Branded Content Marketing: I am Playr Beta Review
We believe the future of brand engagement marketing depends on a combination of Social Games & Branded Content Marketing are the next great marketing frontier. They offer a unique opportunity for brands to engage their customers in meaningful way.
A few months back we highlighted “I Am Playrâ€, a game which marries social gaming and big brands such as Nike and Alfa Romeo. The game is now in beta and we decided to see if it has lived up tot he all the hype.
What’s it all about?
“I am Playr” brings the magic of football strategy games to the social gaming generation. It combines the best of social gaming with a very engaging first person narrative experience. I am Playr is where social gaming and interactive story telling meets Championship Manager.
Team Talk
The idea of I am Playr is to work your way up the professional football ranks while competing against a global audience. The game starts with you signing for a fictional football club called Riverpark. Your first task is to train and build up your fitness. The harder you train, the better you become. However how you perform on the pitch is only part of the story as the decisions you make off the pitch influence your career. The right girlfriend or agent can make or break your career. Be careful if Dean the star striker asks you out for a beer!
I Am Playr Store
How does it Work?
The game is free to play, however you can purchase credits which you can then use to buy Redbull energy drinks, new Nike boots, luxury apartments, etc. Yes I’m trying to avoid using the term “Fremiumâ€, however that is the business model it uses.
What we like
- High quality in-game videos with excellent production values such as Football Focus clips
- Interactive storytelling with multiple off-field video sub plots
- You can only play one game every 10 number of hours which keeps you coming back
- The short game time makes it ideal for those mini work breaks
- Basic gaming functionality is cleverly integrated into overall experience
- Interesting video sub plots which add to the experience e.g. players covering up injury
- The decisions you make off the pitch matter
- Great social connectivity which helps make it more competitive
- Free to play
- The odd surprise…
What we don’t like
The fact you can only play one game every 10 hrs (unless you buy credits) does leave you wanting more. A good business idea, but perhaps a little imbalanced — I’d like to play at least 3-5 games before being charged. After a short time the novelty of the in-game video wears off as it starts to repeat. The game play is clunky and the training sessions can get boring. The difficultly of the training sessions also increases rapidly and sometimes the drills don’t work correctly.
Super fan video
Conclusion
To conclude I think this is an extremely well executed online game and it’s destined to become a major success. It’s also great to see innovation in brand advertising. Personally I’m counting down the minutes to my next game.
Good review. I am really looking forward to this game, it just seems great. I have saved my e-mail with this post so if you don’t mind please send me the code. Thanks very much!
Hey Siddhartha,
You can sign up for the game here. I think they may have already released the latest version as you can now speed up rest days http://iamplayr.com. Let me know what you think of the game
many thanks for providing valuable info about the topic. I am a fan from your website. Keep up the good job.
Thanks glad you’re enjoying it
It’s a really great game but the only downside is if you don’t hsve coins you have to wait 10 hours fot the “rest day” to finish because you can’t buy anything that will make it go forwards
I know the 10 hours is a pain. I hope you can speed it up without having to spend so much when it is released fully. Have you finished a full season?
Yes I agree. I see they have now added a cross bar challenge which will allow you to speed up the recovery a little. However this test of skill seems a little difficult.
Great game!!!!!!!
What do you like about it?
Love the game, but u guys can reduce the waiting time of 10 hrs.. its too damn long or atleast on a daily basis we should be able to get say 10 coins or so.. its frustrating to wait and see
I agree the 10 hours is too long. I’m not affiliated with the company. I also hope they get the real game live soon.
there is a code avaliable that gives u 50 free coins but runs out on 3rd june, so u will have to be quick. i’ve already used mine up so im stuck in everyone elses shoes, but i have attached the website to this. hope this is a big help
http://simon-peach.com/2011/05/19/beyond-a-game-i-am-playr/#comment-118
thanks for sharing that!
I like your idea dude. May i know your twitter so i can follow you ? Thanks
sure here is my Twitter account which you can follow http://twitter.com/fluffylinks
nice post bro. waiting for the next part to show up
Thanks so are we! What did you think of the wait between games?
Awesome website you have here but I was curious if you knew of any user discussion forums that cover the same topics discussed here? I’d really love to be a part of community where I can get responses from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thanks a lot!
Hey Janessa,
Thanks for the positive feedback. If you send me an email (click on contact in the header) and I add you to our mailing list. Between you and me Fluffy Links is planning a forum but first I want to get enough people signed up or to indicate interest.
Welcome to the fluffy side of marketing 🙂