SPROUT. |

Building a retail gaming proposition

business problem:

______________

We have enjoyed strong growth, but growth is slowing. Gaming is growing. What do we need to do to grow at the rate of the category?

objectives

______________

Develop a business strategy to drive growth, consider omnichannel, products, comms, and brand. Better understand current gamers’ needs, pain points, and behaviours so we can service those needs effectively and uniquely.

methodology

______________

We developed a gaming ‘world’ to allow for observation, questions, and ideation. Two levels were designed to gain insight through games, videos, and activities. To solve the business problem, we needed to immerse ourselves in their world and observe gamers’ real-time behaviour

LEVEL 1: 72 HOUR GAMER IMMERSION

  • In our online qualitative platform (QuallieTM), we invited gamers to join a virtual room. Each room was a different gaming segment, and we collected detailed insight into each player. Independently and as a group, gamers completed activities focusing on gaming behaviors, pain points, unmet needs, brand preferences, and expectations. Feedback was captured through videos, text, and sharing real-time gaming experiences. This helped understand the cohort, their needs, unmet needs, pain points and behaviours online.

LEVEL 2: GAMER SQUAD SESSIONS

  • Some Level 1 gamers were identified and then invited to a Gamer Squad session – a face-to-face online event (Using Quallie™ focus group technology). The gaming squad was presented with several challenges to ‘hack’. The session included conversations and an ideation session, facilitated by a moderator and whiteboard on Mira to capture the outcomes. This helped to optimise the current product, marketing and brand experience.

outcomes

______________

A strategy for the gaming category and how to win, including recommendations for omnichannel, product and brand strategy, plus a go-to-market plan. This is the basis of current marketing activity, product development, and store/online activity.

Like to chat about your project?

Alex Holland

Insights & Strategy Consultant / Planet 30 Researcher

Gen Yuksel

Insights & Strategy Consultant / Planet 30 Researcher

Callum Adams

Senior Insights & Strategy Consultant / Planet 30 Researcher

Joining the team in 2019, Callum is a Senior Insights and Strategy Consultant at Sprout. The greatest satisfaction he gets from his job is helping clients understand where their potential for growth lies, particularly via customer understanding programs. Callum’s current focus is building out Sprout’s technology platforms.

He recognises that the industry is being reshaped by new digital trends and technologies such as AI. As well as automating and streamlining inefficient processes, they will enable the ability to produce rapid and crucial insights.

Before Sprout, he worked as a project manager at Dapresy, a dashboard visualisation company. His role at Dapresy gave him an excellent introduction to the market research industry in Australia, where he worked closely with many of the major agencies. In 2020, he completed his Bachelor of Commerce at Australian Catholic University.

When he is not at work, Callum likes to workout and surf.

Lily Adams
Insights & Strategy Consultant / Planet 30 Researcher

Lily started working part-time at Sprout in 2018 when she finished school. Since then she has moved into a full time role. She simply loves her job. She appreciates that she has so many great people around her to learn from and in whose footsteps she can follow.

When she was younger Lily would watch her mum (Elisa) run focus groups, She would travel with her and assist with these groups. From about 10 years old she knew she wanted to do the same thing!

In her spare time is a competitive cheerleader and is likely to be found training in a gym.

Kate Harrison

Senior Insights & Strategy Consultant / Planet 30 Lead

Anna Mitchell
Director of Insights & Strategy

Anna has recently joined Sprout Strategy as Head of Strategy and Insights, bringing considerable commercial expertise and a passion for creating narratives, based on insights, that drive meaningful change.  She has considerable research and consumer insights experience in working for both agencies and clients, across a multiple and diverse range of industries and campaigns.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Business, majoring in marketing and IT management, Anna immediately began her career when she started working for a market research agency.  She spent a number of years travelling around the country doing qualitative research for a range of companies including nappy manufacturers, lottery agencies, food companies and financial institutions.

She then switched to the client side when she joined the insights team at Suncorp. She observed that despite the great work being done on generating insights, much of it was not being applied to improving the business and opportunities were being lost. This realisation has fuelled her passion for connecting insights to strategy that, in turn, drive behavioural change.

She also became very focused on activating insights that improved the employee experience as well as the customer experience. She believes the industry, as a whole, needs to become better at activating insights and leveraging data to create compelling narratives that help elevate the customer and promote customer centricity.

In her spare time, Anna loves to cook. She finds that cooking is a great way to relax and overcome stress. Someday, Anna has a dream of moving to the country to raise animals on a farm as well as become self-sufficient and setup a bed and breakfast.

Natasha Jarrah

General Manager

Natasha is the General Manager at Sprout Strategy. It’s her job to ensure everything runs smoothly at Sprout. Her greatest satisfaction comes from enabling the Sprout team to deliver great work by helping to create an environment that is positive, nurturing and puts people before process.

She views her job, and business in general, as being about ‘uncomplicating’ things for people. It’s about making it easy to do business. Make it easy to connect with customers – understand what people really want and not just what they say they want.

Natasha has over twenty years experience in helping businesses succeed, starting at high school when she worked at her father’s business during the holidays. In 1990 she graduated from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Business. She completed her MBA at George Washington University in Washington DC.

Natasha believes in the importance of community and helping others to achieve their goals. She is committed to the values of honesty, integrity and loyalty, embracing a philosophy and world view that expresses compassion, understanding and pursuit of a higher truth.

In her spare time, she loves going to the beach and walking her dog Kuta.

Elisa Adams

CEO

Elisa is the CEO and founder of Sprout Strategy and FutureEQ. For the past 30 years she has been at the forefront of understanding human behaviour and using this knowledge to help her clients grow their business.

Being passionate about understanding the full human story, Elisa has devoted herself to studying the latest theories, techniques and strategies around behavioural research and science. Most recently she has completed study at Harvard Business School on how to use Behavioural Economics to drive behavioural change.

Her knowledge and expertise has aided some of the largest and most prestigious corporations in Australia including Telstra, Subway and Suncorp. She also works with smaller clients, helping them to develop a better understanding of their target audience and the motivations that drive their customer’s behaviour.

She is an exceptional and thoughtful business advisor. A constant source of inspiration for the people around her, she is always looking for ways to improve the results she delivers to her clients. Elisa is a member of the Research Society, AMSRO, AMI, AICD and ESOMAR. She is currently completing her Certificate of Management Excellence at Harvard Business School.