Prepaid Game Card Primer: Monetization and Marketing for Stored Value Game Cards
Pricing & Packages
- Basic: $1,200. For companies considering prepaid game cards as a monetization method, the basic report offers key insights and understanding. In addition to the basic market dynamics, it lays out the larger landscape, presents customer characteristics and a competitive analysis.
- Corporate: $1,499. In addition to the basic report and executive summary deck, this package also includes all graphs and tables presented in a spreadsheet (.xls) for convenient integration into internal reporting and analyses.
- Burrito: $1,699. This package has it all. In addition to the corporate features, it also includes an hour with one of the report’s analysts for follow-up questions and explanations (reg. price $250/hour).
What this primer contains
The Prepaid Game Card Primer maps out the current market landscape and assesses the buying behavior of digital consumers. It explains the basic value chain behind prepaid game cards, sizes the market and describes its key drivers, offers a customer analysis, and profiles key companies active in the space.
There are several key drivers behind an increased relevance of prepaid game cards. First, as entertainment is increasingly distributed digitally, the traditional landscape for content production and consumption is changing. How companies facilitate payment is critical and central to the success of interactive entertainment. Mapping the overall landscape and understanding consumer behavior are necessary in order to benefit from the opportunities presented by this new environment.
Second, the 2009 Credit CARD Act enlarges the addressable audience for prepaid cards. The recent credit card legislation changing the minimum age from 18 to 21 has an immediate effect on the overall size of the prepaid card market by further limiting young audiences’ access to payment methods. (For a more detailed description of the Credit Card Act please refer to page 5.) The use of prepaid cards will increase as consumers grow accustomed to alternative ways of paying.
Third, prepaid game cards have shown explosive year-over-year growth during an economic downturn. As a component of the gift card industry, consumers express a preference for prepaid cards. And rather than a credit-based transaction, prepaid game cards are an all-cash business. Prepaid cards present a mutually beneficial payment method: consumers avoid late-fees and face no recurrent or hidden charges. Retailers can lower the overall cost of charge-backs on their balance sheets.
Interactive entertainment faces traditional retail questions, and prepaid game cards are an entry point. No longer able to rely solely on advertising revenue for their income, entertainment companies that maintain a predominantly online presence are finding new ways to reach their customers directly. Prepaid cards give these companies a brick-and-mortar presence, enabling marketing and monetization. Understanding common retail dynamics, however, is new terrain for many digital publishers.
The Prepaid Game Card Primer seeks to understand the role of prepaid game cards as part of the overall business model for interactive entertainment publishers.
Report teaser (.pdf)
Table of Contents (index.pdf)
