Zynga Has Our Attention

The world has changed a lot in short amount of time, and the way buying happens has changed along with it. Today we live in an attention economy, and getting your message out can be really challenging. Today we are going talk about how one company is capturing that attention share.

Hey everybody, this is Chris Brandt here with another FUTR podcast.

We have with us Cerisse Velasco from Zynga a global leader in interactive entertainment and a wholly-owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc the gaming giant.

We explore the dynamic world of mobile gaming with Cerise Velasco from Zynga, a global leader in interactive entertainment under Take Two Interactive Software. Discover how Zynga has evolved from its Facebook game roots to becoming a mobile juggernaut with popular titles like Words with Friends, Farmville, and the upcoming Barbie game. Learn about Zynga's strategies in capturing market share, monetizing through ads and custom segments, and navigating the diverse gaming demographics. Plus, get insights into the exciting future of gaming and entertainment.

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Transcript

Chris Brandt: 0:00

The world has changed a lot in a short amount of time, and the way buying happens has changed along with it. Today, we live in an attention economy, and getting your message out can be really challenging. So we're going to talk about how one company is capturing that attention share. Hey everybody, welcome back. Today we have with us Cerise Velasco from Zynga, a global leader in interactive entertainment and a wholly owned label of Take Two Interactive Software, the gaming giant. So we're going to talk with Cerise about how they make the games that keep people engaged and keep them having fun. Welcome, Cerise.

Cerisse Velasco: 0:46

Hi, Chris. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited about our conversation today.

Chris Brandt: 0:49

I'm excited about talking to you. We talked a little bit before and it, um, you guys have so many interesting things going on. Uh, it's going to be fun. It's going to be a fun conversation, but you know, beyond the whole game, uh, fun stuff. Uh, the way that shopping has evolved over time, uh, and, and people out marketing to those people who are doing the buying, um, it's, it's been really hard to get your message out. Um, and, and this is going to be really interesting to hear about, like. the ways that Zynga has really, uh, managed to capture so much market share and, and, and really get people's attention. So before we get to that, could you talk a little bit about what Zynga is and sort of the history of Zynga?

Cerisse Velasco: 1:35

So we've been around for over 15 years. Um, primarily started back in the day, if you think about it, like, uh, Back in words with friends and Farmville on the Facebook platform. And then probably about 12 years from ago, we started with the mobile devices. And so we've actually moved on. So we still have a little bit of the legacy on the Facebook platform, but we're primarily, mostly mobile, basically bringing entertainment to our clients across the world through the power of mobile games. Well,

Chris Brandt: 2:04

and I think it was certainly words with friends is was like wildly popular and I think most people recognize that title and and you started off on on Facebook you say but like Was I you know Facebook and sort of mobile? use that the smart device really kind of evolved together and I think it one couldn't have made it without the other and and now you are just You know, this sort of mobile juggernaut, if, if I might say, um, with, with a ton of games out there, um, you know, did you, was that sort of always the intention to just be this bigger, broader platform with more and more games? Is that sort of like the initial vision?

Cerisse Velasco: 2:46

You know, I think for us gaming, um, is what it's our true nature, right? We're the number one mobile gaming part, our company in the world. Um, and with that, you know, the ability to own your own titles and really grow the business and make sure that we're having sustainability is important to us. We through acquisitions is probably a large way of doing that as well as building custom games that we create for ourselves. As utilizing IP, such as ones that we really seen recently launched with, um, star Wars hunter this year and game of

Chris Brandt: 3:18

Thrones,

Cerisse Velasco: 3:19

big titles. It's helped us sustain our strength within the marketplace so much that we got acquired about two years ago from take two. And that hopefully will get us into our next evolution of what the mobile gaming space will look like and how that console element will be incorporated as well.

Chris Brandt: 3:34

So do you think you're going to end up doing console games?

