According to TechCrunch, social gaming jugernaut Zynga has pulled in approximately half a billion dollars in the last year, with a sizable chunk of that money coming from Google. This hints at a larger strategic partnership.

According to TechCrunch’s Arrington:

Zynga will be the cornerstone of a new Google Games to launch later this year, say multiple sources. Not only will Zynga’s games give Google Games a solid base of social games to build on, but it will also give Google the beginning of a true social graph as users log into Google to play the games.

Yikes! Just imagine what Google’s marketing geniuses could do with all the data they could harvest from Farmville, MafiaWars, Petville and other social games. There are so many ways for Google to exploit your game playing:
- Google Checkout as the means of payment
- incorporating your social graph into Google’s social graph
- incorporation into the Android OS, including real-time geo-location features (watch out FourSquare)
- full-scale game playing on the much-speculated Google tablet to compete with iPad gaming

Arrington continues:

Zynga continues to work on high level strategic business development deals. The reason these deals are so attractive to companies like Yahoo and now Google is this – Zynga allows them to rebuild the massive social graph, currently controlled by Facebook. For whatever reason people love to play these games and get passionately addicted to them, coming back day after day. That’s helped Facebook become what it is today. Google, Yahoo and others want some of that magic to rub off on them, too.

Some of the more interesting marketing opportunities for business will come when you can convert virtual purchases into real purchases. Imagine a Farmville partnership with a local farm like BeeWise in Rancho Santa Fe or grocery chain Safeway that will deliver you a box full of produce reflecting what you “grew” in Farmville. This points to what seems to be a growing trend in these games: product placement. Except this is product placement with the highest of relevance because promotions are based on a world you, the consumer, built. Get ready for partnerships with PETCO (Petville), Burpee (Farmville), Chevy (MafiaWars). It’s all going to come together in one big, neat, hyper-targeted marketing package.

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The power of the Google/Zynga deal I blogged about yesterday is revealing itself quickly. Mashable’s Vadim Lavrusik posted this article today: FarmVille Cash Invades Supermarkets Nationwide.

In just six weeks, 100,000+ in virtual Farm Cash was redeemed from this real-world promotion. This is mainstream and this is big. And it means Zynga now knows what you’re buying at the store. What do you think is next for FarmVille promotions and Zynga in general?

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Hulu’s long-awaited app for the iPad has arrived. And it’s a stellar failure with the iPad consumer who has given it only a two star rating as of this writing.

Why such a harsh response from a public that has been otherwise adoring of Hulu? Because the makers of Hulu (NBC/Universal, et. al.) are squeezing money out of this in both directions. They’re charging $10/month for access and you have to watch advertising. As one reviewer commented: “They’re kidding, right?” It would be like migrating NBC or Fox to cable.

Hulu – it’s one or the other. You can’t charge people to watch advertising. Not anymore at least. You gave up the goods for free online already. And just because someone has an iPad, it doesn’t mean they’re willing to spend their money just anywhere. Rethink your model before you piss off everyone.

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Media Agency Initiative published a new study on the third screen – the mobile phone – focusing on what exactly “active smartphone users” are doing with their phones. Check this out:

Mobile: It's not just for voice anymore

Although I’m not sure where SMS fits into this (“data?” “other”?), it’s incredible that data accounts for half of smartphone usage. And even more surprising is the finding that 60% of mobile Web usage occurs at home. The peak time for mobile web use? Evening. In fact, half of the sample population claimed to use the mobile Web while watching TV.

Imagine the implications for advertising when people are watching content on their monitor and interacting with that content on their phone. It already happens when I get texts from friends about something that we’re watching concurrently on Top Chef. But what if the content provider was controlling both channels – the television experience and the mobile experience? The opportunities for advertising are incredible. Like that knife that Padma is showcasing? Here’s a link to buy it right now in a 3-hour promotion from Groupon. Get ready for product placement and promotion like we’ve never seen it before.

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I was speaking with a Sales Manager who in the business of selling student enrollment management software. In addition to selling the software, he was also having to sell the idea that this newest product would be a cloud-based solution. The client wouldn’t actually be receiving a physical piece of software that they “owned.” For some of his more traditional clients, this was proving a tough sell.

This video uses a sense of optimism to convey the possibilities inherent in cloud computing that can’t be found in traditional software methods.

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Unfortunately, the benefits are buried in the second half of the video after the peer pressure tactic of asking “What will you choose?” How would you improve this video so it was even more influential?

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