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Transformational Gaming: Zynga's Social ...

Werhane, Patricia ...

Case

Transformational Gaming: Zynga's Social Strategy (C)

Werhane, Patricia H.; Mead, Jenny; Hartman, Laura P.; Christmas, Danielle

E-0362 | Published May 17, 2012 | 13 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Following the May 2010 Sweet Seeds campaign, Zynga announced that it would expand its FATEM partnership to build a school for children in Haiti who had been affected by the devastating earthquake in January of that year. In one week, more than 45,000 FarmVille users raised $110,000 through the purchase of virtual social goods. Sweet Seeds would be the first of several campaigns Zynga launched to raise funds for the school. In the meantime, Zynga.org's management had to establish concrete measures for the various projects' success, including efficient implementation, self-sustainability, and replication. Maintaining a strong feedback loop so that those who contributed to these campaigns could see the results was important. Despite competition, Zynga remained, in 2010, a wildly successful company and its dot-org arm helped Mark Pincus and Laura Hartman realize the new type of social strategy they had discussed over the years.

1. Define the traditional conception of corporate social responsibility and distinguish it from social strategy. 2. Distinguish the concepts of philanthropy, charity, volunteerism, corporate social responsibility, and social strategy. 3. Explain why it is vital for each stakeholder involved in a sustainable socially strategic endeavor to have a vested interest. 4. Discuss the role that for-profits can play in poverty alleviation. 5. Identify some of the hurdles that for-profits face in engaging in profitable partnerships or sustainable socially strategic endeavors to alleviate poverty. 6. Describe the role that social networks and new media have played in developing or expanding corporate social strategies for contributing in this arena. 7. Identify several metrics available to which a decision-maker can point to in connection with social strategies using online networking that may affect bottom-line profitability.