Cerisse Velasco: 3:38

No, I could, I could see a future where, um, there's a combination of both. And we kind of started that off with our Star Wars hunters, where it was the first free to play game that not only can you play on your mobile handheld device, but also your Nintendo switch. So I think in the future, you're going to see more of those kinds of collaborations, um, between the mobile side of the business and the console side.

Chris Brandt: 4:01

I think I'm gonna have to check that out. Star Wars Hunters. Last time I played a mobile Star Wars game, I got sucked in for way too long. So I,

Cerisse Velasco: 4:09

I just, yeah, that's the problem. I think, you know, it's really brings joy to people gaming just as a whole.

Chris Brandt: 4:16

Yeah.

Cerisse Velasco: 4:16

Um, And anyone can game, right? I think the misconception within the gaming space that it's young kids that do that, but it really is kind of everybody just because you have a mobile device in your hands and there's accessibility there.

Chris Brandt: 4:30

Well, yeah. So let's, let's talk about like, you know, I mean, gaming, you know. When I think about the gaming market, it, it, it all seems so counterintuitive and I know everybody plays games and everybody's sort of obsessed with their various gaming platforms and things like that, but you know, when I look at like music and I look at, you know, the movie industry, it's got so much hype and I'm like, wow, you know, it's like the fabulously wealthy celebrities that make so much money off of movies and things like that. And then you look at the gaming industry and it's like, yeah. The whole, everything else is kind of not even a blip on the radar of the gaming industry. From a revenue

Cerisse Velasco: 5:10

standpoint. It's

Chris Brandt: 5:12

huge.

Cerisse Velasco: 5:12

It's crazy to think that. Oh yeah, it's huge. It's, you know, movie and music is actually smaller combined than gaming as a whole. Now there's multiple different facets of gaming, right? Like you've got your console, you've got your PC, and you've got your mobile. Um, which is more of that casual gameplay currently now, and that actually is even bigger than the console and the PC side together. It's pretty crazy when you think about it. I think it's like 92 billion is expected to be in revenue within the gaming atmosphere, and 67 percent of that is actually coming from the game. from the mobile gaming side. So it's, it's huge. And most of it actually is kind of free to play, which is, I think one of the reasons why you have that accessibility and why people are doing it more because the really investment that you're doing into it is your time. Now don't get me wrong. There's ad supported. It is one of those things that happen. Not all games have that. And some are, you know, solely subscription based. But in the end, it really is something that I like to call, um, found time where it's just moments in time where you can spend two to three minutes here as a parent, as a mom, picking up my kids, um, from, you know, baseball practice or dance practice or every activity my kids are doing. And I had just a couple of minutes before they get out. I can just quickly play a game with words with friends. Um, you. And it's not going to eat up too much of my time.

Chris Brandt: 6:29

Yeah, and if you're not doing that, you should be watching YouTube podcasts, I would, I would say.

Cerisse Velasco: 6:34

Yes, exactly, for sure. This is why I have a hard time getting an audience,

Chris Brandt: 6:37

right? It's like I'm competing with the likes of your games, you know, I can't.

Cerisse Velasco: 6:41

I mean, people love our games. They're spending six hours a month playing games and literally in bite sized portions. So I don't know about if you're a gamer specifically, but me, I think my favorite time is In between picking up my kids and like right in the beginning of my morning, just to make sure like, oh my gosh, like, you know, what's, um, has somebody worth of friends played me so I can play with them back and or at night when I'm just, I just need to unwind for like a hot second.

Chris Brandt: 7:05

Yeah, no, I, it's, it's great. And, and like you, you kind of hit. The, the, the, the nail on the head there because I spend so much time driving my kids from place to place and waiting for them to come out and waiting for them to go in. It's just like that seems like half of my day. I could, I could spend half my day playing video games. You know, on my phone. How about that? Don't

Cerisse Velasco: 7:27

tell my husband. I always tell him that I'm actually working, but I'm testing new games out. So technically I am working. That's right.

