gvoice30_en

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NOV, 2010 vol.30

TIC Marks its th 10 Year

Enter the New Era of Gameastor!

From Taiwan Index to Gameastor 10 Years of Growth and Strength

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10 Years of Accomplishment: Dominating the East The name Taiwan Index is not Greek to most online game players. Founded in 2000, originally a subsidiary company under Taiwan Mobile, Taiwan Index was acquired by Gamania in 2004 and officially became a member of Gamania Group. Taiwan Index has launched many popular games, such as Last Kindom 3, N-age, Cronous and Hope Online. To reinforce its strategic role in the group, Taiwan Index decided to adopt oriental materials as their main theme for online games. Taiwan Index repositioned itself as a brand and will be announcing its rebirth brand name, “Gameastor” on its 10th anniversary. We hope that with this new name, it could bring forth many more fun and delightful games to the players.

This edition of G!Voice, we will turn back in time and show you a glimpse of Gameastor ’s major events and milestones throughout these 10 years. And find out how Gameastor “plays” differently in Gamania.

Editing Department

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● Publisher: Albert Liu ● Editorial Desk: Eric Chen ● Editor-in-chief: Yoyo Dai ● Creative Desk: Kiwi Chang/Betty Wang ● Art Editor: Brandon Huang ● Web Planner: Kenji Lin ● Web Designer: Snow Wang ● Publishing: Gamania Brand Center

Contents 橘觀點

Features

06 12 14 16 22 24 26

From Taiwan Index to Gameastor Gameastor's Potential for Success Activities Adored by Players Widely Recognized Operation Capability Reshaping a Whole New Brand New Name, New Beginning—Gameastor is Ready to Strike Gameastor's Future

橘專欄

Column

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gamaniabrandcenter

Key to UNIQLO's Success 網路行銷觀察家Mika：

品牌如何利用App行銷

新橘事

Events

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A Design Film Festival: 8 Heavy-Weight Design Courses for Gamania Gamania Lecture:

Singapore Organizer: Felix Ng Sharing his creativity and A Design Film Festival

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GAMANIA

Features

Change of Flag: Gameastor Reload and

Before entering its 10th anniversary, Taiwan Index announced to change its official title September 2010. Why changed names, why the re-branding? In fact, the games launch Index in the past few years have showed strategic trends of moving towards adopting orien themes. To reinforce the strategic role it plays in the group, Taiwan Index started to contem whether or not the self-change is needed. “Change� takes courage and confidence, but why the change? Well, change is to make one better, to redefine and reposition oneself. From Taiwan Index to Gameastor, they gradually found themselves along the way, gaining positive feedbacks from the market and becoming a momentum that cannot be overlooked.

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d Ready to Fight!

to Gameastor in hed by Taiwan ntal related mplate:

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GAMANIA

Features

From Taiwan Index to Gameastor Since its inception in 2000, Gameastor celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Experiencing different period of transformation, Gameastor redefined its position. But what was it like for the past 10 years?

G!Voice set up feature interviews with three COOs of different periods, showing you the past history and the future outlook of Gameastor.

Guerilla Battles that Boost the Profits

Draft Formation

2000

2002

2003

2004

2005

Joined Gamania Group

Cronous

Last Kingdom 3

Foundation of Taiwan Index

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2001

2006

2007

01 Simon TIC Vice COO 2001-2003

02 Ronald TIC COO 2004 - 2010

03 Vincent Gameastor COO 2010

Finalized Oriental Strategy

2008

2009

First Year of Gameastor

2010

Gameastor Officially Established

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GAMANIA

Features

Simon TIC Vice COO 2001-2003

Value Added Mobile Phone to 01 From Online Games

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Gameastor’s predecessor is Taiwan Index. Taiwan Mobile Group (TMG) was founded in August 19th, 2000 with most of its staff came from the value-added business unit of Taiwan Fixed Network (TFT). In light of the online game craze, TMG decided to organize an online game company. Preparation Office for Taiwan Index Corporation (TIC). was thus established in 2000. In 2001, Taiwan Index launched its first game, Last Kingdom 3 developed by Korean company, ActozSoft.

Back then TIC was merely a intern in the game industry, everything was still in exploration stage. Since the earliest members of TIC came from TFT, therefore non of them had any experience in game marketing. Besides, their corporate culture is comparatively conservative compared to other game companies, TIC did not receive much attention when it first started.

“Tic had about 20 people, these people had impressive academic and experience backgrounds but the biggest problem was that they were no gamers! The ones who knew most about games were the four Game Managers (GM) who worked under them.” former vice COO of TIC and current Humanities COO of Foundation, Simon smiled and told us about the time when TIC first established.

