Making FarmVille More Profitable

Ok, let me throw in a disclaimer before I move on with this blog. I’m not a fan of FarmVille. There, now I’ve said it. But that doesn’t mean the people who conceptualized and designed it and other games like it aren’t making decent money. Game developing for social networks is one of those niche side-careers you might find yourself in after starting out working in web design and development. And because of its current popularity and significant anticipated growth, chances are people who are skilled at developing games and applications for social networks and smart phones will continue to make good money well into the future.

This in mind, I was still shocked at all the marketing implications of a game like FarmVille. I learned a lot from this recent tech article in the New York Times called "For Farmville Players, a Crop from a Real Organic Farm." The first thing I learned was that about 20 million people play FarmVille. I knew the game was popular, but not 20-million-strong popular. That’s a huge captive audience ripe for advertising. Then I learned that FarmVille players are able to spend real money — their hard-earned American greenbacks — to buy virtual goods and services on FarmVille (which is otherwise free to play). You may have seen a similar capability on Facebook. People use Facebook for free, but on people’s birthdays or "just because," you can send them a virtual "gift" for a low price. While I personally think this is lame (because I’d rather receive a real gift), if even a fraction of Facebook’s millions of users bought one every now and then, some serious cash is being made.

But check this out. Now FarmVille is actually allowing real-life companies to embed their brand on its make-believe produce. The Times article goes on to say that this month FarmVille will allow its players to plant "an organic blueberry crop from Cascadian Farm, a subsidiary of General Mills." So not only are they promoting education on organic farming to FarmVille users, but Cascadian Farm is also getting exposure. (I’m sure whoever produces FarmVille is making a pretty penny off providing that exposure, too). Cascadian Farm execs said in the article that they hope the company can "expand its food niche and make itself better known by increasing awareness among FarmVille’s audience."

Now who would have thought a simple game application like FarmVille could generate money in so many other ways besides sideline web advertising? It boggles the mind.