Not All Fun and Games

Online contests can drive Web traffic, but companies must address problems quickly or face a torrent of "viral" criticism

by Tim Catts

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James Furdell is a veteran manager of fantasy baseball teams. Along with a handful of college friends, he has participated for the past decade in online leagues hosted by ESPN. But not long after the first pitch on Opening Day this April 1, Furdell, a software engineer and Seattle Mariners fan, noticed that something wasn't quite right with his team. Much to his frustration, the roster appeared to be frozen. He couldn't snare a hot prospect or cut a fading journeyman. "I logged in and realized I couldn't make any changes once the first game had started," Furdell says. Later, when he noticed that he couldn't pick up players other teams had dropped, even days after the fact, Furdell decided to sit out the season. ESPN had a problem.

Furdell was far from alone. By the end of the first week of the baseball season, ESPN, a division of the Walt Disney Co. (DIS), acknowledged a deluge of complaints from players like Furdell. The problems couldn't have come at a worse time for the cable sports giant: This year the network offered a free version of its popular fantasy baseball game for the first time, in a bid to capture a larger share of the estimated $1.5 billion annual market in fantasy sports.

Worth the Traffic?

From virtual dugouts to simulated trading floors, the world of online games and contests have proven both a boon and a headache for some companies looking to drive traffic to their Web sites. ESPN says its free fantasy baseball game attracted eight times as many players as last year's pay version. And CNBC, a division of General Electric (GE), credits its Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge, a stock-picking contest that concluded in May, for significantly increasing traffic to its new Web site at CNBC.com. But problems plagued both promotions, as well as another stock-picking game hosted by TheStreet.com (TSCM), a financial news site.

Software flaws in CNBC's high-profile online stock-picking contest forced the financial news channel to hire securities and computer experts to investigate allegations of cheating (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/15/07, "CNBC Calls In a Judge"). And, less than two weeks later, TheStreet.com found itself in a similar situation when some contestants allegedly exploited a loophole in its Beat the Street stock-picking game to "achieve returns that could not be duplicated in the real world." The site decided that the contest's $100,000 prize would be partially rolled over to a new running of the contest.

Quieting the Megaphone of Discontent

Internet marketing gurus and experts on online life say it's essential to be proactive and keep communication open with participants in Web promotions gone awry. That's because users can easily start their own blogs, seek out online forums, or turn to video-sharing sites like YouTube (GOOG) to voice their concerns, transforming the Internet into a megaphone for their discontent. And it's especially true when promotions take the form of games that encourage players to invest a lot of time in pursuit of a big payoff—whether it's a cash prize, as in the CNBC and TheStreet.com contests, or bragging rights over college buddies and co-workers, as is often the case in fantasy sports. "In a Web 2.0 world, dissatisfaction is viral," says Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer for Nielsen BuzzMetrics.

For its part, ESPN's response was guided by a commitment to responsiveness, says John Kosner, the channel's senior vice-president for digital media. "We asked ourselves all the hard questions about what happened," Kosner says, and decided that "establishing who was to blame was not as important as fixing the problem." The problem, it turned out, involved a software overhaul designed to add features for the free game and was unrelated to increased traffic, ESPN spokesman Paul Melvin said. Besides sending players regular e-mail updates, Kosner also empowered his stable of fantasy baseball experts to communicate directly through their blogs and in chat sessions normally reserved for dispensing advice on game strategy.