"Dead Ideaville"

My dead ideas are deader than yours. Case in point: FT.com

FT.com - "Pay to Win"

I really liked the brief. It was simple and open. The Financial Times wanted a digital idea to help grow their paid subscription base.

Right now members can get some useful information from FT.com for free through their basic subscription.

For a modest monthly fee they can get more proprietary information (standard subscription). And for a slightly larger fee they are privy to all sorts of valuable information and analysis from the best brains in the biz (premium subscription).

The idea was to tap into an insight that serious players in the game of finance understand all too well - that valuable information is a potential game-changer, but it has a price. So that if you’re not willing to pay then you probably won’t win.

The result was a fun, yet strategic business game for users to play, either on Facebook with friends or on a specially created microsite. The game is free and progress and success in the game depends on acquiring and utilizing valuable information. Each player is given a monetary resource with which they buy information. But because the resource is finite they have to be very careful how they spend it.

So really, why play?
The user would win a free month of paid content by playing. Depending on their score they could win either the standard subscription or the premium subscription. In doing so they get to literally experience the ultimate value of paid information for themselves.

Certainly a game on Facebook is not exactly a novel idea. Indeed the social media network is bursting with all sorts of games. But what made this familiar direction feel right for FT.com is that it could have made the conversation about paid content a little more persuasive, yet engaging.