“In the past, TIC was thoroughly run by numbers. Every week, every month we would have meetings to examine these numbers and discussed results. Later when other game companies were on board, such as Gamania and Wayi International Digital Entertainment Co. Ltd, they all provided us with some of their success stories. After we’d launched a few games, we were more and more confident that our products would gain the profit they deserve. ”

Fumble to Creating 02 From Impressive Result After the initial product, TIC gradually learned how to operate a game. In the following 3 years, TIC launched N-Age, Cronous and Hope Online and received positive feedbacks. “The moment I remembered the most was when we launched N-Age, it was the day that first elected President sworn into office (May 20, 2002) and as soon as the game went home, there were 1,000 people logged in less than 5 minutes, breaking all of our past records.” Simon said that actually N-Age and Cornous were little games that were little known in Korea however they became great success under the hands of TIC. N-Age and Coronous had 10,000 and 30,000 concurrent log-in members respectively.

After such heartening result, TIC began a series of innovative marketing campaigns, the most impressive of which being the marketing campaign for N-Age. TIC collaborated with renowned female singer group, S.H.E and held a concert in the name of N-Age: Beautiful New World. TIC gave away game package with concert tickets to attract players and fans. Since then, TIC began to become a well-known name in the game market. Later when TIC launched Hope Online, it copied the same method and invited four Asian mega stars, Leehom Wang, David Tao, Elva Hsiao and Eason Chen to perform in “Love and Hope” concert. The marketing and the appeal of the product created a record for Hope Online, a stellar record of having 60,000 concurrent login players.

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GAMANIA

Features

Beginning phase in 01 The Gamania: Hit and Run Strategy After getting an impressive market record, the small but profitable game company – Taiwan Index Corporation (TIC) has caught the attention of Gamania. After Taiwan Telecom Group sold its share of stock, Gamania obtained the position of the largest share holder. Therefore TIC was officially joined in Gamania in March, 2004.

When first joining Gamania, there were about 50 employees in TIC and its major product was Hope Online. It started all well but there were two serious Bugs occurred in 2005 and the twice retrieves cut player numbers to one-forth. Fortunately, the situation went stable, and the TIC also started to develop new products in 2006. The successes of Grand Chase Online, Dance Online, Tienchi Online that put TIC back to its foothold and gradually won over the recognitions from players and market.

“During the first couple years in Gamania, it’s like playing the hit and run, we found any good product and just ran with it. During that time, we barely had any master piece and there was no time for us to stop to think: where we should go next? The only goal of TIC then was to stop losing money and make profit ASAP,” the former CEO of TIC and the current CEO of GCN, Mr. Ho indicated.

Therefore the strategy of TIC adopted was “hit and run.” It mostly selected some products with potentials and special features in the market to attract the players with very limited resources.

Online Determined the Oriental 02 Chibi Strategy

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The “hit and run” strategy went on until 2008 and during the time, TIC finally had chance to think how to make a long term arrangement for the company. The internal discussions increased then. How to make the further development for TIC? Mr. Ho suggested, “For other type of game products, Gamania had always been the leader in the market, however there were few Oriental or Chinese Cavalier games. From the perspectives of the whole Group, we (TIC) started to develop oriental-styled games. In 2007, we had Tienchi Online to test the market; 2008, we worked with big company like Perfect World in China for Chibi Online and got good result with the movie ‘Red Cliff’ already heating up the market for us. The following products as Journey to Fairyland Online and KDXY Online were both oriental-styled games. At this time, the whole team has obtained sufficient experience on operating and marketing the oriental-styled products, and we are more certain about the future direction of ours.”

Ronald TIC COO 2004 - 2010

Era: Determined to be the No. 1 03 Gameastor in Pan-oriental Products TIC has formally renamed as “Gameastor” in the tenth year of the establishment of TIC. After the direction and goal were set, the renewal of the brand further proved the determination of Gameastor. Gameastor first hit the market with the master pieces of Chinese Cavalier – Reign of Assassins Online, proceeded with WOF Online which will be launched in the forth season. With the earlier launched Loong Online, MZ Online, and QQ Three Kingdoms Online, the oriental energy of Gameastor in 2010 can not be underestimated.

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GAMANIA

Features

Gameastor’s Potential for Success Maybe it ’ s because Gameastor experienced several organization reforms during these 10 years, every staff member in Gameastor seems to be more resilient than those in other companies. This quality is precisely the potential strength that will lead Gameastor to success. Through the following analysis, G!Voice will let you have a deeper understanding of Gameastor through different angles.

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Players’ Encouragement Outweighs Revenue Result

Even though every game company claims that players come first, Gameastor is truly the only company that proves it to the players through action. Be it Dance Online, Chibi, Elsword, KDXY Online or 15 Online, Gameastor held numerous activities for players. Though these activities did increase the revenue, Gameastor cares more about players’ comments and feedbacks. The team would promptly adjust the game according to players’ feedbacks. Gameastor always seeks to do better and hopes to continue to grow and become a fast-growing company under GHQ.

