Backstage

Backstage raises $4734 for the Arthritis Society

2010-01-29T12:10:58-08:00

We recently presented the Arthritis Society with a cheque for $4734 from money raised on our recent Scratch and Win charity campaign.

The Executive Director at the Arthritis Society, Marg Vandenberg, said

We are thrilled to be a recipient of Backstage's charitable giving program. With over 600,000 people living with arthritis in British Columbia, the funds raised by Backstage Technologies will help The Arthritis Society continue its work to provide programs for people of all ages who suffer from arthritis and to fund research to develop more effective treatments.

Marg Vandenberg (center) recently visited Backstage headquarters and graciously received our giant novelty cheque in the amount of $4734.42.

To raise money, we created a limited-time Scratch and Win ticket and prize set themed for the Arthritis Society. These tickets could only be purchased for $0.10 each through Spare Change, with net proceeds directly going to the charity.

Backstage Montage

2010-01-19T10:49:28-08:00

All decent, self-respecting, socially conscious, thought leading companies have one thing in common: they all have awesome montage videos that feature the emotionally stirring music of Sigur Ros.

Here is ours. Enjoy.

First screened at the Backstage Christmas Party of 2009 (hosted by TV's Jon Dore, no less), this video has since gone on to win several awards for excellence in maudlin self-importance.

The TechVibes take: from atoms to bits

2009-11-04T14:26:39-08:00

Our BC Export Award was noticed by the good folks at TechVibes, who wrote an interesting piece on the significance of our victory. To quote,

what’s interesting about this award is that not only a gaming company but one firmly grounded in social networking is being recognized by one of the oldest “brick and mortar” awards in the province. Just a few years ago, it would have been quite a task to convince established players that internet companies actually produced anything tangible (and indeed, at the time very few did). But with the economy increasingly moving from atoms to bits, “virtual” companies like Backstage will continue to garner awards previously reserved for their offline brethren.

Backstage Technologies Wins BC Export Award

2009-11-02T14:30:56-08:00

Victoria, BC–October 30, 2009 - As the first social gaming company ever to win a BC Export Award, Backstage Technologies continues to pave the way in social gaming by building the most engaging games in the space. Pull Tabs™, Scratch & Win™, Slots™, Mind Games™, and Bingo Explosion™ have entertained millions of social networkers worldwide.

The BC Export Awards annually seeks out British Columbia’s Top 25 Exporters and honours them for their excellence and achievement in nine categories, including seven directed at firms and two at individuals. The ceremony is co-hosted by the Government of British Columbia and the BC Division of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. It is the oldest awards ceremony of its kind in Canada.

“We are very honoured to win such a prestigious award,” said Russell Ovans, CEO of Backstage Technologies, who were announced as the winners in the category of New Media and Entertainment in a ceremony held in Vancouver. “We shared the stage with some of the most innovative companies in British Columbia and are thrilled with this achievement.”

About Backstage Technologies

Backstage Technologies has blazed a distinctive trail in helping to build and establish the burgeoning social gaming industry by conceiving, creating and distributing best-of-breed casual games for social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and hi5. Backstage are pioneers in the monetization of social games through the sale of virtual goods.

We are now official Thought Leaders in the space

2009-10-28T11:36:20-07:00

It seems like everyone these days is a thought leader. I've been referred to as such so many times in the past few months that I'm ready to change the title on my business card from Founder & CEO to Thought Leader.

Backstage has taken its thought leadership to a whole new level. Alex Mendelev - our new VP of Business Development - was part of a recent panel discussion at a Mobile Monday event in Vancouver. According to their website, MoMoVan (as they like to call themselves) is an open forum held for the global community of wireless industry professionals... in Vancouver. Earlier this month, roughly 90 attendees heard how B.C. companies are monetizing virtual goods. As thought leaders in the space, we were invited to attend. VIATeC wrote a story about the panel's insights into the emerging market of virtual goods.

Backstage: now with 50% more thought leadership.

Backstage is a finalist for a 2009 BC Export Award

2009-10-06T21:36:19-07:00

Earlier this year the accounting firm KPMG nominated Backstage for a BC Export Award. We are thrilled to announce that we are a finalist in the category of New Media and Entertainment.

The BC Export Awards annually seeks out British Columbia's Top 25 Exporters and honours them for their excellence and achievement in nine categories, including seven directed at firms and two at individuals. The ceremony is co-hosted by the Government of British Columbia and the BC Division of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters and is the oldest awards ceremony of its kind in Canada.

The winners will be announced at the BC Export Awards on October 30th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver. We're up against the evil Vancouver Film School (Kevin Smith's alma mater), and Arcana Studio, who seem to do cool stuff involving comic books. We're definitely in the sexiest category. Who will win: social gaming juggernaut, renowned film school, or comic book artisans? Stay tuned.