Chris Brandt: 7:34

That's right. It's a

Cerisse Velasco: 7:35

fun, it's a fun job. So I can't complain. Yeah, you got,

Chris Brandt: 7:37

you got a great job there. Um, so I mean, it's interesting. I mean, like gaming is super relevant and if you want attention share, that is. The place to go for it really. Um, and, and, you know, we were talking a little bit, um, about how you, you make money. Cause you mentioned it's like ad supported and it's, it's, um, you know, these are mostly free games. And, and I will also mention that I think the other thing that's interesting about what you guys do is, you know, you're generally family friendly gaming content, right? I mean, is that fair to say?

Cerisse Velasco: 8:14

It's fair to say we build games for adults, but I will say if you look at our slew of 150 different titles, we have, um, very brand safe environments. And I think that's why a lot of advertisers want to work with us because there's no questionable content. There's no, um, UGC coming in. It's all very safely built. So I can give my two year old. Sorry. My twins that are eight years old, my game and not like worry about the content that they're interacting with. And that's somebody who's going to creepily, you know, try to talk to them or anything. It's a very, very brand safe space.

Chris Brandt: 8:46

Yeah. And I would imagine also you're probably vetting your advertisers, you know, and having high, high, high quality. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so obviously, you know, like if you want to get your message. And I assume, you know, we're talking, you know, you probably land much more in the consumer marketing space than you do, like, kind of B2B kind of thing. But I would imagine there's opportunity to do B2B too.

Cerisse Velasco: 9:11

Yeah, there's opportunity. I think that probably comes through, like, the programmatic arm of our business, um, where people can access our inventory through multiple different ways, um, not having to do, like, a direct sale with us through the open exchange or through a network. Um, or through our direct sales team and we'll create something for you and you can access inventory based on how you want to, uh, through a, a programmatic set. So there's multiple ways to do it. So

Chris Brandt: 9:34

explain the programmatic aspect of it, because there's a, there's a lot of ways that you, you monetize these games, right? Could you kind of, you know, walk through how, I mean, it's not all just interstitial ads. It's a lot of different. Oh noes.

Cerisse Velasco: 9:48

So we have our playables, shoppable units, finding out. We also have other inventory that you can access on the open exchange and or through programmatic pipes. And so that's an area where we're more of that B2B can play in because there's not a specific commitment that they have to run with us. It really is making sure that. They can target their specific users who are on Zynga, but we may not have a huge mass audience against that specific person. But if you're really tailoring to try to find that unique audience, that's a great way for advertisers to do it within that programmatic. Yeah.

Chris Brandt: 10:20

Yeah. So you did mention one thing like you had, like you said something about like custom segments or something. Is that like you build like a little like activation within a game kind of thing?

Cerisse Velasco: 10:30

Um, kind of. Yeah. So our custom segments that we have are what we build specifically for you. So let's say I have someone that's a QSR and they're really looking to reach that young, um, millennial Gen Z audience, which I think has plenty of those consumers, um, will create a game list based on Whatever games out of our 150 that align specifically with that consumer and tailor a program specifically to them. We'll also incorporate custom units that we build to make sure that the messaging that we're delivering to them aligns with what that consumer is looking for. Um, and so that'll, that kind of helps us create those custom segments for them.

Chris Brandt: 11:08

You mentioned kind of the demographics of, you know, like you've mentioned, you know, people waiting to pick up their kids and things like that. You know, historically gaming was. male dominated and they're like the console and computer gaming world. And you know, that was very tight. We all remember gamer gate and all the, the, the bad, you know, toxic behavior, but I gaming and especially mobile gaming, right? That demographic has shifted a lot, right? Could you speak a little bit to like what that demographic looks like nowadays?

Cerisse Velasco: 11:37

Sure. So like as a whole gaming probably. Reaches about the 36 is on the average age for gaming of that 51 percent of gamers are female and the primary focus where those people live is within the mobile space. It's that casual fun enjoyment that they get from it kind of like as I was talking about before in between trying to pick up your kids from, you know, soccer practice or whatever the case may be. And on Zynga, we actually have 64 percent of our audience is female. It's not to say that we don't have a nice male audience. It's just, we have over 150 different games. So each game is going to be tailored to a specific kind of person and some are more general market. And that's kind of where that. Feathered Alliance. So if you wanted to reach males, like our Star Wars Hunters is like a perfect example. But if you want to reach females, that High Heels example and or um, Match Factory, which is my absolute favorite one and I'm addicted to, that would be like your good female game to go after.