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01

Never Give Up

During the Taiwan Index period, the company had experienced a major setback where the target product “Hope Online” was recalled by the developer. Lacking income from such major product, the operation was mired in uncertainty. However, that was also the time when the whole team came together to form an unstoppable force. Everyone stuck to its role and never gave up. They support each other like family member, getting through many burning of midnight oil. Members of Gameastor struggled through a difficult period between 2005 and 2008 with grace and dignity which shaped the characters of Gameastor of being persistence and determination.

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Love the Games but Never Forgets the Roots

If you look closely at members of Gameastor, you can see there is an invaluable quality about them: they are simple and they don’t forget where they come from. In Gameastor, everyone operates the game with utmost enthusiasm and pure enjoyment of games. Running a game costs tremendous amount of resource and Gameastor’s financial status did not get better until 2006. In order to fight for more resources to operate the game, colleagues in Gameastor started to become more prudent in expenditure and resource such as turning off appliances to save some electricity bills. They started from small places and hope to grow into a big and fruitful company.

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GAMANIA

Features

Activities Adored by Players As we had mentioned in previous article, Gameastor values its interaction with players greatly and often hosts activities to establish amiable relationships with them. Players’ response and feedbacks often exceed Gameastor’s expectation, now let’s take a look at these memorable events!

Chibi Online: Three Warring States Dinner Speaking of the marketing campaign of Chibi Online, such magnitude is almost unheard of in the industry. When the commercials were launched in TV in Taiwan, the main slogans were heard through out most channels: What happened to Shiao-Chiao?

Save Shiao-Chiao and meet Sonia Sui for dinner! The strategy quickly induced players’ frenzy discussion, making the product the “it” topic of the year. To reflect the majestic atmosphere presented in the game, Gameastor invited stars all over Asia to show up for the press conference, including super model, Sonia Sui (Taiwan’s endorsement person), composer of the theme song, J.J Lin and Wylie Chiu (HK’s endorsement person). This was a symbolic gesture to announce to the public that Gameastor’s official entrance into the oriental marital arts themed market. Gameastor held a Three Warring States Dinner in the name of the fictional character, Shiao-Chiao from Chibi and invited 10 lucky payers to feast upon gourmet and play online games with Sonia Sui. The dinner served as a gesture of appreciation to the players and cleared the doubts/ rumors that whether Sonia really played Chibi Online.

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Elsword: Do it for the Public Good Elsword has been well received since it’s debut launch. To thank the players for their support and recognition and show that Elsword has a big heart, Gameastor held a “Awaken your Enthusiasm for Good Cause” event. Together with well known Taiwan T shirt brand, Outerspace-Fever, they launched a new T shirt. Players can buy virtual Outerspace-fever set (top+pants) or go to retail stores and buy the actual t shirts. Elsword and Outerspacefever donated 10% of total revenue to Child Welfare League Foundation of R.O.C. The fund will be allotted to train volunteers so they can learn how to help the underprivileged children. The total donation was NTD 1 million. The event was supported by hundreds of players which proves that Gameastor is not only good at making games, it kicks ass in doing public good too!

“Awaken your Enthusiasm for Good Cause”—Hundreds of Lucky Players Showed their Passion

Loong Online: 1 million Contest To give Loong Online’s players a field day and showcase the product features, Gameastor held a “1 Million Game Contest” inviting all players to participate. Players may register under “individual” or “group” and compete with players around the world to contend for 1 million reward. In addition to feeling the excitement at the scene, all attendees had a chance to win the rare ride, 9th Sky Fire Beast. The event was very popular with players who filled the scene on the contest day. It is expected that Loong Online’s craze will continue to spread!

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GAMANIA

Features

Widely Recognized Operation Capability From Gameastor ’ s philosophy of success, it is not hard to see why it came to such brilliant achievement this day. Gameastor ’ s operation capability is also widely recognized among many subsidiaries of the Group. Winning 2 Group’s Fiercest Aw a r d i s t h e b e s t p r o o f f o r i t s exceptional operation talent. G!Voice will show you how they successfully created some of the best selling products.

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Jeffrey Chu The Best PM in Mar 2008

Precise Product Position— Journey to Fairyland Developed by Pixel Soft in Beijing and distributed by Tencent, Journey to Fairland is a MMORPG savors of strong Chinese artistic style. It was said to be the fiercest and most successful piece of work in 2008. However, while Taiwan market enjoys cultural diversity in the taste of games, Journey to Fairyland appeared as a new product that carries somewhat strong Chinese style. The biggest challenge for Gameastor at that time was to set up the right product position strategy so that the game can enter Taiwan market swiftly. Under much consideration, Gameastor decided to add in the “Kuso (quirkily subversive)” element in to the game, spending nearly 2 months turning the dialogues between the monsters and pets into humorous style— the likes of which Taiwanese people understand and “dig”.

In the end, Journey to Fairyland, positioned and packaged as a “Cute” game, provided a different vibe of cuteness that combined Chinese’ long-standing culture and the “cute” style, making it more appealing to broader range of players.

Pearl Chang The Best PM in Feb 2010

Alternative Character Marketing— Elsword Developed by KOG in Korea and distributed by Gameastor, Elsword is an online game that combines visual effect of comics and animation, elements of action and adventure.

Since its debut in November 2009, it was well-received in the market, especially the new character, Raven launched in December. However, under overall consideration, Gameastor thought that the number of Raven was still insufficient so it changed the acquisition of the new character, Eve. In addition to the regular channels such as malls and task completion, new activities were held for the acquisition of Eve. If you go online at the designated dates, you will gain one Eve. The strategy worked like a charm, the concurrent log-in number soared to 20,000, the number of participants and paid members also increased. The activity made the revenue improved by 2.8 times. Elsword broke even within 3 months since the launch. Judging from players’ feedbacks left on the message board, the activity successfully turned around players’ negative impression about game company only wants to make money.

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GAMANIA

Features

Cultural Observation of Gameastor The former CEO of Gameastor was assigned from the Gamania, Mr. Ho after being culturally baptized by Gamania wished to bring and carry that culture to TIC. Therefore, there were “gathering time” – the communication time for Mr. Ho and the faculty and to announce the important policy of the company; twice dinner parties a year to improve and forge strong relationships among employees. From 2008, TIC would host an office event every season so that there can be more interactions among employees other than work itself. The office event is the most essential part of Gameastor culture. Ideas were inspired from these events.

Therefore G!Voice has selected several interesting events held by Gameastor to show the readers the unique culture of Gameastor.

Wall Decorating Each department selected its own wall and elaborated the creativity freely.

The main purpose was to improve the working environment and working mood of the faculty. Unexpectedly, each department pulled their best to build the wall of their own special features. The visitors and guests can get if they are in the marketing, customer services, or design department as soon as they see the wall. There are coconut flavored “Guaiguai”(which means behaving in a good and obedient manner) snack on the server in customer services because everyone hopes the server can behave and be good.

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The all of customer service department: a painted blackboard with the annual goals on it.

The wall of Administration Department: Creatively described their working process with Monopoly.

Wall of Marketing Department: games, games, and more games.

Wall of Design Department: one can imagine what it's like to work overtime in their minds when seeing this.

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GAMANIA

Features Green Event The financial situation of Gameastor didn’t turn for the better until 2006 therefore everyone here is used to saving the energy as well as money.

The utility fee chart would be pasted on the wall of Gameastor office every month. During the lunch hour, all the lights in office would be turned off to save the energy. In order to practice the idea of loving the earth, Gameastor held the Green Event. Each department got seeds, soil, pots, and growing logs from the Administration and had to take two pictures of the plants each season to be pasted on the growing log chart with 50 words written about the cultivation. This event not only improved the interactions among staff but also provided a rich spiritual feast of green environment through the plant cultivation.

My Childhood To facilitate strong bonds among staff and recollect their childhood memory, Gameastor held the event of “My Childhood”. Staff was asked to provide pictures of themselves taken before the age of 10, and the administration department sorted out the pictures and put out the files for voting. There were many interesting awards: A man at five may be a fool at fifteen Award (cute as a kid but…), Ugly Duckling Award (ugly as a kid but turned out fabulous now), All the Same Award (look hasn’t changed throughout the years), and Who Are You Award (look has changed so much so that one can’t even tell the person now…perhaps plastic surgery?). This event was very interesting and received rich feedbacks from the employees.

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Gold Writer Award In addition to having fun, creativity is also important to a game company. Gameastor held the TIC Gold Writer Award and invited staff to post their poems, lyrics, and articles on the company blog and brainstorm. Whoever posts their works will be rewarded with a cute pen which caused high participation rate. The winner of originality was rewarded with a classic pen of international brand. In addition, to promote the event, the administration department offered one point for the department that has at least one person who participates and each point may cash in NT5. The more posts being uploaded, the more reward points will be given to serve as the budget for dinner party at the end of the year.

Desk Decoration Competition

Champion: Night Club Style: Room 78

Gameastor found out about the amazing energy of creativity in the company through the Wall Decoration Event and decided to carry out the same topic but switched the location to the supervisor’s room. It was grouped by the seat locations, there were four teams and team members in the same area had to cooperate and decorate the closest supervisor’s room. There were no limitations on the topics of decorations and because the purpose was to inspire creative ideas, each team only got $1,000 for subsidy. This is a test to see how one can achieve Merry Christmas POP House the best result with the Style lowest budget in the most environmental friendly ways. The evaluation criteria were “creativity” and “ sincerity. ” The topics of each group were “Mediterranean Toilet Style,” “POP House,” “Night Club Style: Room 78,” and “Merry Christmas Style.” And the winner was “Night Club Room 78” who spent the least money but the final outcome was colorful and fanciful.

