MEDITA conceives, develops and promotes on-line communities. Through membership in the community, a company can achieve two important objectives: gain the loyalty of its users through interactive and entertaining services and populate a mailing list for subsequent informational and direct marketing. MEDITA has years of experience in the design of on-line communities and games, having collaborated with Cartoon Network, MEDUSA Film, Radio Globo, Music Box Italia, ATMAN and other important organizations. MEDITA's offerings are based on the supply of range of interactive digital content with strong emotional impact.

Among this content, games stand-out as an ideal tool for attracting the attention of children, keeping them on the site for a long time and encouraging them to return to play again, while reminding them to invite other friends to the site.

The release of a game into production is the point of arrival of a work plan where each aspect is carefully evaluated by members of the staff: creative talent, illustrators, 2D/3D graphic artists, technicians, trainers and usability experts. Below, we provide a brief list of the principal procedural steps that lead to the creation of a game.

• Customer briefing
• Identification of the game concept
• Synopsis, subject definition
• Scenery/set design
• Graphic storyboarding
• Definition of audio contribution (music, sound effects)
• Character studies
• Videoboarding (audio, graphics)
• Development of key photograms and intercalations
• Server-side programming (score management, e-mail, etc.)
• Multiplatform technical testing (PC, Mac)
• Testing and usability report
• Debugging and optimization
• Development of e-mail with link to support site or with downloadable version of the game
• Production release
• Statistical activation, periodic sending of tracking data to the customer

The production of digital content for the community is the first step in the communications strategy that we propose. A successful project requires the maximum possible visibility for the initiatives undertaken. MEDITA has developed a proprietary marketing strategy called LUDIC MARKETING.

The term LUDIC MARKETING identifies an on-line communications strategy that exploits games and word-of-mouth among friends to direct the attention of Internet surfers to a site, product or brand. The system, which is effective for promoting goods and services and for information campaigns, is simple to implement, effective and well-tolerated by users. The process underlying LUDIC MARKETING is to entice the community player to suggest the game to one or more friends, creating a viral mechanism that, in a short time and without any intrusive intervention by the company, can generate thousands of visitors.

Advertising mail is generally perceived as unwanted, intrusive and useless. Managing the value-added of entertainment allows overcoming the scant attention given to advertising mail. If to this we add the pleasure that we all take in being the first to tell our friends and coworkers about entertaining games and curiosities found on-line, it is easy to understand how the game can quickly spread over the network. In order to give the developed games that maximum possible visibility, they can be hosted and publicized (for a time, and by methods, to be defined) also within theme sites dedicated to on-line gaming (LUDOLAB.COM).

Some numbers will help you better understand the phenomenon: 90% of children age 5 to 17 play videogames. Videogames are considered to be far and away the "most fun form of entertainment": the retention level of an advergame is 10 times greater than any other form of Internet advertising and 16% to 45% of consumers that receive mail containing an advergame stay to play an average of 20 minutes.

Services Offered

• Community: base modules

A user that wants to access the exclusive services provided by the company will obviously have to register. User registration will fully conform to the Privacy Law (DL 196/2003, double opt-in) and will allow the company to build its own mailing list over time for any direct marketing that it would like to do. It will be possible to define several sort keys (such as: sex, age, city, province, region) and send the newsletter only to users that satisfy those criteria. A newsletter is one of the most effective tools for building user loyalty, inviting them back to the site and stimulating participation to promote initiatives and events. For promotional purposes, MEDITA will offer to send the first newsletter to all subscribers to the LUDOLAB.COM portal for free (over 16,000 players). MEDITA has solid experience in the design of on-line communities, have realized several of the most appreciated communities in the age 9-18 band: Cartoon Network (www.cartoonnetwork.it), ATMAN (www.atmangame.com), MUSIC BOX (www.musicboxitalia.it), LUDOLAB (www.ludolab.com).

• Quiz

Construction of a game engine for managing multiple-choice questions. The system, developed with Flash and XML technology, allows the autonomous updating of the pictures and text in the database, so that users of the site can be offered content that is always new and current. This tool allows the company to offer users continuously new challenges with a general ranking that can be connected to exclusive content or certificates of merit.

