Can Games Build Financial Capability? · Games for Change Festival . 2011 Bilingual portal site launched (beta version) 2011 . Celebrity Calamity Mobile . launched on iPlatform

©2012 D2DFund, Inc.

Financial Entertainment

September 21, 2012

Testing New Strategies to Build Financial Capability 2012 Assets Learning Conference

Washington DC

Can Games Build Financial Capability?

©2010 D2DFund, Inc. © 2012 D2D Fund, Inc.

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© 2012 D2D Fund, Inc.

• Mission: Strengthen financial opportunity and security of low and moderate-income consumers by innovating, incubating and stimulating new financial products and policies

• Focus on innovation, scale, and real-world testing

• Founded by then Harvard Business School Professor Peter Tufano in 2000

• Non-profit 501(c)3 headquartered in Boston

Doorways to Dreams (D2D) Fund


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Financial Entertainment: Key Milestones

2008-2009 First title, Celebrity Calamity, launched 2009 Celebrity Calamity wins Horizon Award 2009-2010 Four additional titles developed and launched 2010 Financial Entertainment Portal launched (April) 2010 RAND-sponsored Congressional briefing (Nov) 2009-2011 Distribution strategy tests 2011 American Banker reports on fin. institution collaboration 2011 Farm Blitz wins EIFLE award, is finalist for Direct Impact award -

Games for Change Festival 2011 Bilingual portal site launched (beta version) 2011 Celebrity Calamity Mobile launched on iPlatform 2011 250,000 Portal Visits in 18 months (September) 2011 President’s Council on Financial Capability (Nov) 2011 AFCPE Outstanding Education Program of the Year (Nov) 2011 NEEBC Best Practices Award – Staples (Dec) 2012 Boston Globe article on Staples/NY Life collaboration (Feb) 2012 NYLRS wins an Eddy Award for the Staples Bite Club project (Mar) 2012 Staples invited to White House event on Financial Capability (May)


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• Popular – 72% of Americans play video games – Bejeweled – copy sold every 4.3 seconds – Angry Birds – 700MM Downloads – FarmVille: 83MM active users (2010)

• Accessible – Casual games can be learned quickly, played

for minutes or hours – Inexpensive entertainment, often free – Smartphone / Facebook play growing fast

• Non-traditional player – Average social gamer: 43-year-old female – 74%+ of casual game buyers are women – 35% of social gamers have no previous video

game experience

Sources: NPD Group, August, 2008; ESA, 2009; Tech-Crunch

Why Casual / Social Games?


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Video Games: Four Main Elements of Learning

Learning to Learn

Games teach users how to play as they pass through each level by introducing new concepts or degrees of difficulty

Levels are just hard enough for the user that they encourage learning and adaptation of new skills, evolve in complexity and result in simultaneous feelings of pleasure and frustration

Practice

Levels allow for distributed practice across time, which reinforces skills

Users can learn at their own pace- games typically allow users to play levels until skills are acquired

Repetition—users can replay levels that they may have already mastered to reinforce their skills

Motivation

The graphics, sound, and action of a game stimulate players, drawing them in and motivating them to learn to play

Users are motivated to win the game, and therefore require that they learn new skills required for successful game completion

Transferable Skills

Users are often forced to make good decisions under stress, make moral choices, take risks, and deal with an onslaught of data

Higher Order Thinking Skills such as problem solving, strategic thinking, and interpretative analysis are often required to play


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www.financialentertainment.org

Library of games – Celebrity Calamity: Manage credit & debt – Groove Nation: Dance budget game – Bite Club: Vampire retirement savings – FarmBlitz: Manage resources to build savings – Refund Rush: Make the most of a tax refund – Celebrity Calamity Mobile: App Store


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Engage Consumers

Cultivate Self-

Efficacy Enable Action

Support Behavior

Realize Outcome

• 350k plays in 22 months

• Average player stays 15-40 mins

• 90k hours of financial ed.

• Double-digit increases in knowledge, confidence pre/post play

• Post-play action taking greater than after written info by >9%

• Offers embedded in-game: players taking action

• Hypothesis: environment is engaging enough that consumers will return

• Hypothesis: On-going play, engagement supports new financial behaviors

Theory of Change and Evaluation Framework


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Engage Consumers

• Will consumers, especially LMI consumers, play Financial Entertainment titles?

• Under what circumstances and in what settings?

