According to the Game Developers’ Association of Australia the video games industry is now “double the size of the box office and more than 40 per cent larger than the movie disc industry in Australia”. Video games have gone mainstream and the average age of players in Australia is 30 years old and 46% are female. So why are games so popular and what can they teach us about marketing and customer engagement?

I am sure you all read recently of the $6 billion bid from Google to the 'group discount local buying' online community called 'Groupon', as in 'Group', 'Coupon'.

The world of the market researcher has been challenged by the social media phenomenon. That's the polite interpretation. "Turned upside down" is probably closer to the mark. The ability for more research to be done, more quickly and less expensively with willing online participants seems irresistible and often makes traditional research look, well, just irrelevant. So it is not surprising that we have seen traditional market researchers bunker down into a defensive position.

So-called Voice of the Customer programs have become a hot topic. According to our friends at Communispace, search results from Amazon.com reveal more than ten times the amount of material about voice of the customer than was available fifteen years ago. In 1993, there were thirty three books published on the voice of the customer; since the new millennium there have been on average thirty-three books a month published on the same topic.

Managing online communities takes an interesting blend of strategy, social intelligence and diplomacy. One of the biggest challenges facing any community manager is to understand what motivates people to participate in their particular community given the relentless competition for attention from other channels.

As practitioners in the customer feedback game, we are only too aware of customer voices falling on deaf ears. And with the explosion of social media the imbalance between "user generated content" vs "enterprise generated action" has become the herculean challenge. Which is why any mechanism that enables an organisation to listen more effectively is, well frankly, gold.

Recently we talked about the NPS-relevant study that shows how detractors (evidenced by the fact they leave as customers) influence those close in their social network to also defect.

This TED talk, Listening to Global Voices by Ethan Zuckerman is something of wake-up call. It is very easy for us - especially the digital us - to imagine that a global internet infrastructure means that we are all somehow automatically connected and gaining a broader worldview.

In our NPS self-improvement efforts we read a lot of literature on the intersection of social networks and marketing and especially we take note of studies that use data from mobile telephone operators. Why? 

Resonate is pleased to announce the appointment of Darren Sharp as Senior Consultant, Community Management. Darren brings with him years of consulting and research experience in social media, online communities and user-led innovation. He has been particularly active most recently in the Gov 2.0 space working with a range of high-profile public sector clients on community engagement projects. Over to Darren who'd like to share his thoughts on some of the latest news related to customer co-creation activities. Jeff