PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 22, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ayzenberg Group today announced the launch of its 2012 [a]list summit series looking at the growing role of social media in videogames. Now in their fourth year, [a]list summits are aimed at senior level game makers, executives and marketers. This year, Ayzenberg is planning three summits under the banner "The Consumer Courtship" in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. The first, titled "Getting Acquainted," focuses on where the social game market is headed, and how game makers and marketers are increasingly relying on social media for audience acquisition. More than 30 companies are represented at the event scheduled to take place tomorrow, February 23, at RF80 Robert Fountain Studio in San Francisco.
The event will kick off with a presentation looking at the growing social game category, with first look at market forecasts from the soon-to-be released DFC Intelligence report "The Market for Browser and Social Network Games." The keynote is being delivered by Michael Pachter, managing director at Wedbush Morgan Securities and host of "Pach-Attack!" on GameTrailers.
The full agenda for [a]list summit 2012 "Getting Acquainted" in San Francisco is as follows:
A More Social Industry
Keynote with Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan Securities
How is the social landscape already affecting the gaming industry, and how will it trend? Michael Pachter, Managing Director, Equity Research, Wedbush Securities, will delve into the role of social gaming and its relationship to all platforms. What does the future hold for publishers and developers building brands in this space? What strategies and tactics are they employing to attract new players, and how are those changing as the category matures?
The Social Core
Panel with John Getze, KIXEYE and Leo Olebe, Kabam
Moderated by Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat
Until now, most social game companies have focused on providing casual experiences. Does growth for the category lie with the core? Richer games aimed at traditional game players could be the next frontier for social games. That frontier might be too big to keep on a single platform, even one as big and captive as Facebook. John Getze, VP of Marketing at KIXEYE, and Leo Olebe, Sr. Director, Global Product Marketing at Kabam, join moderator Dean Takahashi, lead writer at VentureBeat, to discuss the next big trend in social games and what it means for audience acquisition and player retention.
Social Marketing for Game Brands
Q&A with Tabitha Hayes, EA
Moderated by Keith Pape, Ayzenberg Group
How can you leverage social relationships to market game brands? How is a big publisher such as EA adjusting marketing plans to include new channels in the mix? Tabitha Hayes, Director of Online Marketing, Electronic Arts, chats with Keith Pape, VP, Social, Mobile and Emerging Media, Ayzenberg Group.
Social Analytics
Q&A with Dan Webster, Hootsuite
Moderated by Rebecca Markarian, Ayzenberg Group
"Fans and Followers" metrics are just the beginning. What should you measure in your social media campaign and what does the data ultimately mean to your product or brand? Analytical expert Dan Webster, Enterprise Accounts, HootSuite, joins Rebecca Markarian, Director, Social and Emerging Media, Ayzenberg Group, to shed light on all of the numbers you can gather, and which ones can be most useful to you.
Ayzenberg Group founded the [a]list summit in 2008, creating a forum for exchanging ideas about advertising and marketing to youth-minded consumers through emerging media. This year's summits explore how use of social media is going beyond driving brand recognition and directly influencing purchase behavior, an area where the firm is undertaking programs for its clients. Ayzenberg recently bolstered its social marketing capabilities and took ownership of a proprietary analytics platform through the acquisition of social media agency The Social Method.
For more information on [a]list summit San Francisco, please visit http://ayz.me/alistummitsf2012
About Ayzenberg Group
Ayzenberg Group is a full-service brand leadership group that specializes in reaching the most elusive, advertising-adverse target audience in history: the tech-savvy youth of today - the young men and women of "Generation Now." One of the ten largest privately held creative agencies on the West Coast, Ayzenberg has created campaigns focused on successfully reaching and motivating tweens, teens and the 18-34 year old demographic since 1993. Services include strategic leadership, creative, media, digital strategy and production. Client experience includes: Activision-Blizzard, Atari Games, Atlus, AT&T, Bethesda Softworks, Capcom, Disney, EA Games, Konami, Lucas Arts, Microsoft, Mattel, Namco Bandai, NCSoft, Nexon America, Nokia, Sonos, Sony, THQ, and Warner Bros. For more information, please visit www.ayzenberg.com.
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