Videogame Awareness Project
The Videogame Awareness Project addresses some of the key attitudinal and behavioral questions about console users. The study is conducted among 4,000 U.S. households each month, yielding approximately 1,400 console gaming households on a monthly basis. Unlike any other research tool available to the industry today, we talk to a nationwide, projectable sample of game players from age 5 to more than 55, across all the major console platforms. This is a unique sample of respondents each month, allowing projectable real world information down to the most specific set of consumer behaviors and preferences.

• Projectability: Although creating a projectable sample of videogame players is a very difficult and time consuming effort, it is a crucial aspect of our analysis. When we report that x-percent of players are aware of a title or y-percent intend to buy it, we want those percentages to reflect the real world and to be translatable into expected unit volumes and sales revenue. Over the last several years, through several rounds of experimentation, we have developed a technique for building a projectable sample of gamers and gamer households. This capability is a unique feature of the Videogame Awareness Project.
• The Reporting Cycle: In general, the fieldwork for this project will be conducted in the third week of each month. Our subscribers contribute their special requests by the end of the second week of each month; fieldwork begins in the middle of the third week; data collection is typically completed by the end of the fourth week; preliminary results and findings are circulated in the first week of the following month; and a detailed report on each month’s work is delivered as soon after the preliminary findings as possible. In practice, the report and supporting tables have been available during the second week of the following month.
• Client Participation in the Cycle: You participate in the reporting cycle by specifying which titles (your own or those of your competitors) get tested for awareness on each of the platforms. Your staff may also suggest special topics to be covered or special questions to be asked. This participation is built into the reporting cycle as a fundamental element of what we are trying to do. There is no additional cost or charge for this.
• Share of time: Through a proprietary process that we have perfected over the past 2 years, our monthly tracking monitors the total amount of time spent gaming in the U.S. each month, and the distribution of gaming time across various hardware. For example, "Dreamcast grew to command a 6% share of total video gaming hours in the US before it started receding in 4Q2001."
• Gamer Classifications: All the usual individual and household demographic information is available about the respondents, for all the usual marketing and advertising purposes. But we add a special four-level classification to the mix, so that we know whether the gamer is — in descending order — “hardcore,” “serious,” “casual” or “dormant” in his or her involvement with videogames. This is based on defined segments and reflects both overall gaming, consumption of software and may even incorporate console devotion. We have seen over and over again how important it is to be able to distinguish between market leaders and market followers, and this cross tabulation process enables us to do just that.
• Prerelease Awareness: One focal point of each reporting cycle is a tracking of prerelease awareness of specific client titles. We have demonstrated how prerelease awareness builds months before a title’s formal announcement through Web sites, chat rooms and other informal channels. Release dates change -- that is a fact of life in the videogame industry. We measure how title awareness is increasing as the formal release date approaches and how awareness responds to rounds of prerelease advertising and promotion. Finally, we track how title awareness is sustained after initial release, converting awareness into sales. Various levels of segmentation make this a very helpful tool for advertising departments.
• Purchase Intent – Pre and Post Release: On an open-ended basis, we ask our respondents for their top purchase preferences and build a ranking of titles by purchase intent. This intent tracking can then be tabulated by gamer classification, demographic segment and region of the country.  We have developed tools for forecasting unit sales based on purchase intent which have proved useful for internal planning and retailer presentations. Obstacles to sales success in the market, (e.g., a title that has purchase interest from player groups that are not served by the stores ordering the title), can be identified and addressed.
• Asset Management: Feedback on prerelease awareness and purchase intent from the Videogame Awareness Project has several times been integral in managing the launch of a given title and its subsequent sales. We think of this as Entertainment Asset Management -- because after all, the Company has several years and many millions of dollars of effort invested in each title as it comes to market, which is obviously a significant financial and business asset. Our goal is to contribute to managing that asset for the best financial results.
• Industry Topics: The questionnaire and fieldwork often have room for the further exploration of specific industry issues. Our survey length is relatively short, so “add-on” questions are a part of each month’s survey. Industry issues are matters like whether parents of younger game players are aware of and have the same point of view about industry ratings -- a topic we explored for 3DO just prior to the release of the FTC report entitled "Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children."  Other topics include adoption interest in next generation platforms, how gamers learn from one another about new games, which web sites gamers frequent most, and so on.
• Behind the Scenes: We have been building a database of results from the ongoing study of key titles so that we can more easily respond to questions about trends or create user and demographic profiles of particular titles. Several database functions are involved, including title awareness, titles by purchase intent, platform, and user profiles. Tabulations derived from these database functions are available upon your request at no additional cost.
• Briefings and Reviews: We want to meet you at least once a quarter to discuss results, methodologies, and improvement opportunities. Typically, we start these sessions by presenting our observations and interpretations of project results to you and other members of your marketing and sales teams you may invite. Of course, we also expect to be in regular phone, fax and email contact with you as we support this project and respond to your on-going requests and concerns.
• Demographics: The video game tracking system involves speaking to both the head of the household and the primary gamer in that household (if the primary gamer is not the head of the household). This enables us to obtain both household demographics (e.g., income, occupation, race, education, number of people/children in household), and primary gamer demographics (age, gender and type of gamer).