Zynga and Honda Celebrate the All-New 2013 Honda Accord “It Starts With You” Campaign
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 16, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zynga (Nasdaq:ZNGA), the world’s leading provider of social game services, today announced its first reward-based mobile advertising campaign with Honda to promote the all-new 2013 Honda Accord. As part of the campaign, players of Zynga’s popular Words With Friends and Scramble With Friends games can earn in-game currency and tips by playing Honda-related words. The “It Starts With You” campaign kicked off on Oct. 6 with the “Word of the Day” promotion in Words With Friends. During the first four days of the Words With Friends promotion, more than 220,000 Honda-sponsored words — NEW, TECH and YOU — were played for gameplay tips. The campaign is part of Honda’s broader “It Starts With You” multimedia initiative for the Accord.
Zynga’s reward-based advertising offers players a simple value exchange: by opting to interact with an advertisers’ messaging, a player receives an enhanced gameplay experience. Rewards offered include in-game credits, digital items and more. Reward-based advertising is already present in Zynga’s web games and has gained significant traction among major brands including McDonald’s, Nordstrom and Fox. Zynga is now bringing this advertising opportunity for the
first time to its mobile games.
“As a leading social entertainment company, Zynga is focused on delivering value to brands through the most engaging and innovative ad products that both surprise and delight our huge player base,” said Julie Shumaker, VP of Global Brand Sales, Zynga. “Reward-based advertising is a concept we leverage with tremendous success in our web games, so we are thrilled to offer our first-ever mobile reward advertising program to promote the all-new 2013 Honda Accord.”
Reward-based advertising is one part of Zynga’s full suite of video, display and sponsorship opportunities for brands. These ad solutions provide brands the opportunity to drive consumer action through the scale, reach and engagement level that only Zynga can offer. According to comScore, five of the top ten most popular mobile games are Zynga
titles and eight billion minutes are spent on Words With Friends and Scramble With Friends each month.
Recognizing this value, Honda looked to Zynga when searching for innovative ways to reach a new audience. Honda’s independent research showed that the “It Starts With You” target audience has a strong affinity for word and puzzle games, making the natural fit with Zynga even more clear.
“Our deep understanding of the customer is what drew us to two of the largest mobile social word and puzzle games, Zynga’s Words With Friends and Scramble With Friends,” said John Watts, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, American Honda Motor Co. “We think there’s good alignment amongst the fans of these mobile Zynga games and the consumers that will appreciate all the new technologies in the 2013 Accord like our cloud-based HondaLink connected car system.”
The “It Starts With You” campaign highlights Honda’s customer-focused design approach, artfully detailing the new Accord’s sophisticated new features, dynamic performance and value. The Scramble With Friends sponsored words campaign began on Saturday, Oct. 13, and features a branded game board. Players who locate the words ACCORD, LUXURY, and NEW will earn a token that allows them to buy more game Power-Ups. The Scramble With Friends campaign will be available through Wednesday, Oct. 31.
Zynga focuses on making its mobile games free, social, multi-platform and high-quality. Zynga Mobile continues to bring a variety of genres and games that reflect its players’ lifestyles and provides them with the social experiences they want — anytime, on any device, regardless of platform. This first reward-based advertising campaign is an example
of reaching consumers directly through the devices and mobile games they love.
About Zynga Inc.
Zynga Inc. is the world’s leading provider of social game services with 306 million active users playing its games, which include Zynga Poker, Words With Friends, Scramble With Friends, Gems with Friends, Draw Something, FarmVille2, ChefVille, CityVille, Bubble Safari and Ruby Blast. Zynga’s games are available on a number of global platforms, including Facebook, Zynga.com, Google+, Tencent, Apple iOS and Google Android. Zynga is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif.
