Ever Heard of Social Gaming??

The Call of Duty series of games is by far one of the most successful games ever to hit the gaming industry and by far, till date my favorite. I remember when i started playing this game, i had almost forgotten that eating,sleeping and talking to people are also a part of life. Most of my failures in life can be blamed to this  game, be it relationships, education or work.  However, i am not here to talk about how the games have caused failures, but how Activision with its Call of Duty games have created an obsession for gamers, a fortune for themselves and a social media revolution for the Gamind industry as a whole.

Gaming giant Activision has added a new social platform for gamers with Call of Duty :Elite. Elite is an online community of Call of Duty Gamers which also provides hints and tips for players to increase their skills and levels.

Companies have started realizing that gamers now-a-days are not limited to consoles and web gamers like to compete with console gamer s and vice-versa. Gamers can use their Facebook accounts and find other gamers who are using this service.

Gamers can create groups on the website which are very similar to the pages on Facebook and members of the community can track  and compare themselves to other gamers. For e.g if you like playing rifles, there is a whole group for gamers who like to play with rifles. Gamers can join a total of 64 groups and source out for new competition every moment.

Elite is currently available on consoles, mobile apps and web browsers and works with all Call of Duty games and has four main sections which include

• Career
• Connect
• Compete 
• Improve

Elite is mostly free, however premium membership is needed to get the full functionality and access to some special features and is slated for release in November.

Heres a Video explaining of how this works :

Also you can have a look at the website below. Its quite impressive i must say:

http://www.callofduty.com/elite

I am definitely Jumping on this one once i get my hands on the new game which is slated for release.

Looking forward to your comments!!

CAR TOWN!!

I've owned my 2008 Honda Civic for 3 years. It's the first Honda I've owned and I am hooked. I love the tight handling, power, solid design and the overall quality feel. Its one of the best machines i have owned and cannot stop loving to drive it. Its a different feel. At the time it was launched in India, it was every teenagers dream car during that time.

Honda has been quite good with its advertising overall all over the world. To launch its 
latest sport hybrid coupe, the Honda CR-Z, Honda launched a facebook game called Car Town. Its a interactive game somewhat on the lines of Farmville and Cityville which allows players to use virtual currency and to purchase,customise and store hundreds of vehicles and build and maintain their own virtual garages. Players can take these ehicles to race,complete roadtrips to earn points and buy additional vehicles and car related products.

I was quite fascinated with this concept and decided to give this game a try. Let me tell you ,it was quite impressive and addictive, i found myself washing cars,racing and fixing my friends vehicles on facebook for a good 3 hours. If your a facebook gamer, and if you were ever addicted to Farmville,you will get addicted to this too.

In order to promote the CR-Z, Honda car town developers added clickable ads featuring the Honda CR-Z, such as in-game billboards next to the players garages. Players can click on it and view the CR-Z video and buy one for their garage.

Furthermore, the game version of the car is uniquely enabled to travel to both the beach and snow-covered environments simultaneously, highlighting the CR-Z’s sporty and fuel-efficient capabilities.


Below i have given the link to the game, everyone reading this should definitely give it a try:
http://apps.facebook.com/cartown/?ref=ts

Some Statistics

There are:-
6071049 Active Monthly Users
37,201- Total Likes

I think its an awesome campaign and the execution was great and Honda has created quite a Buzz with this campaign and might have convinced quite a few people to buy Honda Cars.

So have you heard of this campaign before?What do you think of it? do you think it might influence your decision to buy a Honda Car?

STREET FOOD!!!!

The best part about INDIA is it's food and Mumbai especially is known for its street food! The moment you set foot in the city, 'Mumbaikars' are thronged by the smell of the varied Indian delicacies on offer ranging from Pao Bhajji, Vada Pao, spicy Chat, crispy Dosas and above all Pani Puri. The city comes most alive at midnight where it offers people hordes of street side vendors to chose from.

On my recent visit back home I came across a street food vendor who decided to jump on the social media bandwagon and named all his famous delicacies after popular social networking websites. This is just a small example of how social media has had a massive impact of the lives of even the common man. 

On a larger scale, social media has proven to very effective in generating awareness about restaurants, small local joints and the food industry as a whole both locally and globally. 

In the growing world of telecommunication it is important for the restaurants and the hotel industry to understand that now there exists a new range of reviewers, equipped with their mobile apps and social media tools. Added to this with the help of widespread internet connectivity(free Wifi) the every day customer is now able to talk about their experiences-good or bad.  

Do you think restaurants today need to focus on their online presence and what are the different ways by which they can not only attract new customers but retain old ones as well? 

So here goes..this is my first ever blog and i decided that i am gonna give a theme to my blog by reviewing 10 of my favorite things and how the marketers of these things have used social media effectively in making these products a success..well almost..so i hope u guys enjoy my blog and i hope my favorite things also match yours..

Week 1

Apple Products

This is number 1 on my list and i literally cant live without it. Apple uses social media effectively to reach out to its customers..more and more i decided to buy one after being on windows for a good 10 years due to their tutorial and review videos on youtube and also seeing they themed their advertising as the LAPTOP FOR UNIVERSITY jus encouraged me more to get it and now i  spend more time with my macbook than anybody else in my life..literally..and how much ever said about the iPhone is less, it is a revolution by itself. The obsession of apple products can be seen and felt everywhere..if you are reading this,just look around and u will know what i mean. Apparently a Chinese student sold his kidney to buy an iPad2. I have listed the link below if you guys want to have a read

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/06/02/chinese-student-reportedly-sells-his-kidney-to-buy-an-ipad-2/-talk about OCD!!! One of my friend has termed himself as an Apple Wh**e after spending so much money on apple products.

Apple formally announced its official social-media association with Twitter on its new operating system the iOS5.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/158492/20110607/2011-wwdc-ios-official-social-network-partner-apple-twitter-facebook-dumped-single-sign-on.htm

Also social media and apple products are complimentary to each other..something to think about is  whether social media & social networking websites has become so massive because of these gadgets or these gadgets have gained more popularity because of social media and people wanting more easier access to social networking websites..whatever it is no one is complaining and according to me both of them are complementing each other perfectly and proving to be profitable…what do you guys think??