"All My Gaming" Tops Daytime Television For Women

It used to be that soaps and daytime television programming were an ideal way for Rainmakers to reach female consumers, but with more women joining the workforce, that traditional approach became less effective. Today, daytime television is under further attack with the advent of social online gaming. That's right, the majority of 15 million Farmville (Zynga) online gamers in the United States are women 18-50 years old. According to a research firm named Flurry, the social gaming audience on mobile devices now rival that of individual top-rated TV shows, leading many analysts to believe that these social network games are playing a significant role in the 50 percent drop in advertising media buys around soaps and other daytime programming since 2005.

"Old McDonald Had A Farm"

With more than 18 million people playing the wildly popular Farmville social media game, one of the world's most popular brands has decided to set up a virtual branded farm that gamers can click on during a 24-hour period to receive incentives. McDonald's savvy digital marketing effort to reach the Facebook generation is the game's first branded farm sponsorship. McDonald's tie-in with FarmVille began at 12:01 a.m. ET Thursday, October 7 and runs through the entire day ending at 11:59 p.m. ET. The lure for the game's players are virtual prizes gamers cherish. Players who click on the McDonald's branded farm will be rewarded with two virtual goodies, including a McDonald's-branded hot air balloon to place on their own virtual farms. Rainmakers at Mickey D want to reach younger consumers more effectively and establish a greater loyalty to their fast food brand and the Farmville tie-in is just a part of its broader social media plan. For FarmVille - whose parent company, Zynga, is one of the world's largest digital game companies — the Micky D tie in gives it instant, global credibility for a brand that was launched just one year ago.