Mediterranean Toilet Style

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GAMANIA

Features

Breaking Down Gameastor

Reshaping a Whole New Brand From TIC to Gameastor, so different in its tones and styles: after the transformation, Gameastor became like a person with a sharp personality, proper name, values, principles and visions to be realized. How did Gameastor play it all out? How will it play for the future? Let G!Voice break it all down for you.

Naming & Identification As a brand that operates the oriental themed games in the Group, the name has to be self-evident. Coming from the East and knows the best about the game, that’s the meaning of Gameastor, as simple as that. The purpose of the game is for fun, therefore it also means that Gameastor is an expert in playing and having fun.

Gameastor savors of rich oriental game style, it also symbolizes that Gameastor strives to become the entertainment expert that knows the most about the East.

Gameastor’s logo design adopted the color tone of oriental turquoise. The dynamic cloud icon doing the strides symbolizes its unique character of fun, entertaining, positive and progressive.

Originating from the East, striding free and unrestrained, this vivacious cloud sends out a message that it will “lead the trend of oriental themed games”.

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Core Value Just like Gamania’s core value is expressed through 6 letters, F.A.M.I.L.Y., which captured Albert’s biggest aspiration for Gamania, “I wish all Gamanians could settle here like one big family.”, Gameastor’s “EAST” also can be interpreted through these 4 letters. They represent Gameastor’s brand value as well as their promise for the players.

E

A Achiever

Explorer

Full of curiosity, love to explore, dare to try new things. Having fun is a like a brilliant adventure.

S

Entertainment revolution is led by us. We shall overthrow game industry and upgrade fun experience to a higher level.

T

Soldier

Wisdom, energy, stamina, courage formed an absolutely fierce legion, we challenge the limits of entertainment and we never give up.

Team-player

Love games, but love players more. Listen to what the players have to say and live up to our promise with passion.

Corporate Culture & Vision

Love to play is the core spirit of Gamania. Every member of the Group has to have that DNA ingrained in them.

Gameastor not only prides itself as a fun-practitioner but is taking everyone having fun in the East. Fun Together is the corporate spirit of Gameastor as well as the most passionate commitment we promise to our players. It is the most important attitude for living our lives, working and playing games. This slogan not only represents the passion and optimism the brand embraces, but the core code of conduct for Gameastor.

The long standing Chinese culture has passed on for generations, over the course of 5,000 years, it encompasses abundant cultural diversity. Gameastor is determined to be the only leading brand in the East and the first choice of game agent company. Actively developing oriental themes and become the entertainment expert that knows all about Eastern culture.

Arousing players desire for oriental themed games with broader, more interesting and diverse genres. Gameastor seeks to bring the players to the East and have a field day.

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GAMANIA

Features

New Name, New Beginning—Gameastor is Ready to Strike After changing a new name, the next step is to spread the words out so that the whole world will know that Taiwan Index Corporation (TIC) has officially become Gameastor.

Before Gameastor starts its strike in the market, how would it tell the world about it?

Please read on G!Voice for campaign features!

First Year of Gameastor: Kick Off Meeting Before announcing the news, the most important thing is for hundreds of employees in Gameastor to come together and unit as one. In order for everyone to clearly understand the reason and purpose for TIC’s name change and the company’s future goal and vision, Gameastor decided to host a grand kick off meeting on September 1st 2010, the 10th anniversary of TIC. During the kick off meeting, former COO of Gameastor, Ronald Ho talked about the past 10 years TIC had been through and announced the reason for the name change. The games TIC had been operating for the recent years has gradually turned into oriental themed games.

To reinforce the strategic role TIC plays in the group, it’s been decided that oriental themed online games will be the main operation force in the future.

Gameastor as a new brand name seeks to become the leading brand for such games. CEO of Gamania, Albert also went on stage and wore the new ID badges for Gameastor’s new management. The staff also collected their new ID badges at the same day. Lastly, everyone gathered around to take a group picture as the perfect ending for the kick off meeting.

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From TIC to Gameastor: 10 Years of Achievement Video: http://www.youtube.com/v/TpsAX7G269M?fs=1

Gameastor: Media Conference To re-launch Gameastor as a new brand, Gameastor hosted a media conference, inviting media to witness Gameastor’s 10year brand story. A wall that showed Gameastor’s history and spirit was set erected at the venue. The wall had the milestones for the past 10 years, agent products and brand value: E.A.S.T. A video was also playing at the scene to show Gameastor’s achievement for these 10 years so the media can easily understand what the brand is all about. In addition, Gameastor also prepared surprising gifts for the media, a stationary set with Gameastor’s new identity design. This not only showed Gameastor’s determination after the name change, but its confidence and focus on the new brand.

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GAMANIA

Features

Interview of Gameastor COO, Vincent Due to staff re-organization in GHQ, COO of GTW, Vincent took up the role as COO of Gameastor in September 2010. The team may need some time to adjust to this sudden change, but the new COO clearly pointed out the joint target the team should aim at.

What target is that? Please read on our exclusive interview.

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When asked about how he was designated as the COO of Gameastor, Vincent said there were two reasons for that: 1. former COO Ronald Ho was transferred to GCN, there wasn’t any appropriate talent in such a short time; 2. from Group’s standpoint, GTW has abundant market resources due to the accumulation of several periods. If we could wisely distribute these resources we could minimize unnecessary waste and become more efficient and effective. He took back-office operation for example, in his opinion, Administration, HR and Customer Service units can be integrated as one single unit so that Gameastor can get out there and fight without worrying about its support.

In addition, Vincent also said that actually the targets for both companies are very clear: Gameastor focuses on oriental series games and GTW focuses on other diversified

genres in the market. These two never had any conflicts in the market and they can put all their efforts into securing market shares with a solid and integrated back-office resource platform. Under such integration, GTW and Gameastor will storm in the markets from different direction and take the Taiwan market with it. And group will be one step closer to becoming No. 1 in the world.

As to Gameastor ’ s future strategic planning, Vincent said that the shorter goal is to become the No.1 brand for the oriental themed games in Taiwan. “Our market competitor is Chinese Gamer, I think in the future the team will focus on one thing only: dominating the oriental themed market.

And by 2012, we expect to become the No.1 brand for the pan-oriental themed games in Taiwan market.”

Vincent Gameastor COO 2010

Feature Interview on Current COO of Gameastor, Vincent

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GAMANIA

Column

Key to UNIQLO's Success gamaniabrandcenter Design Observation A blog jointly written by the members of Gamania brand center where you can find the opinions and observations on brands, marketing, and designs from designers, executives, musicians, exhibiter, creators and even aliens. G!Voice reposted the diverse and copious content to the magazine so that Gamanians can communicate and exchange thoughts with them via internet.

Website: gamaniabrandcenter.blogspot.com

Official Website of Uniqlo Taiwan

Recently, there has been media frenzy about the “it” brand, UNIQLO, since it opened its very first store in Uni-President Hankyu Department Store in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. The first day of its opening attracted more than 7,000 people. The brand aims for “Low price, high quality” but is this the only reason it gained such mega success in sales around the world? The truth is, there is a much more significant “Cultural Creativity Spirit” behind it.

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UNIQLO is probably the most talkabout clothing brand in recent years. It started off as a malregistered name and turned out to be a household name, even a world renowned brand. (The original name being Uni-clo but was mispronounced and misspelt as Uniqlo). Secondly, the president, Tadashi Yanai became the wealthiest man in Japan because of his “ af fordable clothing” sales concept. Thirdly,

every time there is a new store opening anywhere around the globe, UNIQLO never fails to attract massive amount of peole.

From the garments to world class product, what exactly did UNIQLO do? What incredible elements did it fuse in to shape it as a world class brand? I think the point lies in the unique “Cultural Creativity Element ” . This distinguishes UNIQLO from other traditional garment manufacturers and

advanced itself into a brand that sells and markets culture and creativity. The brand makes consumers feel that they are not only buying clothes, but creativity as well.

To achieve this kind of appeal, UNIQLO made many reforms and revolutions. Firstly, they started with their own brand logo. They invited Kashiwa Sato, Art Director of SAMURA to do the design. He chose crimson as the logo color

Bank Run: http://www.UNIQLO.com/jp/

Physical Stores of Uniqlo

and adopted Katakana to create specific Japanese visual effect so that the “Made in Japan” image can imprint in consumers’ head from their first look.

Next, UNIQLO extends its string of creativity to their physical stores in an almost exhibition manner (such as UT ’ s canned T-shirt) to achieve the surprise effect so that the customers can enjoy shopping just like they enjoy browsing interesting exhibitions.

They also target on internet communities and did a series of brand marketing online (such as Uniqlo Mix, Unilolock, Uniqlo_ Grid, Uniqlo Lucky Line in Taiwan, Uniqlo Lucky Machine etc) Even though some people may not understand what their website is

Minimalism Design + J Series

all about, but it leaves a lasting impression on them as being fun and interesting.

However, how did UNIQLO once again turn around the impression consumers have for average price clothing? In addition to the improvement on fabric quality, the most important thing is to add elements that normal garments don ’ t have — Sense of Design and Fashion. UNIQLO invited toptier international fashion designer, Jil Sander to collaborate on the J series, upgrading UNIQLO to international mega fashion brands.

Thanks to these innovations and reforms, UNIQLO had its rebirth, transformed to a unique brand.

From design, manufacture,

marketing to distribution channels, each detail is carefully monitored and fused with creativity. If it weren ’ t for UNIQLO, I think no one would every think an average garment brand would achieve such incredible success. The most famous and signatory industries for Taiwan are electronics and manufacturing. Perhaps now someone would start taking “culture+ creativity” more seriously? UNIQLO’s success is perhaps the thrust that Taiwanese industries need so they could work on things they deem unimportant in the past.

