Noetix Corp. has achieved exceptional results from the DataDome online game it launched less than three months ago through which customers learn about Noetix's products.
The company debuted the game during the final week of April at the Oracle Applications Users Group Conference in Atlanta, at which there were more than 5,000 attendees. The effort seeks to generate qualified leads.
The game, at http://datadome.noetix.com, was played 105,565 times between April 27 and July 12 and generated 895 leads.
“It generated a lot of buzz at the booth and gave us a lot of qualified leads as more people mentioned it to others,” said Ann Markley, vice president of product marketing at Noetix, Bellevue, WA, which provides infrastructure software for Oracle Application users.
“We've had qualified leads from all over the world,” she said. “Since we target Oracle users, every person at that show was part of the target audience. And since people were coming by way of referrals, we wanted, in a fun way, to provide a mechanism for referrals.”
Players must provide name, title, company, phone number and whether they are an Oracle user.
Markley said exceeding a target of 700 leads was “very, very good” for the period of time involved.
“We had quite a few of our new products shipped, and five orders were from the game leads,” she said.
The game cost less than $100,000 to develop, and the average order amount for Noetix products is $80,000 to $100,000. The game “has already more than paid for itself,” Markley said.
She said she would be happy with a 1 percent to 2 percent conversion rate over the long haul.
Creating awareness was accomplished through subscription and user-group lists that included Oracle Applications Users Group lists as well as targeted magazine lists from DM Review; Intelligent Enterprise; Oracle Insight; OAUG Forum, which is the OAUG's semiannual magazine; and Profit magazine, which is produced by Oracle. Direct mail also was used to draw show attendees to the company's booth.
Mailers provided additional bonus codes, and players receive bonus points for referring friends to play the game.
“[The viral component is] not totally exponential, but it is increasing,” she said. “It's still linear and growing. Each person can only get credit for three referrals.”
The game was developed by Magi Group, Kirkland, WA. It does not support the Macintosh operating system.
The game takes players on a journey into the future where Infinity, the black-leather-wearing heroine, needs their help. The year is 2341 and the world is in a state of data anarchy. Business chaos has resulted from too many devices, people and data. The goal for the players is simple: Solve the problem and save the world.
The prize for the top player — to be announced in September — is a home entertainment center.
