Financial Entertainment - The Midas Collaborative©2010 D2DFund, Inc.© 2012 D2D Fund, Inc. 3 Financial Entertainment: Key Milestones 2008-2009 First title, Celebrity Calamity, launched2009

©2012 D2DFund, Inc.

Financial Entertainment

October 9, 2012

4th Annual MFEC SummitMeasuring Impact & Making a Difference

Can Games Build Financial Capability?

©2010 D2DFund, Inc.© 2012 D2D Fund, Inc.

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© 2012 D2D Fund, Inc.

• Mission: Strengthen financial opportunity and security of low and moderate-income consumers by innovating, incubating and stimulating new financial products and policies

• Focus on innovation, scale, and real-world testing

• Founded by then Harvard Business School Professor Peter Tufano in 2000

• Non-profit 501(c)3 headquartered in Boston

Doorways to Dreams (D2D) Fund


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Financial Entertainment: Key Milestones

2008-2009 First title, Celebrity Calamity, launched2009 Celebrity Calamity wins Horizon Award2009-2010 Four additional titles developed and launched2010 Financial Entertainment Portal launched (April)2010 RAND-sponsored Congressional briefing (Nov)2009-2011 Distribution strategy tests2011 American Banker reports on fin. institution collaboration2011 Farm Blitz wins EIFLE award, is finalist for Direct Impact award -Games for Change Festival2011 Bilingual portal site launched (beta version)2011 Celebrity Calamity Mobile launched on iPlatform2011 250,000 Portal Visits in 18 months (September)

2011 President’s Council on Financial Capability (Nov)2011 AFCPE Outstanding Education Program of the Year (Nov)2011 NEEBC Best Practices Award – Staples (Dec)2012 Boston Globe article on Staples/NY Life collaboration (Feb)2012 NYLRS wins an Eddy Award for the Staples Bite Club project (Mar)2012 Staples invited to White House event on Financial Capability (May)


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• Popular– 72% of Americans play video games– Bejeweled – copy sold every 4.3 seconds– Angry Birds – 700MM Downloads– FarmVille: 83MM active users (2010)

• Accessible– Casual games can be learned quickly, played

for minutes or hours– Inexpensive entertainment, often free– Smartphone / Facebook play growing fast

• Non-traditional player– Average social gamer: 43-year-old female– 74%+ of casual game buyers are women– 35% of social gamers have no previous video

game experience

Sources: NPD Group, August, 2008; ESA, 2009; Tech-Crunch

Why Casual / Social Games?


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Video Games: Four Main Elements of Learning

Learning to Learn

Games teach users how to play as they pass through each level by introducing new concepts or degrees of difficulty

Levels are just hard enough for the user that they encourage learning and adaptation of new skills, evolve in complexity and result in simultaneous feelings of pleasure and frustration

Practice

Levels allow for distributed practice across time, which reinforces skills

Users can learn at their own pace- games typically allow users to play levels until skills are acquired

Repetition—users can replay levels that they may have already mastered to reinforce their skills

Motivation

The graphics, sound, and action of a game stimulate players, drawing them in and motivating them to learn to play

Users are motivated to win the game, and therefore require that they learn new skills required for successful game completion

Transferable Skills

Users are often forced to make good decisions under stress, make moral choices, take risks, and deal with an onslaught of data

Higher order thinking skills such as problem solving, strategic thinking, and interpretative analysis are often required to play


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www.financialentertainment.org

Library of games– Celebrity Calamity: Manage credit & debt– Groove Nation: Dance budget game– Bite Club: Vampire retirement savings– FarmBlitz: Manage resources to build savings– Refund Rush: Make the most of a tax refund– Celebrity Calamity Mobile: App Store


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EngageConsumers

Cultivate Self-

EfficacyEnable Action

Support Behavior

Realize Outcome

Theory of Change


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Theory of Change 1: Engage Consumers

Sustained engagement is a challenge for traditional financial education

Financial Entertainment shifts the outreach frame (from “attend this course” to “check out this cool vampire game!”)

Engagement in games increasing engagement in traditional programming

Research Questions

Under what circumstances will consumers, especially LMI consumers, play Financial Entertainment titles?

What gameplay features keep consumers engaged?


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– Channels & Partners+ Financial institutions + Employers & Plan Sponsors+ Schools / Universities+ Government+ NGOs+ Military

Distribution Testing


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Pilots

U.S. Military – Ft. Hood

• Approach– Custom website– Partner with Command Financial

Specialist– Tournaments with prizes,

awards ceremony

• Results– 6,000 plays– 1,300 registered players– 63% had incomes < $40K – Avg. time playing: 43min

Ivy Tech Community College

• Approach– Tournaments– Facebook and Twitter– Campus homepage

• Results– 45,000 plays– 4,500 registered players– 82% had incomes < $40k– Avg. time playing: 31min


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Theory of Change 2: Cultivate Financial Self-Efficacy

Financial Self-Efficacy: Justified self-confidence in one’s own ability to handle specific financial situations

This includes several components:

•Having Fun•Reducing anxiety/stress•Building self-confidence•Increasing financial knowledge•Generating an attitude open to taking action

Research Questions:

•Are players having fun? Does the “game frame” reduce stress and anxiety? •Do Financial Entertainment titles increase financial knowledge and skills?•Do Financial Entertainment titles promote positive changes in financial self-confidence, attitudes, and values?•Which gameplay features promote financial self-efficacy?