• What gameplay features keep consumers engaged?


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– Channels & Partners + Financial institutions + Employers & Plan Sponsors + Schools / Universities + Government + NGOs + Military

Distribution Testing

http://masscontest.financialentertainment.org/partners/masscontest.html


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Deployment Pilot: Fort Hood

• How – Fort Hood “portal” – Tournaments with prizes – Business cards, flyers – Email blasts to units – Public Awards ceremony

• Results – Over 6,000 plays of CC – Over 1,300 registered players – 63% HH incomes < $40K – 14% HH incomes < $20K – Over 33% were female

• Learning – Reaching females both in the military and within military households – Games generate excitement, reach large numbers in short periods


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Deployment Pilot: Ivy Tech Community College

• Approach – Ivy Tech “portal” – 200,000 students; available to all 11 campuses – Two tournaments with promotion:

o Campus Connect intranet system; graphic on Ivy Tech home page o Email to students, with customized messages to segmented populations,

including nontraditional and traditional Students) o Social networks via Twitter and Facebook

• Results – 45,000 visits – Over 4,500 registered users (over 10%) – Average time on game over 31 minutes (49 minutes for registered users) – 80% female, 20% male – 82% household income under $40,000; 52% under $20,000

• Learning – Finding players online generates high response given the ease of clicking a link – Small gift card prizes generate tremendous excitement at a low cost


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Cultivate Financial Self-Efficacy

• Are players having fun? Does the “game frame” reduce stress and anxiety?

• Do Financial Entertainment titles increase financial knowledge and skills?

• Do Financial Entertainment titles promote positive changes in financial self-confidence, attitudes, and values?

• What gameplay features promote financial self-efficacy?


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Farm Blitz Has Impact on Player Knowledge

% Correct % CorrectKnowledge (True/False Questions) PRE POST % ChangeThe interest rate (sometimes called APR) determines how fast money will grow. (T) 41% 66% 59%Over long periods of time, the amount of money earned by compound interest can exceed the amount of money originally invested. (T) 68% 90% 32%Some banks have penalties for taking money from a savings account. (T) 51% 63% 24%A loan (debt) with a 3% interest rate is a better deal than a loan with a 20% interest rate. (T) 71% 90% 28%The length of time your savings is left to grow is one of the most important factors in determining how much your savings will to be worth in the future. (T) 78% 90% 16%Finance charges on debt typically grow faster than interest earned on savings. (T) 59% 85% 46%Money in your savings account should not be used if you have a financial emergency. (F) 71% 83% 17%Finance charges are fees charged to the borrower to use someone else's money. (T) 44% 73% 67%Compound interest is when your interest earns interest. (T) 54% 83% 55%Source: Questions adapted from the NEFE Evaluation Toolkit.

Preliminary Results in Financial Knowledge


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Qualitative Feedback

“This game is really fun. It is like a newsflash in the future. I just know I will be ready to have a credit card…all because of

Celebrity Calamity!”

“I think it's a great idea to play for high scores against others in your military community. I played far, far longer than I would

have otherwise and the repetitive play drilled the recommended procedures…into my head”

“I hope all the other winners are as happy as I am!”

“Why can’t all school be like this?”


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• Farm Blitz was deployed in a low-cost randomized comparison trial (RCT):

– 200 low-to-moderate income Americans – Treatment (Farm Blitz); comparison (online materials) – Pre-post survey responses – Post-only “offers”

• The results were promising: – Knowledge/Confidence pre-post “test” – Take-rate for savings offers, including buying US Savings

Bonds

D2D’s Bootstrap RCT: Farm Blitz


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Enable Initial Action

• How can Financial Entertainment titles prompt players to take real world action related to personal finances?

• What types of actions are viable targets?


