This study will examine how branded games in the LEGO Ninjago franchise communicate the brand narrative through their mechanical, semiotic and referential design. Digital games as communicative tools facilitate a new paradigm of marketing focusing on experience creation through integrated marketing communication plans. The LEGO brand creates highly successful games that communicate the brand effectively. To explore the possibilities and counteract the simplistic use of branded games, this study introduces an innovative framework to formally analyze branded games and their communication of a brand narrative through mechanical, semiotic and referential layers. This framework introduces formal game design to advertising studies, while dragging game studies into branded ecosystems. Using the framework, we analyze LEGO Ninjago the Movie – The Videogame, to identify how this paid digital game expands the Ninjago universe and fulfills specific marketing purposes oriented to LEGO toy sets. Our analysis shows that on a mechanical and semiotic layer, the game presents a standalone experience catering to the universe of the Ninjago movie and the values of the Ninjago brand narrative. However, by framing the whole game as LEGO – in its materiality and interactable objects – the LEGO brand narrative of creative construction informs the act of play. The referential design in these games makes use of playful disruption of rules to instill additive comprehension in the player related to purchasable sets and content.
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This paper starts with the explanation of the research rationale of the professorship. Subsequently, an exploration of the research agenda is provided, focusing on the two core research themes of the professorship: transformational content strategy and transformational content design. Within this section, knowledge gaps will be identified and examples will be presented of research projects related to each theme. Finally, light will be shed on the research approach, offering a brief overview of the theoretical approach, research methodology, and expected impact.
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Blog in het kader van het onderzoeksproject ‘The Network is the Message‘ Met dit onderzoek willen Hogeschool Rotterdam en Hogeschool Utrecht een antwoord geven op de vraag: “Hoe kan de effectiviteit van communicatie in online sociale netwerken worden beoordeeld en verbeterd?” In deze blog: Inhakers werken! Ze worden gemiddeld drie keer vaker gedeeld op sociale media dan niet-inhakers (zoals branded content of advertenties) en bereiken bovendien meer mensen buiten de fanbase van de organisatie zelf (Waardenburg & Mazerant, 2018). Dit is nu niet direct een oproep aan alle merken om meteen met inhakers aan de slag te gaan: inhaakmoeheid ligt namelijk op de loer. Deze blog is een oproep om met kwalitatief goede inhakers aan de slag te gaan, want ze zijn alleen effectief als ze ook de moeite waard zijn om te delen.
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Dragen sociaalnetwerksites van sportverenigingen (ClubSNSs) bij aan het clubgevoel van leden? 129 leden van sportverenigingen vulden een vragenlijst in over ClubSNSs en clubgevoel. Daaruit blijkt dat leden ClubSNSs informatief, vermakelijk en interactief vinden en ClubSNSs gebruiken voor het volgen van content over sport, leden en de club. Verder blijken ClubSNSs belangrijk voor het clubgevoel van leden, doordat identificatie met de sportvereniging wordt opgebouwd.
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Blog in het kader van het onderzoeksproject ‘The Network is the Message‘ Met dit onderzoek willen Hogeschool Rotterdam en Hogeschool Utrecht een antwoord geven op de vraag: “Hoe kan de effectiviteit van communicatie in online sociale netwerken worden beoordeeld en verbeterd?” In deze derde blog van de eerste vijf insights uit het onderzoek beschrijft Rogier Brussee het gevecht tussen je content en engagement met de algoritmes van platformen
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Objective: Product Information Leaflets (PILs) are an important source of information for patients on their medication, but may cause confusion and questions. Patients then may seek clarification, for instance from pharmacy technicians. The aim of this study was to explore which questions pharmacy technicians get about PIL-related issues, why and when, and how they handle such questions. Methods: an online survey in a panel of 785 Dutch pharmacy technicians. Key results: Net response rate was 37%. PIL-related questions frequently concerned drug actions, problems with use, side effects, intolerances and pregnancy and lactation. Patients who received generic alternatives instead of the branded product they had received previously, also came more often to pharmacy staff with PIL-related questions. The requested information could not always be found in the PIL itself, not even by the pharmacy technicians themselves. They mentioned that the PIL is not easy to read, understand or recall. Conclusions: Pharmacy staff is often approached by patients having difficulties in understanding PILs. Even pharmacy technicians find PILs difficult to read and often use other sources of information. PIL layout and contents should become more standardized and easier to read and understand.
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What is the impact of blogging, either by journalists or readers, on journalism? Do entries on readers' blogs lead to stories for professional journalists and how is the work of a blogging journalist influenced by the fact that he or she nowadays has a second publication platform and is more in contact with readers through the blog? We conducted content analyses of blogs and interviewed professional and amateur bloggers with blogs on Dutch national and local newspaper websites as well as editors who are responsible for the blogs on the websites. Newspapers employ different strategies when it comes to allowing either journalists or readers to blog on their newspaper websites. Local papers seem to profit most when it comes to getting story leads, or even scoops, from readers' blogs. Blogs on national newspapers' websites function more as personal diaries for the bloggers. The blogs by journalists and invited experts seem to flourish more on national papers' websites. There is also a difference in the 'directions' that bloggers get. With a stricter policy, mostly meaning that off-topic entries are discouraged, readers' blogs are more focused and are more valuable for journalists looking for news.
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Journalists in the 21st century are expected to work for different platforms, gather online information, become multi‐media professionals, and learn how to deal with amateur contributions. The business model of gathering, producing and distributing news changed rapidly. Producing content is not enough; moderation and curation are at least as important when it comes to working for digital platforms. There is a growing pressure on news organizations to produce more inexpensive content for digital platforms, resulting in new models of low‐cost or even free content production. Aggregation, either by humans or machines ‘finding’ news and re‐publishing it, is gaining importance. At so‐called ‘content farms’ freelancers, part‐timers and amateurs produce articles that are expected to end up high in web searches. Apart from this low‐pay model a no‐pay model emerged were bloggers write for no compensation at all. At the Huffington Post thousands of bloggers actually work for free. Other websites use similar models, sometimes offering writers a fixed price depending on the number of clicks a page gets. We analyse the background, the consequences for journalists and journalism and the implications for online news organizations. We investigate aggregation services and content farms and no‐pay or low‐pay news websites that mainly use bloggers for input.
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