank you. This will be our next great leap forward and we’re excited about what we will do for gaming and our neighborhood.

Thanks for your support!