Session Sponsor
9:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Session A:
Getting Sticky - Game Shows & Dialogue Marketing on the Net
Keeping your site "sticky" isn’t just a marketing objective, it is an integral part of the Internet experience. Every business needs more than traffic and revenue. Where is the value in a consumer visiting your site once? Site traffic does not mean much by itself, but if you can learn about consumers wants and needs by building relationships with them and creating a dialog over time, it will produce significant ROI. Dialog Marketing in the form of Game Shows and other interactive experiences have proven to be an essential element to successful online promotions. The goals are understood but execution is difficult; to develop stronger penetration on a Web site; to leverage the "Opt-in" process, the cornerstone in the dialog; to build loyalty for life by learning consumers wants and needs over time, and how to incentivize consumers to take action with an assortment of contests, games, prizes, and rewards. In this session, the experts will address this task.
Steven Kane, General Manager, Lycos Gamesville
Allen Cunningham, President & CEO, Boxerjam.com
Don Daglow, President, Stormfront Studios Inc.
Frank Blot, Executive Vice President, Product Marketing, Uproar
Larry Cotter, CEO, Sandbox
Chris Tice, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Advertising Sales, Sony Online Entertainment
Jane Weber, Vice President, Promotions.com DIRECT, Moderator
Chris Tice was named Senior Vice President of Marketing and Advertising Sales of Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE) in April of 1999. Sony Online Entertainment produces and distributes online entertainment targeted to mainstream consumers and game enthusiasts, and also owns and manages The Station@sony.com, one of the leading online entertainment networks. Ms. Tice oversees consumer marketing and research for Sony Online Entertainment in addition to directing the SOE online advertising network to create integrated marketing and sponsorship opportunities for online advertisers. The SOE network consists of The Station@sony.com (www.station.sony.com), Sony Music Online and Sony Pictures Entertainment Online. Ms. Tice previously served as the Vice President of Advertising Sales and Partnership Marketing for SOE. Prior to joining SOE, Ms. Tice held positions of increasing responsibility at CMP Media Inc., including Associate Publisher of Business Development, Managing Director of Corporate Accounts, and Associate Publisher, Sales and Marketing for CMPnet. Ms. Tice was instrumental in expanding the CMPnet network to the 9th largest ad-based site on the Web. Before joining CMP Media Inc. in 1991, Ms. Tice spent seven years working at Ziff-Davis Publishing. Ms. Tice is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany with a BA degree in Psychology.
Allen Cunningham, President & CEO, Boxerjam.com. Boxerjam, founded by Julann Griffin, the co-creator of Jeopardy!, was the first company to develop interactive, online gameshows and currently has some of the most popular gameshows in the industry "Strike A Match," "Out of Order," "Take 5," and "Napoleon." Boxerjam's extensive user demographics serve as an appealing attraction to advertisers. Boxerjam has one of the largest entertainment audiences with more than 1,000,000 active monthly players, 80% of whom are women. Users average forty-plus minutes per visit and eight visits per month. Equally as appealing are the strategic distribution relationships forged between Boxerjam and AOL, Yahoo!, and Sony "The Station;" which provides Boxerjam with access to an ever expanding global audience. Mr. Cunningham began his professional career in information services at Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. in New York. Among other projects, he was responsible for the development of systems for the firm’s leveraged buyout and real estate funds. Prior to founding Boxerjam, Mr. Cunningham was the CFO of The Portofino Group, Inc., a real estate development company located in Miami, Florida. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1987 with a B.A. in English
Francis G. Blot, Executive Vice President, Product Marketing, Uproar: Blot joined Uproar as EVP, Product Marketing in July 1999, subsequent to the company's acquisition of PrizePoint Entertainment. Blot co-founded PrizePoint in March 1998 and served as its Vice President of Marketing from March 1998 to June 1999. From June 1994 to March 1998, Blot was Vice President of Business Development at PointCast, where he was responsible for, among other things, its electronic commerce business. Prior to that, Blot worked in business and product development positions for Prodigy for nearly seven years. Blot earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from SUNY Utica.
Don Daglow is president of Stormfront Studios, developers of EA Sports' NASCAR series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, John Madden Football, Discovery Channel's Byzantine: the Betrayal, Creative Wonders' Eagle Eye Mysteries, and the Tony La Russa Baseball series. In 1971 he wrote the first computer baseball game ever created (on a PDP-10 mainframe); in 1976 he wrote the first mainframe role-playing game. In 1981 he designed and programmed the first Sim game, Utopia for Intellivision. Don has led design teams for almost 20 years, as Director of Game Design for Mattel's Intellivision, as a Producer at EA, and as the head of Broderbund's Entertainment & Education division before founding Stormfront Studios in 1988. He holds a BA in Creative Writing (Pomona College) and a Master's in Education (Claremont Graduate School).
Lawrence M. Cotter has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Sandbox.com since January 1997. Mr. Cotter is one of the co-founders of Wall Street Sports, the predecessor company to Sandbox.com. From December 1994 to December 1997, Mr. Cotter was Director of Acquisitions and Franchising at Moovies, Inc., an operator of video specialty stores and video superstores. Mr. Cotter was an integral part of the successful completion of an initial public offering and 19 subsequent acquisitions. In total, these acquisitions added 190 store locations and 43 franchise locations, and $90 million in annual revenue to Moovies. Prior to that, Mr. Cotter was a senior accountant in the Information, Communications and Entertainment division of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP. Mr. Cotter is a Certified Public Accountant.
Jane Weber, Vice President, Promotions.com DIRECT, As Vice President of DIRECT, Jane is responsible for managing Promotions.com’s email and lead generation solutions. Previously, Jane served as Director of Strategic Development at Promotions.com and was instrumental in helping the company win an @d Tech award for "Best Direct Marketing Web Site," in 1999. Jane is a 10-year veteran of the direct marketing industry. Prior to joining Promotions.com in 1997,she held direct marketing management positions at Reader’s Digest and International Masters Publishers Inc. Jane has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Florida Atlantic University, and has a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut.