Analyzing Social Media's Effectiveness: Sony PlayStation FIFA 2019

This report examines the effectiveness of social media as a promotional tool, focusing on Sony PlayStation's FIFA 2019 game. It investigates the role of social media in sales promotion, its impact on children aged 13-19, and the strategies employed by the company. The research draws on previous stu...Read More

Running head: EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
Effectiveness of using Social Media as a Promotional Tool: A Case Study of Sony PlayStation
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Authors Note:

1EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
Table of Contents
Research Topic................................................................................................................................2
Thesis Statement..............................................................................................................................2
Research Questions..........................................................................................................................2
Summary of Key Research..............................................................................................................2
Analysis and Evaluation to Topic....................................................................................................3
Analysis and Synthesis....................................................................................................................5
Literature Review............................................................................................................................6
Summary..........................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

2EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
Research Topic
The research topic is to analyze the effectiveness of employing social media as a
promotional tool, a case study analysis of play satiation games specifically FiFa 2019i game.
Thesis Statement
Social media promotional tools have not only facilitated in the promotion of video games
as observed in the case of Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games but has also facilitated in
understanding several ways in which such promotional strategies can leave an influencing impact
on the society and psychology of its users, particularly the children (Andrews and Shimp 2017).
Research Questions
The research questions that are deemed to be answered through carrying out the study and in
developing the literature review section are indicated below:
 What is the function of social media in sales promotion of Sony PlayStation in the FiFa
games in 2019?
 What are the largest impacts of the Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games promotion on the
children that fall under the age group of 13 to 19 years?
Summary of Key Research
Previous researches such as Ashley and Tuten (2015) indicated that in the recent era of
increasing competition, social media is serving as an effective tool for promotion of businesses
in the gaming industry. These reasechers also evidenced that effective use of social media can
facilitate in the persuading consumers perception towards purchasing the offerings of the

3EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
companies. Supporting this view, Broekemier, Chau and Seshadri (2015) stated that social media
acts as an effective tool used extensively in the gaming industry in an attempt to reach out to
their consumers on a regular basis. It has also been evidenced that usage of social media fir the
business promotion activities can ensure increase brand recall among consumers that increases
their purchase intention. The statistical data gathered from the past researches revealed that
certain renowned social media promotion channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Pinterst and LinkedIn can serve as effective promotional tools in carrying out social media
advertising. Cui et al. (2018) added that in the digital marketing field, social media has a vital
function in developing an innovative and competitive marketing strategy based on the business
nature along with the target audiences. In addition, it was also evidenced from the past
researches that there are clear instances where social media is used by gaming industries in
increasing brand awareness trough viral content or paid advertising on social media channels.
Analysis and Evaluation to Topic
According to research carried out by DeSmet et al. (2016) it has been revealed that over
the years social media has been employed by the marketers of gaming companies in order to
increase consumer loyalty, purchase intention and retention through positing engaging contents
on these channels. These reasechers also explained that the relationship of young consumers with
the social media has evolved with years that have leveraged the power of the marketer. Freeman
et al. (2015) have also indicated that the model for social media promoting strategy is established
on major three contributing factors like social media goals, brand along with the audience.
Combination of these there social media promoting components results in creating “hitlist” that
can also be termed as value added engaging contents for the young consumers. Social media is
observed to serve as a renowned medium for promoting gaming products as it facilitates in

4EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
maintaining transparent and two-way interaction potential. Hofacker et al. (2016) evidenced that
gaming companies employ social media channels as a group of internet-based applications that
facilitates in developing an ideological and technological foundation which in turn facilitates in
generating of engaging user-generated content. Moreover, the young consumers of the gaming
products perceive the social media promotional tools effectiveness if the engaging contents on
these mediums generates their positive sentiments towards the company’s marketing efforts.
Research carried out by Hofacker, Manchanda and Donaldson (2016) revealed that the
social media promotional approaches can be highly effective in the gaming industry in offering
timely along with useful information needed by the targeted young consumer generation with
having an objective to address the gap between the reality along with the expectations. In the
gaming industry, inc5ased importance is given to consumer perceptions on the overall marketing
activities of the gaming product marketers along with analyzing their readiness to accept social
media as a new advertising technology. Supporting this view, Icha and Agwu (2015) indicated
that the markets and the gaming companies are observed to employ social media sites in an
effective manner for reaching out to their target consumers along with offering an exceptional
shopping experience to them. These reasechers also evidenced that technology based social
media promotion such as introduction of an effective search engine, innovative user-friendly
applications based on gaming themes along with easy accessibility if high-speed internet and low
cost promoting strategy are the advantages repeated by the marketers through employing social
media promotional tools. Baranowski et al. (2016) added that the social media network
promotional medium can facilitate the marketers of the gaming companies in reaching the young
target consumers through new captivate gaming features advertisements.

5EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
Analysis and Synthesis
From the previous research of Shen et al. (2016) it has been revealed that the promotion
of the video games has positive as well as negative impacts. Considering such view, it has also
been evidenced that social media marketing facilitates the marketers in developing a connection
among young consumers or children that increases their social skills and imagination. The
renowned gaming companies like Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games is rapidly making profits
through addressing marketing strategies on the social media platforms. In addition, Sobaih et al.
(2016) also evidenced that there are several negative impacts like it is observed that certain
gaming promotional contents posted by Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games on the social media
channels is increasing aggressiveness among children. It has also been revealed from the past
researches that such engaging proportional contents of the gaming company on the social media
platform makes children a hanker for buying the gaming product that is marketed and leaves
drastic impacts on their psyche. Šramová (2015) indicated in their research findings that along
with the positive effects on children promotional contents gaming companies like Sony
PlayStation Fifa 2019 games can also have negative impacts on the minds of young children.
One of such negative impacts is revealed to be that social media promotional contents can be
highly engaging for the teenagers that can make them excessively addicted to such gaming
contents. Due to such effect they tend t spend excessive time on social networking sites that can
divert the concentration and focus of these children from other important activities in their life.
In contrast, Tuten and Solomon (2017) signified in their research that along with having
negative impacts of social media promotion certain positive impacts are also attained by the
marketers as well as well as the gaming lovers to share new gaming innovation ideas beyond the
geographical boundaries. Moreover, it also offers increased opportunities for the marketers of the

6EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
gaming companies like Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games to connect with the teenage game
lovers. In addition, social media promotional channels facilitates in increasing awareness among
the young consumers regarding innovative gaming campaigns, advertising articles along with
promotions that facilitates these teenagers to be up-to-date with the current updates on the new
gaming innovations. According to Xu et al. (2016) it has also been evidenced that social media
promotional tools are highly capable of transforming the manner in which the young consumers
communications and socializing on the web. These reasechers have also revealed in their
research that social media promotional content by Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games facilitates
the youngsters to stay connected with the gaming company fir new updates and along with that
useful information that can be exchanged over the social networking sites. Youngsters can also
consider the social media platform as a medium for getting relevant answers associated with the
queries on the innovative gaming applications introduced by Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games.
Zhang et al. (2016) added that certain aggressive gang contents can also negative impact the
psyche of the young children as this can make them violent focused on which certain remedial
actions must be taken by the marketers.
Literature Review
Previous studies on the research topic to analyze the effectiveness of employing social
media as a promotional tool revealed that social media promotional strategies facilitates the
marketers in the gaming industry to share ideas, thoughts along with sharing engaging
information through developing virtual networks along with communities. Tuten and Solomon
(2017) stated that social media marketing can engage with the constituents and it serves as an
indispensible tool in engaging with target consumers through advertising and promotion.
Moreover, it has also been evidenced from the previous researches that highly engaging gaming

7EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
advertisement contents developed by gaming companies like Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games
has facilitated them to begin incorporating streams into their digital marketing strategies as they
are proved to be highly influencing for teenagers for positively persuading their gaming product
purchase intentions. In addition, Tuten and Solomon (2017) elucidated in their research that with
the release of virtual gaming advertisements by Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games on Facebook
and Instagram platform it was elucidated that such promotional content attained more than 6
million viewers and total of 327 minutes watched that made it the most steamed console game of
that time.
However, after a research was carried out by Tuten and Solomon (2017) it was revealed
that promotional contents on the PlayStation was introduced by Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019
games had a drastic impact on the society and more specifically on the young consumers of the
community. Considering such findings, it was also evidenced by previous researches that
competition among the large gaming companies are presiding them to compete with each other
with developing extensively engaging and innovative gaming contents in the social media
platforms based on the current gaming trends observed to be followed by the young consumer
groups. Supporting this viewpoint, Tuten and Solomon (2017) indicated that the major negative
effects that such games are observed to cause in the lives of young consumers is that persuaded
by these promotional gaming contents, the children are gathered to get more addicted to such
gaming contents being totally unaware of the people and the surrounding. Prior research have
also elucidated that several severe health risks are also caused to these children as they tend to
get addicted to such promotional content on gaming. Such severe health impacts were revealed
to be vision issue, brain tissue damage because of a prolonged exposure to such radiation on the
virtual gaming platforms developed by Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games. DeSmet et al. (2016)

8EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
added that focused on such issue of adverse impacts of their promotional contents the marketers
these days are attempting to make an increased efforts on developing social media promotional
content on limiting the time of video game streaming on the social media platforms each day that
can facilitate the marketers in addressing such issue to a particular extent. DeSmet et al. (2016)
signified that the future research on this study topic will focus on gaining insights into the effects
that streaming of video games can have on the viewer’s attitudes and behaviors and whether it
fits into an effective digital marketing strategy.
Summary
The research topic was to analyze the existing literature and previous researchers carried
out on evaluating the effectiveness of employing social media as a promotional tool, a case study
analysis of play station games specifically FiFa 2019i game. From analyzing the existing
literature it has been evidenced that social media acts as an effective tool used extensively in the
gaming industry in an attempt to reach out to their consumers on a regular basis. It has also been
evidenced that usage of social media fir the business promotion activities can ensure increase
brand recall among consumers that increases their purchase intention. It has also been evidenced
that there are several negative impacts like it is observed that certain gaming promotional
contents posted by Sony PlayStation Fifa 2019 games on the social media channels is increasing
aggressiveness among children. Focused on such issue of adverse impacts of their promotional
contents the marketers these days are attempting to make increased efforts on developing social
media promotional content on limiting the time of video game streaming on the social media
platforms each day that can facilitate the marketers in addressing such issue to a particular
extent.

9EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
References
Andrews, J.C. and Shimp, T.A., 2017. Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated
marketing communications. Nelson Education.
Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1),
pp.15-27.
Baranowski, T., Blumberg, F., Buday, R., DeSmet, A., Fiellin, L.E., Green, C.S., Kato, P.M., Lu,
A.S., Maloney, A.E. and Mellecker, R., 2016. Games for health for children—Current status and
needed research. Games for health journal, 5(1), pp.1-12.
Broekemier, G., Chau, N.N. and Seshadri, S., 2015. Social media practices among small
business-to-business enterprises. Small Business Institute Journal, 11(1).
Cui, R., Gallino, S., Moreno, A. and Zhang, D.J., 2018. The operational value of social media
information. Production and Operations Management, 27(10), pp.1749-1769.
DeSmet, A., Van Cleemput, K., Bastiaensens, S., Poels, K., Vandebosch, H., Malliet, S.,
Verloigne, M., Vanwolleghem, G., Mertens, L., Cardon, G. and De Bourdeaudhuij, I., 2016.
Bridging behavior science and gaming theory: Using the Intervention Mapping Protocol to
design a serious game against cyberbullying. Computers in Human behavior, 56, pp.337-351.
Freeman, B., Potente, S., Rock, V. and McIver, J., 2015. Social media campaigns that make a
difference: what can public health learn from the corporate sector and other social change
marketers. Public Health Res Pract, 25(2), p.e2521517.

10EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
Hofacker, C.F., De Ruyter, K., Lurie, N.H., Manchanda, P. and Donaldson, J., 2016.
Gamification and mobile marketing effectiveness. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 34, pp.25-
36.
Hofacker, C.F., Manchanda, P. and Donaldson, J., 2016. Gamification and mobile marketing
effectiveness. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 34, pp.25-36.
Icha, O. and Agwu, E., 2015. Effectiveness of social media networks as a strategic tool for
organizational marketing management. J Internet Bank Commer, p.S2.
Shen, G.C.C., Chiou, J.S., Hsiao, C.H., Wang, C.H. and Li, H.N., 2016. Effective marketing
communication via social networking site: The moderating role of the social tie. Journal of
Business Research, 69(6), pp.2265-2270.
Sobaih, A.E.E., Moustafa, M.A., Ghandforoush, P. and Khan, M., 2016. To use or not to use?
Social media in higher education in developing countries. Computers in Human Behavior, 58,
pp.296-305.
Šramová, B., 2015. Marketing and media communications targeted to children as
consumers. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 191, pp.1522-1527.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. Sage.
Xu, F., Tian, F., Buhalis, D., Weber, J. and Zhang, H., 2016. Tourists as mobile gamers:
Gamification for tourism marketing. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 33(8), pp.1124-
1142.

11EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL
Zhang, J., Brackbill, D., Yang, S., Becker, J., Herbert, N. and Centola, D., 2016. Support or
competition? How online social networks increase physical activity: a randomized controlled
trial. Preventive medicine reports, 4, pp.453-458.