Chris Brandt: 12:34

Well, so I mean that's interesting because like you literally are hitting like the sweet spot in that. That market segment, you know, for like the right demographic for buyers. Cause I mean, and, and, and women are, are, you know, in terms of consumer goods, I would imagine like a very, you know, focused and good market to, to try to hit. Right.

Cerisse Velasco: 12:54

Exactly. I mean, think about disposable income, right? Like that, that's the most important part. You have the decision makers in the household tends to be their mom. So if you're someone like a PNG or, you know, a Walmart, which we did a holiday campaign for, you're literally looking for those people who are looking to buy those everyday products, but maybe also want to, on the case of Walmart for the holidays, make them be the right place to go for your last minute Christmas items, or where you can go get your. All the items that you need, not only your, um, day to day toothpaste and deodorant or whatever the case may at all, but also buy that perfect toy for your child that's underneath the Christmas tree,

Chris Brandt: 13:31

you know, now that we're kind of into this new world and the marketing, you know, like, you know, we used to have ads and magazines and newspapers and there used to be classified ads and things like that. And that's doesn't exist anymore. What do you, what do you think this, the future of, you know, entertainment and shopping is going to look like? Yeah.

Cerisse Velasco: 13:48

Every buzzword that you hear out there in the space when it comes to tech is relatable to the gaming space. So you think AI, like how is AI going to help within the gaming environment? Well, AI is a perfect example of, you know, as a casual gamer, especially when you're talking level after level, and it's only, it doesn't take very much to finish a level. You want endless levels that you can do. So AI can help you. With that. Um, so you're that's another area that you're going to see like technology thrive and make those games endless. So you can always continue to play and you don't ever have a downtime. Another area would be purchasing, right? Like how you can go ahead and purchase products within there. So similar to think of when you're watching A movie and you see product placement. You'll see product placements within in games to the differences in a movie. You can't really click on something to buy it. But in a video game, you can, especially within that mobile space where you can actually click on something like food. I need to buy that product and you can go directly to the shopping cart of whatever retailer that is or go to, you know, a website for someone who's Promoting the new shoe and you Nike your shoe, something along those lines, you can click there, learn more about the product and go from there. So that I think is what's really exciting about the mobile gaming space. Plus, I talked about this previously, but cross platforming. So you have not only do you have, um, your Yeah. Nintendo switch, but you also have your mobile phone and so you can actually pick up where you left off. And that's, that's, I think, the next evolution of where that future of gaming really takes place. And also to, I think, from an entertainment standpoint, um, we talked about this before. Gaming is vastly becoming the number one gaming, um, entertainment game. Vehicle out there.

Chris Brandt: 15:24

Yeah,

Cerisse Velasco: 15:24

but now you're seeing synergies between, um, having actual movies that are being produced based off of television or based off of video games and vice versa. So now you have stuff like, um, uh, Borderlands is a great example or The Witcher on Netflix. That was a video game to begin with. Uh, if you want to talk more casual gaming, you could talk about, you know, uh, Um, Robios, Angry Birds, I mean, there's multiple examples of where you're seeing that synergy between the traditional entertainment side and the gaming kind of marrying together.

Chris Brandt: 15:55

Yeah, no, it does seem like these days it's like all the content is like somehow related to some games somewhere.

Cerisse Velasco: 16:04

Exactly. I think like in, in Hollywood, there's a reason why you see sequels and, um, remakes of everything because when something hits, it hits. And I think within the, um, gaming space, there's so many. Things growing up that people resonated with that. Why wouldn't you take some kind of beloved? Franchise and really bring it to the big screen.

