New Games Site for Women Attracts Over 350,000 Impressions in First Month June 2004
3RD sense, the specialist play agency, last month launched Chickstop, the first website dedicated to women who play online games www.chickstop.com. In May, its first month of operation, the site had more than 357,000 page impressions and signed up just over 1000 members, 98% of whom are women.
'Women form a large, and unacknowledged, audience of online games players,' said Chickstop Editor, Suzie Cardwell. 'Most games sites are designed by men for men, however, numbers of women players match, and in some cases surpass, those of men on some of the largest games portals on the web. The results from Chickstop's first month of operation bear out that popularity.'
Data from the site's membership base shows that 86% of the site audience is aged 18-34 and that users access the site both in the office and at home.
'We see a cross section of women from office workers to stay-at-home Mum's with web access,' said Cardwell. 'The site has two peak usage periods, the first at lunchtime and the second in mid to late evening after the kids are in bed.'
She went on to say that the site offers an opportunity for advertisers and brands who are looking for this female audience with advertising options including branded games, banners, overlays advertorial and promotional opportunities.
'The opportunity for advertisers is obvious,' said Cardwell. 'The Chickstop audience controls both high levels of disposable income and much of the household spend. Sony has already recognised this potential and are using the site to promote their new female-targeted PS2 game, Singstar,' she said.
3RD sense carefully targeted their game selection for the site at genres popular with women. These include trivia, word, quiz, puzzle, card and strategy style games.
'Games like Tetris, Find-a-Word, Hangman, Solitaire and attract largely female audiences,' said Cardwell. 'These games are easy to learn and provide quick distraction, but are deeply immersive, resulting in long session times.'
3RD sense has also built in a number of features to encourage site loyalty. Chickstop has its own virtual currency, �Lollies'. Every user has their own Lollies account which they can track online on the site. Users can win more Lollies by playing, purchase more Lollies using the site's secure payment system and spend their Lollies on entering the site's weekly prize competition.
Other features like a forum, in which users can discuss the games and other topics of interest, scoreboards and player ranking system and weekly email updates all encourage a sense of community and repeat user visits.