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How Brand Facilitate Application Marketing About Writer

Mika

Internet marketing observer in Taiwan Mika has been working in the field of marketing for more than 10 years, managing from brand strategy, product concept to market launch. He cares about the traditional marketing models and also pays attentions to the changes of Web 2.0, Social Media, and etc…

Blog:http://jabamay.blogspot.com/

Bank Run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ohhf0p8CFM&feature =player_embedded

Have you noticed several communication companies in Taiwan all have launched marketing pitches such as “Give you customized cell phone”: Aurora said, “Our service is so easy that even grandma can play smart cell phone.”; Senao said, “Same cell phone, but Jack uses it to the T.”; Vibo said, “Smart phone, one touch and you’re hooked!” All of these slogans lie in one simple tool-millions of software. These software programs mix and match into the combo that suits you the best: game phone, stock phone, Jack-of-all-trade phone or business phone that emphasizes on documents, mails and briefing features. The dominant factor that gives the product the extra edge is no longer the hard square format of the product, but the application programs that showcase the soft power.

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From brand’s perspective, application programs not only help the brand to shape up its image, increase interaction and communication, but reinforce service quality and extend product experience.

AXA, a French based company as well as one of the biggest insurance companies in the world knows it all too well. To enhance their products’ service quality, they planned out a series of programs to help and guild their clients to deal with claims and compensation

during traffic accidents. They even designed an advertisement for this on the newspaper. In the advertisement there was a scene of an incredible traffic accident, cars piled up like Stackz and then there was an empty box of 1:1 iPhone icon in the middle. You can’t get around what actually happened at the scene unless you download iPhone App from AXA. You’ll know what happened when you put the phone at that empty box of the advertisement and play the

rest then you’ll know what’s going on.

As it turned out, at the scene of the accident, there was a gigantic King Kong that stomped and cracked the road.

Consequently all the cars parked along side the road flew up on the sky and stacked on top of one another.

Maybe you’d think, “Not everyone has an iPhone, for those who don’t, wouldn’t it be a biased and useless ad?” AXA reviewed the survey and

1 Innovative advertisement scheme: 2D ad+iPhone Application Bank Run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ohhf0p8CFM&feature=player_ embedded

2 Quality interactive film that features live scene.

Bank Run: http://www.bankrungame.com/

3 Shooting game that assimilates to game machine Bank Run: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bank-run/id347639662?mt=8# 1

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revealed that as high as 66% of the customers don ’t know how to deal with a traffic accident properly. Therefore AXA tried to look for a solution for their clients to collect and process all the necessary procedures to speed up the reimbursement. A cell phone which everyone carries with wherever they go is precisely the best solution; all you have to do is “install all the necessary information in a step by step procedure and photo the accident for evidence.”

The right product should be promulgated through the right communication channels so the consumers can identify with it. An advertisement that needs a downloaded application to complete is the most direct way of communication.

Not only can the target clients see it as a creative ad but most importantly, they get to download the necessary application program that could actually enhance the service quality. Killing two birds with one

stone!

Another interesting example was launched by a digital marketing company, Silk Tricky. The product, Bank Run combined movie, game and interactive program. The product is special because you get to watch an interactive prologue film that leads you into the plot of the game. However, after you complete all the tasks online, you still couldn’t enter part 2 and know the ending unless you download it from iPhone.

The prologue film starts like this, the lead character Evan Sharp was a financial analyst who got ran over by a van and lay on the ground with bare breath. At this junction, the time went back 12 hours ago before the accident took place. There were 9 check points in the film where you need to complete and make a choice.

Each decision will affect the result and lead to a different end in the film, you

may terminate the character’s life early or carry on further. The film savors of classic Hollywood plot: the male leading character received a series of unknown attacks, though with the help of FBI undercover female colleague, still got shot and severely wounded. Towards the end, the main character brought the USB stored with important information to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. Would he make it? Well, Silk Tricky wants you to download it on iPhone to find out!

Silk Tricky turned a prologue film that tells the background of the game into an online interactive film. When you’re much involved in the game and wish to know the ending, you can’t help but buy the game. This is Silk Trick’s extension of usage experience and marketing scheme. What a way to promote a game!

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GAMANIA

Events

Feature Report

A locale for Gamania internal cultureexchangea n d f o r expressing ultimate creativities and crazy ideas, SPACE 17 is the exhibition space for Gamanians.

Each month, we curate exhibitions and featured events. Creative talents, such as ar t ists and designers are also invited to have speeches from time to time. In the future, we are planning to share more creative concepts as well as to discover more interesting people and what is happening inside Gamania.

A Design Film Festival

8 Heavy-Weight Design Courses for Gamania In light of the importance “ Design ” has for creative industry, this year, SPACE 17 collaborated with Felix Ng, our Singapore exhibition organizer and introduced an international design festival, the unprecedented “A Design Film Festival Taipei Edition”.

The debut date of the festival was set in October 12 at Garden Court, attracting many avid fans of design and arts to watch the show.