Chris Brandt: 16:27

Well in gaming so immersive I mean, I think you know like you really in some games, you know, you mentioned Witcher I mean like when Henry Cavill left that series I mean like it was just a big really big deal and and like him coming in and doing it You know, true to the books into the game, and, you know, that was that meant so much to people because I think they spend so much time in the game that they fell in love with these characters, and they, you know, they feel some real, you know, attachment to them. So it's interesting, and I think the other thing that's interesting about all this too, is that mobile is getting more. Immersive, too, because the platforms are getting more powerful. There's more bandwidth in these, um, you know, networks. You have, you know, more features, higher resolution. It's just, you know, we've been dabbling into the world of This is just a part of the things we do, and there's just a lot more we can do to help the rest of the world. You know, VR and things like that. I don't know. I still believe that that's still a little bit far out, even though my, my son probably has every VR gaming headset there is right now.

Cerisse Velasco: 17:29

Yeah. I think VR is something you eventually, I think it'll get there. It's funny. We, as a company, we dabble in all that stuff, right? Our goal as a gaming company is to try to, to be in the forefront of what's taking place. And I remember eight years ago when we were building games for Oculus, and it's just like. But it just never took off and you know, it just, it's not, it's not mass market yet. I don't think we're quite there. So I think that mobile device is a good leap into getting as much gaming into someone's hands as possible. And then eventually that's going to come down the line.

Chris Brandt: 18:01

Well, and it's interesting because you, you know, you, the games that you guys produce are not these. Big mega titles. I mean, your parent company take two, obviously that's some really big mega titles, right? And, um, but, but it takes them a huge budget and it requires a lot of time to get a title out. So the risk from not having that land. Is, is really high, whereas some of the titles you're doing, you could take a little bit more risk because they're not as, you know, big budget necessarily as, as some of those, those, those kinds of games. Um, I, I gotta mention that gives you more freedom to experiment.

Cerisse Velasco: 18:42

Exactly. There's I mean, all games are different, right? So some of them that we build specifically, um, of your legacy titles, those are more, you know, year, two, three years in the making. But then we also acquired a studio called Rolick based in Turkey about four years ago now. And And One of the beauties of relic was it's part of that hyper casual category, which is just basically fast turning. Maybe the graphics aren't as, um, as, as, as clear as other ones, but we can turn games around in a matter of weeks, months that it would and we can test it really quickly to see if it's working. If it works, then it goes live and we can turn around, you know, a couple of games a quarter versus before, you know, you may have had 123 games at the most a year. So it allows us to have a lot more volume out there because honestly, you don't know what's going to stick, right? Like you don't know what's going to be in that zeitgeist that people want to play. When we launched High Hills, it literally, um, It was just a fun little quick game, but it quickly had an adoption that people loved and went viral and you just never know what's going to hit. So you have to try as much as possible to get out there and do a bunch of things.

Chris Brandt: 19:54

Yeah, that's cool. And I guess every, you can always have something if you wanted to market. You know, with Zynga, you could always have something that that that's going to work for you. It sounds like

Cerisse Velasco: 20:05

exactly

Chris Brandt: 20:07

out of curiosity. I mean, you mentioned a couple of your your favorite games and you've talked through some some of the games. So one, I've loved it. Like, what are the what are the biggest games that you get you've got out there? What are you like? Obviously, Words with Friends has got to be one of them. But like, what are the what are your top three or five games that you got?

Cerisse Velasco: 20:24

Game of thrones is a good one. Um, another one that we have is match factor, which I previously mentioned, um, one that we are really excited about because they weren't going to come out with a newer version of it soon is our CSR racing game. It's a drag street racing game that has done phenomenal for years and there's going to be another one coming out very soon. So that one's going to be exciting. Um, another one that we have that. Yeah. Absolutely does amazing is our to blast and toy blast franchise or more of a match three ish type of game.