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• Design– Randomized Comparison Trial of Farm Blitz vs. printed materials– Sample: 200 LMI adults– Demographics– Pre-post surveys for confidence & knowledge– Offers for financial actions offered post-treatment

• Promising Results– Statistically significant improvements in confidence & knowledge– Take-up of savings offers, including buying US Savings Bonds

D2D’s Bootstrap RCT: Farm Blitz


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1. The interest rate (sometimes called APR) determines how fast money will grow. Whether that money is debt or savings.

2. For you, the consumer, a loan (debt) with a 3% interest rate is a better deal than a loan with a 20% interest rate.

3. For you, the consumer, a savings account with a 3% interest rate is a better deal than a savings account with a 1.25% interest rate.

4. Compound interest is when your interest earns interest5. Compound interest makes your savings account grow faster6. Compound interest makes a loan (debt) grow faster7. Finance charges on debt typically grow faster than interest earned on

savings.8. Finance charges are fees charged to the borrower to use someone else's

money.9. Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2%

per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow: more than $102, exactly $102, or less than $102?

RCT Financial Knowledge Questions (True/False)


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On a scale from 1 (not confident) to 5 (very confident), how confident are you that you can:

1.Not take on more debt than I can handle.2.Start saving money.3.Avoid finance charges.4.Pay my debt on a regular basis.5.Save money regularly.6.Manage my finances.7.Use savings to pay off debt.8.Allow savings to grow by not taking it out.9.Avoid high interest debt.10.Save for financial emergencies.

RCT Financial Self-Confidence Questions


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1. Provide email to receive more information on how to save and prepare for emergencies

2. Make a 3-month commitment to save and provide email address for reminders

3. Receive a free credit report4. Buy a U.S. Savings Bond with $50 experiment

stipend

RCT Offers for Financial Action


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RCT Financial Self Confidence ResultsWilcoxon signed-rank test

TreatmentQuestion Pamphlet

(p value)Farm Blitz(p value)

Not take on more debt than I can handle.0.001 0.021

Start saving money. 0.000 0.232Avoid finance charges. 0.464 0.003Pay my debt on a regular basis. 0.000 0.000

Save money regularly. 0.000 0.000Manage my finances. 0.001 0.900Use savings to pay off debt. 0.086 0.000Allow savings to grow by not taking it out.

0.000 0.013

Avoid high interest debt. 0.011 0.004Save for financial emergencies. 0.000 0.000

Bold/red = statistically significant improvement from pre to post-test


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RCT Financial Knowledge Results

Student’s T Test for Mean Change in Financial Knowledge (Aggregate Score)

H0: ∆ knowledge = 0 Pamphlet (n=105) Farm Blitz (n=102)

T statistic(p-value)

8.205(0.000)

6.5446(0.000)

What does this mean?Both pamphlet and game yielded statistically significant improvements from pre to post-test.


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RCT Offers for Financial Action Results

Offer Pamphlet(n=105)

Farm Blitz(n=102)

More information on how to save for emergencies 59 63

3 month commitment to save 37 41

Free credit report 40 34

Buy a U.S. Savings bond for $25 or $50 with experiment money 2 4

What does this mean?Both pamphlet and game had similar positive impacts.


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Theory of Change 3: Enable Initial Action

Engagement with gameplay and increased self-efficacy creates an opportunity for players to take a real world financial action.

Research Questions•How can Financial Entertainment titles prompt players to take real world action related to personal finances?

•What types of actions are viable targets?


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Pilot with Staples


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Pilot with Staples

• Goals– Saving for retirement– Paying down debt– Managing current consumption

• Results– Strong Interest: Over 9,600 visits to game from over 7,500 visitors– Strong Direct Mail Response: 3.5-4.5% response rate to postcards– Strong Tournament Response: 80% response rate in two District pilot – Evidence of Action-Taking: ~11% of “newly eligible” postcard recipients

took a positive action

• Learning– Staples employees revealing demand for financial entertainment with

prompting from in-store marketing and non-required play– Play is occurring across geographies– Players trying out other games – Farm Blitz, Celebrity Calamity


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Theory of Change 4: Sustained Behavior Change

D2D is exploring how to build on players’ initial actions in a way that supports sustained behavior change by players

Research Questions

•How can Financial Entertainment titles support the adoption of ongoing positive actions?

•What attributes does a game library need to sustain an ongoing relationship with players?

•Can Financial Entertainment titles contribute to the development of new and sustained financial behaviors that benefit consumers?


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Theory of Change 5: Positive Economic Outcomes

The ultimate objective of Financial Entertainment is to build financial capability.

Research Question: How can playing Financial Entertainment lead to positive, tangible economic impact?•Increasing savings•Reducing debt•Improving retirement savings•Reducing “mistakes” like incurring fees•Avoiding “pitfalls” like high-interest debt products


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Looking Ahead & Next Steps

•Expand library – continue to develop games that address timely, important topics of relevance to financially vulnerable consumers

•Extend reach – bring this innovation to many more players via platform extensions, especially into mobile and onto Facebook

•Change behavior – leveraging the duration of play times, link game play to real world action-taking, thereby improving consumers’financial capability

•Pursue sustainability – test scale strategies via distribution in military, private employer and community college channels

•Innovate - explore the application of game mechanics in the real world (e.g., “gamification”), the next frontier of financial entertainment innovation


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Contact Information

Jonas [email protected] 617.202.0533

Jeff [email protected]

www.d2dfund.orgwww.financialentertainment.org

Documents

Financial Entertainment - The Midas Collaborative©2010 D2DFund, Inc.© 2012 D2D Fund, Inc. 3 Financial Entertainment: Key Milestones 2008-2009 First title, Celebrity Calamity, launched2009