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The A Design Film Festival that took place last month in SPACE 17 was more than just a film festival, it was also a series of 8 heavy-weight courses of aesthetics and creativity. Judging from the list of films, these 8 films cover fields of contemporary art, graphic design, graffiti art, architectural design and motion image and include world class masters including, the most influential architect, Rem Koolhaas, architectural photographer, Julius Shulman, American iconic graphic designer, Milton Glaser and worked compiled by world renowned image/design exhibition Onedotzero.

Film Introduction Herb & Dorothy

Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect

Back in the 60s where minimalism and conceptual art were not yet available, the lovely couple, Herbert and Dorothy started to acquire these yet-to-beknown art pieces with their limited incomes. Their passion for art collecting lasts over 30 years and they own more than 2000 pieces of art works, some even worth millions of dollars. In 1992, they decided to give all the collection to Notational Gallery of Art in Washington DC without charging a dime so that more people have opportunities to see what they love the most in their lives.

This is not only a story of design and art but a story of love.

Dutch designer, Rem Koolhaas is recognized as the most influential, creative and dynamic architect. His works include the CCTV building in Beijing, Dutch ambassador building in Berlin, Casa Da Musica in Portugal or the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas etc. Once a journalist, Koolhaas thinks that an architect must probe deep into the culture and live of a city through the eyes of a journalist and minds of a sociologist. He is an alternative architect and also a master who requires our deeper understanding and appreciation.

Visual Acoustics

Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight Milton Glaser ’ s most well-known signature design is the I NY, a powerful and influential logo and identification.

For many years, Milton Glaser not only participated in major design projects but collaborated with other artists and created many avant-garde pieces.

This made him the iconic figure in the contemporary graphic design in the U.S. Through the movie, you can see how this contemporary master keep his creativity flowing endlessly.

Beautiful Losers A documentary directed by artist Aaron Rose and director Joshua Leonard, Beautiful Losers faithfully documented the rise of street artists such as Shepard Fairy (Obey), Mark Gonzales, Spike Jonze in the 90s in New York City. A story that combines surfing, skateboarding, punk, hip pop, graffiti and other creative activities, turning over a new leaf of contemporary art.

There are many contemporary master photographers, but Julius Shulman is said to be the greatest. Starting in 30s, he shot many avant-garde pieces of the architecture works done by topnotch modern architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra. Many compelling and mesmerizing photos were taken under his lance,. The film not only documented the evolution of modern architecture but also the profile of this wise and dynamic photography master.

Craftwork In the digital time, a group of image creators decided to express their concepts through handmade and hand drawn images. The most influential visual design exhibition organizer, Onedotzero, compiled mainstream, alternative, commercial and artistic pieces all at once. If you want to see the coolest hand crafted images in the world, you do not want to miss this.

Extended Play 09’ Adding new creativities into the well-known topics or story films, breaking the traditional narrative mode is the most important spirit of Extended Play.

Whether it is presented in 2D, 3D or actual image collage, Extended Play 09’ shows them to you with an interesting, humorous or novel twist to overthrow our conventional habits of image watching.

J-Star 09’ The works compiled in J-Star came from the most brilliant and creative image producers and emerging artists such as the director of Usavich, Satoshi Tomioka and multi-media design group, Groovisions. Other MV and short animations also savor of quirky humor and creativity.

Organizing team of SPACE 18 said that, “We’re very pleased and lucky to have this opportunity to introduce A Design Film Festival in Gamania. Even though currently, design is no a strange subject in Taiwan, most people find it difficult or unapproachable at times. Films is a form of pop art and also a medium that is easily accessible which is why we want to show everyone the ideas behind the design through showing the design films. We believe that for creative Gamanians, it would be very helpful. ” To see more, please go to http://space17gallery.blogspot.com

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GAMANIA

Events Gamania Lecture:

Singapore Organizer: Felix Ng

Sharing his creativity and A Design Film Festival In addition to holding A Design Film Festival, SPACE 17 also invited Singapore exhibition organizer, Felix to Gamania. Though Felix is young, he is a well-known designer and international exhibition planner/organizer.

Felix shared his creative concepts about his past works and exhibitions. He even brought his latest graphic design work, Bracket as a gift to Gamanians at the venue.

Felix first introduced his design firm, Silnt, sharing his thoughts on the events and exhibitions he had participated in recent years including Dual City Sessions, Help Save Paper and A Design Film Festival. He said that through these various exhibitions, he was given the opportunity to get in touch with brilliant designer and artists around the world and different ideas in each place.

When asked about the motive to plan and organize A Design Film Festival, he said that he’d seen many themed festivals, such as female film festival, animation festival, gay film festival but he’d never recalled watching a film festival that is about design. Therefore he started to search on the website to see whether there is any festivals that are about designs. Surprisingly, there was none. Subsequently, he started to organize the film festival. It received critical acclaims in Singapore and Berlin, and will be showing in Bangkok and Helsinki in the near future.

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