No Mobile Device for New ‘Monopoly’ Game Piece?

Hasbro made headlines this week with their cool crowdsourcing campaign: Save Your Token. Through multi-media marketing including Facebook and Twitter as the engagement platforms, Hasbro asked consumers to vote on retiring a Monopoly game piece and replace it with something new. The results were announced via Television on February 6. The campaign proved successful with fan participation from over 120 countries.

And the winner is…

Image Source

Much to my chagrin, I did not see a mobile device in the candidate pool. According to TechCrunch, the number of mobile devices will exceed the world’s population in 2012. A tablet or smartphone token would have been cool but ok, the cat wins and a new Monopoly star is born.

What I like about the campaign is that Hasbro used social media in a fun and creative way to engage consumers. What I love about the campaign is that the consumers had the final say. I’m sure Hasbro will see an uptick in Monopoly game sales before the iron is put away and another purchasing frenzy when the new token is put on the shelf. Well played Hasbro!

Making the increasingly smaller leap from the B2C world to B2B, the consumer is equally important. As I wrote in my last post, The Consumer IS the Enterprise, I pay close attention to consumer trends to anticipate enterprise demands. A good example of this is the movement towards enterprise mobility. Here’s a look at what we achieved at SAP:

Born out of consumer behavior which became employee demand, we’ve become the frontrunner and global trend-setter in leading enterprise mobility. We are driving the consumerization of Iinformation Technology:

• Internal users can pick and choose between 10 corporate devices as Apple, Blackberry, Android and Windows devices
• #2 iPad deployment globally with 20,000 devices
• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) role model with over 5,000 devices in 21 countries
• Over 50 mobile Apps developed

But the focus on consumer doesn’t stop there. In 2012, we opened eleven SAP Global IT Mobile Solution Centers – the “genius bar” of the enterprise. Designed to showcase the most up-to-date and cost-effective mobile solutions and options that SAP supports, the first Mobile Solution Center was launched in India, Mumbai. In 2013, these Centers will continue to open in SAP locations around the world.

So, what are the key learnings that enterprise business leaders can take away from the Hasbro campaign? I’ll share a few:

• Recognize the power of the consumer and use it to drive innovation in your business.
• Harness the strength of social media to listen to and actively engage your audience.
• If the consumer IS the enterprise, then expect to see increased adoption of crowdsourcing practices in the enterprise.