We were recently in negotiations to be acquired. Talks lasted about five minutes, but during that time, the VP of Business Development from the prospective acquirer kept warning us not to divulge any of the ingredients in our "secret sauce", lest the deal fall apart (which it did) and we ended up suing them for stealing all our invaluable intellectual property (which hasn't happened... yet).
Every time he used the phrase (which was often) I found myself becoming more and more amused. What the heck is a secret sauce? I assumed he meant competitive edge, or intellectual property, but being a marketing type, he liked using that buzzword instead. Wikipedia tells me that it means any component of a product that is closely guarded from public disclosure for competitive advantage.
So, what is our secret sauce? Do we even have one? We certainly do, and the primary ingredient is the knowledge regarding how to design and build a social game (and its underlying virtual economy) that is both engaging and monetizes well. That certainly constitutes a fair portion of our secret sauce.
But our special sauce (i.e., our sauce that is not a secret to any of our competitors) is our commitment to customer service. Anyone can steal that, but it takes a huge commitment.
When we first started with Scratch and Win on Facebook, I handled all of the customer service. I felt the job was too important to be trusted to anyone else in the organization. Unlike a lot of CEOs who pay lip service to how important customer service is, I put my money where my mouth is and actually put in the hours to respond to posts on the discussion boards and answer every single email from our growing customer base. Given the viral nature of social networks, I figured the investment in building a loyal fan-base and branding Backstage as a company that cared about its user community would ultimately pay off. And it did.
I remained in charge of customer service until it reached a point (almost a year later) where I could no longer devote the time and attention required to do the job justice. I still make the occasional appearance on the discussion boards, but my Community Managers are happy to relegate me to pseudo-mythical status (see Figure 1).
Our competitors built their business on monetization. We built ours on customer service. Here is a typical post to the discussion board for Scratch and Win that illustrates the point.
Backstage Technologies today announced that its successful Facebook
“Scratch and Win” charity campaign has resulted in a donation of $13,159.24 to the Victoria Salvation Army. These
funds will be used to help local
families in need of short term, emergency assistance. This latest results brings our total charitable donations to over $60,000 since May 2008!
“Our major annual fundraiser, the Christmas Kettle Appeal,
did falter this year because of the bad winter weather Victoria had. This generous donation from
Backstage Technologies has put us well over our goal, we are very grateful,”
said Megan
“With the world economy faltering and charitable donations
ebbing, it’s more important than ever that we think about those less fortunate
than we are” said Dr. Russell Ovans, president of Backstage Technologies. “Our Facebook players have been fantastic and
have again stepped up to the plate through donating by gaming.”
Scratch and Win is a Facebook application that lets players enjoy playing free virtual scratch-off lottery tickets. Winning tickets award players tokens rather than dollars, which they use to purchase virtual prize sets as they advance through the game. To raise money for charity, Backstage sold a special Salvation Army ticket at ten cents a piece with a Christmas themed prize set. The unique power in this new fundraising concept is the ability for charities to connect with willing donors at very small levels. This simple concept has put over $60,000 into the pockets of needy charities around the world.
Marc (Backstage Bus. Mgr), Megan, Juan, and Russ (Backstage CEO)
Backstage Technologies today announced that its successful “Scratch and Win” charity campaign has resulted in a donation of $9,587.08 to the BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities. These funds will be used to help provide children with disabilities experience a week long camping adventure at no cost to their parents or guardians.
Lions Club CEO Stephen Miller was emphatic in his praise for
both the generosity of Backstage and the power of fundraising through Facebook.
“Wow! I am a believer in Backstage and the power it has within the virtual
world. You guys are awesome to deal with and we are truly honoured to have
worked with you. You’ve really made a big difference in the lives of hundreds
of children with disabilities.”
“As a father of three children, the BC Lions Society Send a
Kid to camp campaign is something that really hits close to home,” said Dr.
Russell Ovans, president of Backstage Technologies. “I can only imagine the difficulties parents
face raising a child with special challenges. This was an easy campaign to get behind.”
Scratch and Win is a Facebook application that lets players
enjoy playing free virtual scratch-off lottery tickets. Winning tickets award players tokens which
they use to purchase themed virtual prize sets as they advance through the game. To raise money for charity, Backstage sold a
special BC Lions Society ticket at ten cents a piece with winning virtual
prizes being artwork made by children who had attended past Lions Society camping
adventures. The unique power in this new
fundraising concept is the ability for charities to connect with willing donors
at very small levels. As one game player and donor commented, “I’m glad to have been able to
contribute to this special charity. It may have only been five dollars, but
five dollars is all I could give.” This simple
concept has put over $40,000 into the pockets of needy charities across this
country.
This is the third charity in as many months that Backstage
has assisted. Notable partners include The Land Conservancy of BC, The BC SPCA
and the BC Lions Club. Backstage is
currently partnering with Doctors Without Borders to raise money and awareness for
the plight of refugees around the world.
On our way to the Seattle Casual Connect Conference this past July, we stopped in at the BC SPCA once again brandishing our Giant Novelty Cheque. The BC SPCA is the second charity to benefit from Backstage's Facebook 'Scratch and Win' application. A big shout out to our game players who helped make this happen. Together we were able to raise $11,284.74! The money will be dog ear marked towards Cruelty Investigations, Spay/Neuter funds, and to needy shelters throughout British Columbia.
Russ Ovans and Marc Dugas shown presenting the Giant Novelty Cheque to Simon Trevelyan (BCSPCA)
Mount Doug High School recently ran a creative fundraising campaign for UNICEF called Stop MMMBop. The student council decided to repeatedly play the 1997 hit single MMMBop by beloved boy-band Hanson, every lunch hour, until the students donated $1,000 to UNICEF children's charities. After one week, the campaign had raised $250, and there was no end in sight to the MMMBop. So my daughter (who attends the school and also helps out with customer support on the Pull Tabs feedback forum) asked if I would be willing to help stop MMMBop.
Don't you just love giant novelty cheques? We do.
Dr. Russell Ovans (right), President of Backstage, is seen here presenting Taylor Saracuse, President of the Mt. Doug Leadership Council, with a cheque in the amount of $750.
We're proud and a little surprised to announce that we won the Emerging Technology Company of the Year award at last night's VIATeC Awards. Every year VIATeC holds an awards banquet to highlight some of the technology companies on Vancouver Island and force a bunch of geeks to wear fancy clothes.
And we even managed to snag a video of Russ accepting the award plus a few work-safe photos too. Enjoy!
