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Water Cooler Games served as the web's primary forum for "videogames with an agenda" — coverage of the uses of video games in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment.

The site was maintained at watercoolergames.org from 2003-2009, where it was edited by myself and Gonzalo Frasca. It is now archived here in full.

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Coupongaming

by Ian Bogost July 28, 2008

categories: Advergames

Here's an interesting advergame for the home solar system manufacturer Sungevity. The game is Solar SFUN, and it takes two forms. The first is a trivia game of the usual variety. The second is a Tetris-like puzzle game, in which you try to cover a roof with solar panels.

The games are simple, but there's an interesting feature at work. By playing successfully, you can earn up to $100 off an installation of home solar panels (sorry, California residents only). Or you can transfer the value, or have Sungevity donate 1% of it to an environmental charity. Getting the full $100 discount actually takes some time -- you have to play (well!) for more than a handful of levels to reach the threshold. Things get harder as you progress, so it's not a foregone conclusion that all players will be able to reap the full reward (although you can cash in a partial reward along the way).

You might call this sort of thing coupongaming. The gameplay functions as advertising and, in the case of the trivia game, nominally as education, but it's real purpose is to inspire a purchase by means of a discount. It's a special type of the genre I've previously called promogames. I'm not sure if I've seen any prior examples of games that literally are coupons. Anyone have other examples?

Comments (1)

Ian,

Solar SFUN is an advergame package that like most advergames, offers an interactive experience or game play with a twist on the game play VALUE PROPOSITION.

We are used to playing casual games were the objective is to win. The best advergames are enough of a reward within themselves for millions of casual gamers to play.

Sometimes advergames offer additional incentives which can become VALUE ADDED components or a kind of icing on the cake. When the game play component is strong, the icing is often a bonus over and above the game play. When the icing is as good or better than the cake itself, then this VALUE ADDED component can be perceived by the game player as a significant portion of the total VALUE PROPOSITION.

In the case of Sungevity's Solar SFUN advergame, the VALUE ADDED component is a discount of up to $100.00. The discount could be given without requiring game play, but the value to Sungevity with respect to the branding effect of its advergame is obvious. In addition, the discount once won, should generate a viral twist for Sungevity. Who isn't going to brag about winning (or saving in this case) $100?

I found another example of this type of "win your discount" within an advergame at Dell's website recently. I purchased a some equipment and when I entered the Dell "checkout", I was offered up to $100 off shipping if I played a very simple Ice Breaker style mini advergame. My son was quickly called to take the helm and within a few minutes we were winners with free shipping.

Expect more of this type of VALUE ADDED icing in advergames going forward. In these instances, the consumer can have the cake and eat it too (up to $100 buck in these cases).

The natural extension of these web based advergames are advergames that are offered on a local basis, in a store or other place of commerce. It is easy to imagine using your mobile device to respond to an in-store promotion by playing an advergame and when you are successful with the game play component, you get a gift, or discount on a purchase.

Thank you for pointing out this nice advergame. Thank you Sungevity for offering us your Solar SFUN advergame.

Tony G.

Tony G. on July 28, 2008 2:10 AM

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