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Deployment Pilot: Staples

• Staples, Inc. – World’s largest office products company – Invented the office superstore concept – 26 countries – 90,000 associates worldwide – $25B in sales – Ranks second worldwide in e-commerce sales – Makes it easy for its customers to buy office products and services


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What Do Players Do in Bite Club? (1)

• Players buy and run a vampire “day” club owner role

– Serve customers to earn income

– Diner Dash game mechanic

– Simulation model – 22 to 65

• Players are given offers to make 401(k) deferral decisions

– Club has a matching program for savers


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What Do Players Do in Bite Club? (2)

• Game goal—accrue as much money for retirement as possible by retirement age; since vampires live forever, ensure you have a great retirement

• Once a round at the club is over players can make financial choices – Pay off student debt from Vampire

University

– Make credit card payments on club seed money

– Save money for retirement

– Buy upgrades for the club that improve ability to earn income


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Bite Club Has Three Core Learning Objectives

• Saving for Retirement – Starting early is important; waiting too long can make it hard to

catch-up

– Taking advantage of employer plans and matched savings program can be beneficial

• Paying Down Debt – Paying off high-interest debt and installment debt, like student

loans, is a retirement strategy

– Debt compounds quickly making it more difficult to save

• Manage Current Consumption • Items that you want today can constrain your ability to save for

retirement


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• Approach – Staples FE “portal” – Customized Bite Club Game – No required play, not on company time – Creative Marketing Materials – Strong Social Marketing

• “Staples” Bite Club

– Game Characters: Werewolf stapler, Staples vampire, Customized avatar back-story with a Staples flavor

– Staples and NYLRS branding throughout – Staples Easy Button, NYLRS Coffee Mug, etc. – with links outside the game to more information

– Additional game cues: Open Enrollment banner in the day-club on Staples calendar

• Opportunities to take real world action “in-game”


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Staples: Marketing


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• Pilots – Staples FE portal for all employees – Newly Eligible Postcard Mailing – Two-District tournament – Soft-launch around Halloween 2011

• Results – Strong Interest: Over 9,600 visits to game from over 7,500 visitors – Strong Direct Mail Response: 3.5-4.5% response rate to postcards – Strong Tournament Response: 80% response rate in two District pilot – Evidence of Action-Taking: ~11% of “newly eligible” postcard recipients took a

positive action

• Learning – Staples employees revealing demand for financial entertainment with

prompting from in-store marketing and non-required play – Play is occurring across geographies – Players trying out other games – Farm Blitz, Celebrity Calamity

• Current projects – Deployment of enhanced “Staples” Bite Club game customized to include

Health Savings Accounts – Broaden distribution throughout the company to other employee groups


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Support Sustained Behavior Change

• How can Financial Entertainment titles support the adoption of ongoing positive actions?

• What attributes does a game library need to sustain an ongoing relationship with players?

• Can Financial Entertainment titles contribute to the

development of new and sustained financial behaviors that benefit consumers?


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Realize Positive Economic Outcomes

• Increase savings • Reduce debt • Improve retirement savings • Reduce “mistakes” like fees


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Looking Ahead

D2D’s agenda moving forward:

• Expand library – continue to develop games that address timely, important topics of relevance to financially vulnerable consumers

• Extend reach – bring this innovation to many more players via platform extensions, especially into mobile and onto Facebook

• Change behavior – leveraging the duration of play times, link game play to real world action-taking, thereby improving consumers’ financial capability

• Pursue sustainability – test scale strategies via distribution in military, private employer and community college channels

• Innovate - explore the application of game mechanics in the real world (e.g., “gamification”), the next frontier of financial entertainment innovation


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Contact Information

Nick Maynard Director of Innovation [email protected] 617.541.9063 @FinEntertainmnt www.d2dfund.org www.financialentertainment.org www.celebritycalamitymobile.org

http://www.d2dfund.org/

http://www.financialentertainment.org/

http://www.celebritycalamitymobile.org/


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Financial Entertainment Portal & Game Trailers

– Financial Entertainment Portal Web Site + First generation site at www.financialentertainment.org + Prototype second generation site at:

http://nclr.financialentertainment.org/

– Trailers for FE games can be viewed at: + http://financialentertainment.org/trailer/biteclub + http://financialentertainment.org/trailer/celebritycalamity + http://financialentertainment.org/trailer/farmblitz + http://financialentertainment.org/trailer/groovenation + http://financialentertainment.org/trailer/refundrush

– Player interviews can be viewed at: + http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grFXti4yzr8

http://www.financialentertainment.org/

http://nclr.financialentertainment.org/

http://financialentertainment.org/trailer/biteclub

http://financialentertainment.org/trailer/farmblitz

http://financialentertainment.org/trailer/refundrush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grFXti4yzr8

Documents

Can Games Build Financial Capability? · Games for Change Festival . 2011 Bilingual portal site launched (beta version) 2011 . Celebrity Calamity Mobile . launched on iPlatform