• Prize contests

The community's games can be made even more interesting by linking them to one or more prize contests. MEDITA provides a complete consulting service, first dealing the creative ideation of the contest both as regards the technical part and the marketing content and strategy.The creative part of the offer provides: identification of the target of reference; ideation of 2-3 creative proposals; identification of prizes and possible co-marketing agreements; drafting contest rules.

MEDITA also takes care of all phasesof organizing and managing contest operations. Prize contests require a knowledge of the law and the drafting of documentation to be sent to the Ministry of Productive Activities in order to avoid the heavy sanctions for those not in compliance. The organizational part of the contest includes: filling-out and sending the start of contest notice to the Ministry of Productive Activities; reserving a chamber functionary for drawing and closing operations; handling the bank surety bond or insurance company paperwork for 100% of the contest prizes, necessary for organizing prize contests; paying chamber fees; winnings management activities (holding and delivering prizes, if necessary); preparation of closing paperwork; drawing operations; operations for closing the contest and relative communication to the Ministry of Productive Activities.

• Forum

The theme forums are areas that allow for the exchange of messages between users of the site and their simultaneous storage in an archive. It is, thus, possible to keep track of discussions over time, contributing to the creation of a virtual space for sharing opinions. Personnel can, obviously, stimulate discussion on subjects by entering discussion cues, proposing votes, rankings and other specifics, with the objective of keeping the debate “alive”.

• Chat areas

Chat areas allow users of the site to converse with each other. The difference between the two tools is that, in chat areas, messages are not stored and that the discussion occurs in real-time between two or more persons connected to the site. Chat areas are developed with a predefined number of public rooms that can be personalized with the customers brand (the figure to the side shows a chat room developed for ENZIMI-GO CARD). In chat areas, users are represented by "avatars" (small images whose appearance can be configured: eyes, hair, clothing, etc.). Upon request, tools can be created for filing and storing these sessions. An example of a recently realized Flash chat area can be accessed at www.atmangame.com.

• Electronic promotional items

In addition to Flash games, over time it will possible to enhance the site by adding digital content created exclusively for members of the community.

Among the electronic promotional items that MEDITA is able to offer, we consider the following to be particularly interesting:

• Animated electronic postcards. The user can personalize an animated electronic postcard on the site (information about an animal, the description of an ecosystem, etc.) sending it to his friends and inviting them to join the community, too. In fact, the addressee receives an e-mail containing a link and, with a simple mouse-click, will be directed to the site, where he can run the animation and join the community.

• Digital colouring book. Young users (age 9-11) can have fun colouring scenes of animals or landscapes with the mouse. A special collaborative working function developed with Flash Communication Server will allow involving other users in colouring the same picture, giving rise to a collective work that can be stored and displayed in the site.

• Wallpaper and screen savers. Anyone with a PC is familiar with, and appreciates, options for personalizing their desktop. The replacement of the standard Windows background, as well as the use of one's own screen saver, are pleasures that none of us can pass-up. User loyalty will also be conquered by offering wallpaper and screen savers on the site with particular images that have particular artistic value and are interesting, fun, etc., in line with the target of reference.

• Logos and ring-tones. Similarly to what is indicated above, registered users will have the opportunity to download sounds and pictures related to the product/service to be promoted to their cellular telephones for free. The use of the “Send to a friend” box will, in the case as well, provide the viral effect necessary for rapidly increasing the number of members in the site.

• Surveys

Surveys are one of the best-established techniques for gaining a good level of visitor involvement in the site. Survey questions can be configured and proposed by the editor and easily implemented on the site. The results will be stored and, at the editor's discretion, can be made public and kept confidential. They can also be made available and differentiated, both in terms of public versus private area (as well as by more specific sector areas). One example of a survey can be seen in the “Take our Surveys” and “Surveys Results” sections of the site www.americanoverseasnetwork.net

MULTI-CHANNEL

A separate subject, which is transverse in regard to the above, is represented by the possibility of conveying part of the site content not just to personal computers but also to mobile devices: palm computers, smart phones and cellular telephones. To achieve this requires implementing a data exchange system based on XML feeds. With this format, after content is separated by its method of representation, it will be possible to publish the same new in different formats without having to intervene on the site at a structural level.