GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 3 - January 2008

GPWA TIMES | ‘FORE’ward progress 38 including UTour, Kung Fu, LA Street Racing, War Path and Close Quarters Conflict. “You can learn how to play [UTour] in a matter of moments. Whereas a fighting game may require you to learn a dozen different combinations of key strokes, UTour really only requires you to hit the space bar three times. Players want a game that they can get in and out of quickly and have fun without having to spend a massive amount of hours to get good enough to compete.” Indeed, there is no dearth of competition to be found in the UTour lobby after taking the simple step of downloading the free software. Following a brief interactive tutorial and practice round that allows you to re-take shots until you get them right, even a non-golfer should be able to pick up the nuances of the game fairly quickly, learning how to shape each and every kind of shot and head straight into competition. And once they start competing, the players can do so for real cash. The main lobby has hundreds of players on a daily basis looking to challenge others for “pride” or for money – from as little as 50 cents to as much as $25 or more. “Let’s face it,” says Haines. “Inevitably, guys always want to make things more interesting by putting something at stake. And that’s what skill gaming is all about. It’s [about] players who really believe in their skill and who get a rush out of winning, no matter how big or little the stakes may be.” SkillGround began marketing UTour back in August by conduct- ing mass mailings and placing ban- ner and print ads. Since December, however, there has been a change in philosophy. Rather than using mass- market display advertising, Skill- Ground, which offers a rev share deal to its affiliates, has used a more targeted approach with a number of different promotions with tar- get-specific companies such as Golf. com, Sports Illustrated and Callaway Golf. Online tournaments have been hosted on UTour in conjunction with these sponsors, highlighted by grand prize trips to Hawaii and Las Vegas. The result of this new marketing di- rection has been less overall traffic to the site, but a better conversion rate. In addition, SkillGround, which plans to launch the game ToCA Race Driver 3 in 2008, has begun selling signage on the virtual courses with great success. The ads are dynami- cally generated and can be geo-tar- geted, demographically targeted or psychographically targeted for each specific player, meaning four differ- ent players can be competing in a single match and each one will see a different set of ads on each hole. Up to 10 impressions can be served up at each hole, allowing an average of 30 ads to be seen in a three-hole match and as many as 180 in a full 18-hole tournament. “A big chunk of our customers were coming to the site and playing forfree,which is cool with us, but now we can generate revenue from them through in-game advertising,” Haines explains. “And since this is a business in which we tend to have a lot of information about our players, we can really target each specific player with certain ads, which is a great benefit.” As Haines talks about UTour, his obvious excitement goes well beyond the fact that he has a vested interest in its success. In fact, the 44-year-old seems to be the ideal demographic for the game. He has a gaming background and he’s a golfer. Put those two together and the appeal of UTour is unequivocal. “The best part for me is that I can accomplish shots on UTour that even in my wildest dreams I’d never be able to pull off on the actual course,” he says with a laugh. “I’m a 16- handicap in real life, but a minus- 5 on UTour. That’s the beauty of this game. It turns fantasy into reality, and, to a golfer, that’s quite alluring.” “ T h e best part for me is that I can accompl ish shots on UTour that even in my wildest dreams I’d never be able to pull of f on the actual course” — Michael Haines, Managing Partner of Groove Media — Michael Haines, Managing Partner of Groove Media