5. "Madison & Vine": " 'Draw Something' No Longer A Big Draw"

Fads and trends come and go all the time. Even among smartphones, there are apps that rise to popularity quickly that then quickly lose popularity. This seems to be the case with the app "Draw Something" that was all the rage several months ago. The object of the game, "Draw Something" is to get the person to guess a word that you given by drawing a picture or clues for them, sort of like a form of "Pictionary."

I, myself, downloaded the app during February. During that time, the app was extremely popular between me and all my friends. Many of us would have lots of different games going with many different people. The game was fun and new and lots of us enjoyed all the "new" words that we could relate to such as "Katniss" from the "Hunger Games" and "Usher." 

However, around 2-3 months later, I find myself hardly playing the game at all. Compared to the constant games I had going several months ago, I only go onto the app about once a week to see if anyone has made a turn on a game. I thought it was just me and my friends that had gotten a pretty bored with the app, but according to this article I saw on Yahoo, the number of people that use this app every day has dropped significantly from 14.3 million to 9.2 million. 

Despite the dramatic drop in users, Zynga, the makers of the popular "Words with Friends" and "Scramble with Friends," have purchased the company that makes "Draw Something," "OMGPOP." Since their purchase, Zynga stocks have steadily dropped. However, Zynga has been "reportedly been selling words to advertisers...to generate some extra revenue. Advertisers such as the NHL have bought several words such as "puck" to celebrate the Stanley Cup playoffs. Other brands are expected to purchase words that will be featured in the near future, such as "Pringles." 

By selling words to advertisers, Zynga is using the idea and technique of "Madison and Vine", the mixing of entertainment and advertising. Advertisers and the makers of the game both get something out of the cooperation. The makers of the game can make some extra money while advertisers can advertise whatever it is they are advertising by means of a gaming app. Though this technique of mixing entertainment and advertising can be very obvious at times, I think it fits right in with this game. This app had already featured more current words probably aimed to a younger audience, and these new words will probably fit right in with them. Thinking back, the "Hunger Games" probably bought the word "Katniss" to promote their movie that came out when the app was very popular. Though the idea of "Madison and Vine" is not new, product placement has gotten more and more clever throughout the years. As long as the advertising doesn't take away the quality of entertainment, I think the cooperation is beneficial to both the entertainment industry and advertisers, while also satisfying viewers and consumers.