Chris Brandt: 20:53

Uh huh

Cerisse Velasco: 20:54

fabulous It's uh, there's definitely a lot of fun to a lot of those games Um, but if I had to talk about what I'm most excited about Zynga It's probably our upcoming title Barbie that we're doing that to me is it's what I've been waiting for for a fun game That it's my love of a match Three type of game. I think it's what it's going to be when they've seen the trailer so far So that's going to be a really good one.

Chris Brandt: 21:15

Is it is it uh barbie in the traditional sense or like margot robbie barbie?

Cerisse Velasco: 21:21

Oh, no, it's barbie in the traditional sense. Okay.

Chris Brandt: 21:24

Okay. Well, I mean, you know margot Robbie was kind of in the traditional sense too, right? Yes Um, so like what so for you though, like you mentioned that that one game that you said was your favorite What what are your like favorite games?

Cerisse Velasco: 21:38

my personal favorite games have to be Puzzle type of games. So let's say like actually my favorite game growing up was Tetris. So anything that has to do with like moving objects around and trying to fit in the movement spaces Or finding patterns and things that is like my ultimate thing. I'm definitely not a first person shooter I'm okay with words with friends. Those those are fun. But if anything that has to do with matching and or just maneuvering image or Items to, like, make something fit. Oh, I can do this all day.

Chris Brandt: 22:13

So, so, like, what's, what's next for, uh, Zynga?

Cerisse Velasco: 22:17

So, I think for us, really, the next thing, kind of what we're talking about is, um, building more IPs with RECs, recognizable brands. So, Barbie being a perfect example of that. I think you're going to see that as a big push that we're going to be doing moving forward. And then, um, really just making sure that we're building out games that are, Relevant for our consumers. I think that's the most important thing. If we find a hit out there, we think it aligns with our brand, then we'll go ahead and purchase it. But I think what's exciting also to beyond just the game itself is like how advertisers can partner with us, because I think that's to me what's most exciting. Um, because we have all this great inventory, but how do we get it out? And how do we allow other people to come in and take advantage of that? And so that's when we work with advertisers to do that, which is through you know? Some of those hard code game iterations that we're doing and hard coding them into our titles and are just building fun programs around, um, custom games that we build for them, small little snackable size titles and, or just making sure that we're aligning their audience with our audience.

Chris Brandt: 23:22

Yeah. No, that's, that sounds great. So like if, if, if, you know, advertisers wanted to, to find you or people want to find you and you know, where, where's the best place to go to find the games or is the plus place to go to, to work with you?

Cerisse Velasco: 23:35

So I think the best place to go with this is to go to ZyngaAds. com.

Chris Brandt: 23:38

Okay. And now

Cerisse Velasco: 23:39

you can get a good idea of how you can work with us, but also going to to zynga.com to see all of our 150 different titles. That's a great way for people to learn about the company as a whole. But if you wanna do the advertising portion, zynga ads.com is a, is the way to go.

Chris Brandt: 23:54

Ah, all right. So if you, if you need, if you need to get your message out there, that's the spot. That's the spot.

Cerisse Velasco: 23:59

Exactly.

Chris Brandt: 24:00

Um, well this has been awesome. It, I, I'm, I'm gonna definitely check out Star Wars Hunters. I, I probably should. Oh, because I don't. I don't have enough time for it, but I'm going to check it out anyways, because now I'm sucked in and that's how, that's how you get me, um, just mention a cool title. Um, yeah, so it, it just sounds really interesting. I, I know, you know, like some of the games I played some of the games over the years and, and it's, it's been a ton of fun. So, uh, really looking forward to the, all the next stuff you guys, uh, have coming out and congratulations on your success today. Congratulations by being picked up by a take two. I mean, that's obviously no small doings. That's a. Pretty big, uh, pretty big organization you're building there. So that's, that's definitely exciting and thanks so much for being on. Really appreciate it.

Cerisse Velasco: 24:45

Wonderful. Well, thank you for having me.

Chris Brandt: 24:47

Thanks for watching. I'd love to hear from you in the comments, and if you could, please give us a like, think about subscribing, and I will see you in the next one.