Zynga’s Social Strategy

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga as a Social Gaming Company

Zynga.org’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Zynga.org’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Zynga.org’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Zynga.org’s Corporate Social ResponsibilityZynga.org’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Social Networks and Social Media

● 37 mins

● 60%

● multi-devices

Cooperation with Facebook

In the U.S., 83% of 18 to

29-year-olds who use the

Internet are on it, but the

proportion is only 67%

across all age brackets.

However, the 45- to 54-

year-old age bracket has

seen 46% growth since

year-end 2012.

Cooperation with Facebook

Zynga’s Benefits

Sharing and Collaborating

● sending virtual gifts

● inviting non-participants to the game

→ desire to share

→ rank

Snowball Effect

● more friends join the game

● more interesting the game will be

FarmVille 2: without Facebook?

CSR- The Classical Model

Businesses Society

Carroll’s CSR Pyramid

CSV-Creating Shared Value

From CSR to CSV

Zynga’s Social Strategy

A great implementation of CSV.

Evaluation-effectiveness

Evaluation - Why Successful

Clear GoalsInternal

criteria

External

criteria

● Hunger and

poverty

● education

● gender equality

● games more

than 1 million

daily active

users

● big enough to

support the

campaigns

● high

participation

Evaluation - Problems

SustainabilityProfit model &

CommunicationExecution

The “Scamville” Crisis

Zynga were accused of

making millions of dollars by

directing users to scam

advertisers in exchange for the

virtual Zynga cash used in the

game to help them level up

faster and get more advanced

items

“Freemium” model

● Users are not charged to get access to the game

● Users are charged when they want to get proprietary

service or virtual goods

Zynga’s Response

● Removed mobile offers immediately

● Terminated the relationship with offer providers

● Promise to screen lead-generation offer before

placing in the game

Reputation Management

● Zynga’s CEO admitted being a scammer by saying

that they “did everything in the book just to get

revenues right away”

● Zynga “had been scamming users from the

beginning quite intentionally even as part of their

revenue model ?”

Youtube video

● The company would be

better off claiming the

sacm as a careless

mistake

● Pay attention to

discourses starting from

the top

Integrated Social Strategy

● Social strategy an opportunity to

help it get away from the irresponsible

behaviors and build a better image

● should have sought a good overlap

between its social strategy and

reputation management

Donate the scammed money

● Scammed money never

returned

● Less than one third of its

total revenue

Updates and Future Suggestion

1. Go Transparent

2. Define the contribution2. Define the Contribution

Better communicate their

cause to the target

audiences, including its

users, stakeholders and

the society

Updates and Future Suggestion

3. Expand the User Base ● Involve more people into its social strategy

● Create a whole new kind of social game rather than

the Ville series

Updates and Future Suggestion

Half the Sky Movement: The Game

References

Brummer, J. J. (1991). Corporate responsibility and legitimacy: an interdisciplinary analysis. New York, NY: Greenwood Press.

Cutler, K, (2013). “What Zynga’s management shake-up under new CEO Mattrick Means.” Techcrunch.com. Retrieved from

http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/13/zynga-shakeup/.

Hartman, L. P. (2012). “Transformational gaming: Zynga’s social strategy.” Harvard Business Review, UV5288-PDF-ENG.

Hartman, L. P., Mead, J., Werhane, P. H., & Christmas, D. (2011). “Connecting the world through games: creating shared

value in the case of Zynga’s corporate social strategy.” Journal of Business Ethics Education. 8.

Molina, B. (2014). “Zynga bets the Farm(Ville) on mobile.” USA Today. Retrieved from

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2014/04/17/zynga-mattrick-farmville/7689605/.