What's our secret sauce?

2009-08-17T17:56:07-07:00

We were recently in negotiations to be acquired. Talks lasted about five minutes, but during that time, the VP of Business Development from the prospective acquirer kept warning us not to divulge any of the ingredients in our "secret sauce", lest the deal fall apart (which it did) and we ended up suing them for stealing all our invaluable intellectual property (which hasn't happened... yet).

Every time he used the phrase (which was often) I found myself becoming more and more amused. What the heck is a secret sauce? I assumed he meant competitive edge, or intellectual property, but being a marketing type, he liked using that buzzword instead. Wikipedia tells me that it means any component of a product that is closely guarded from public disclosure for competitive advantage.

So, what is our secret sauce? Do we even have one? We certainly do, and the primary ingredient is the knowledge regarding how to design and build a social game (and its underlying virtual economy) that is both engaging and monetizes well. That certainly constitutes a fair portion of our secret sauce.

But our special sauce (i.e., our sauce that is not a secret to any of our competitors) is our commitment to customer service. Anyone can steal that, but it takes a huge commitment.

When we first started with Scratch and Win on Facebook, I handled all of the customer service. I felt the job was too important to be trusted to anyone else in the organization. Unlike a lot of CEOs who pay lip service to how important customer service is, I put my money where my mouth is and actually put in the hours to respond to posts on the discussion boards and answer every single email from our growing customer base. Given the viral nature of social networks, I figured the investment in building a loyal fan-base and branding Backstage as a company that cared about its user community would ultimately pay off. And it did.

I remained in charge of customer service until it reached a point (almost a year later) where I could no longer devote the time and attention required to do the job justice. I still make the occasional appearance on the discussion boards, but my Community Managers are happy to relegate me to pseudo-mythical status (see Figure 1).

Our competitors built their business on monetization. We built ours on customer service. Here is a typical post to the discussion board for Scratch and Win that illustrates the point.

Efrain Rivera Junior wrote 5 hours ago

I've been playing Facebook applications for a while now. I usually participate in all the games forums at one point or another. And I have to say that the ONLY application in which I ALWAYS receive an answer from a game developer has been in S&W. Not only that, but most of my ideas have been implemented in the game, and the rest have at least been listened to. Not only have I NEVER received an answer from any other application dev, but also I was once banned from a game for making a simple suggestion (needless to say, that app is no longer on Facebook). Therefore, I want to thank the devs of Scratch & Win for being so active and nice. As always, Thanks for listening.

No, Efrain... thank you for playing.
Russ

Backstage Games raises $7,336 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society

2009-07-28T15:27:38-07:00

Backstage and our players continue their strong support of worthy charities and non-profits around the world. This time we were able to turn Facebook gaming fun into a cheque for over $7,000 for the MS Society.

It is businesses like Backstage that are truly committed to their community and who will help us to end MS. The MS Society would like to sincerely thank everyone at Backstage and for all of the gamers that participated in the Scratch & Win campaign.

Tracey Gibson, Manager Development, South Vancouver Island

Backstage staff took an hour out of their day to visit our local MS Society office (literally across the street) and drop off our well traveled giant novelty cheque and enjoy a tour of the facilities. Together we learned that the MS Society does much more than fund raising towards a cure. The centre provides services such a wheel chair rentals, art therapy, and physical fitness classes tailored specifically to those with MS disease. The centre is absolutely vital in helping sufferers continue an independent lifestyle as much as possible.

Fund Raising efforts like Backstage have done is vital to funding research that could ultimately lead to a cure for the autoimmune disease that causes a body’s immune response system to attach the central nervous system. The money raised from the Scratch & Win application goes to support our programs and services and about half goes to research.

Tracey Gibson

Wheel chair rentals provided on site for those afflicted by MS

Backstage contributes $775 to the Victoria Brain Injury Society

2009-07-03T22:34:53-07:00

Hot on the heals of a successful campaign for the Linus Foundation, Backstage has again unleashed our giant novelty cheque; this time to the benefit of the Victoria Brain Injury Society. For the past several months Backstage has been setting aside 10% of the proceeds raised from paying to unlock Master Mind, Anagram, or Minesweeper puzzles on our Mind Games application. As part of this ongoing initiative, we recently presented the Victoria Brain Injury Society with a cheque for $775.

Marc Dugas, VP of Business Development, is seen here proudly presenting the latest installment of the giant novelty cheque at the In a Nutshell Helmet Festival put on by the VBIS this past June 28th. Marc forgot to wear his helmet.

We know we can do better, so for the entire month of July, Backstage is donating $10 to the Victoria Brain Injury Society every single time a player graduates the school of Mind Games (completes Grade VII) and enters the Hall of Fame. With strong support from our players we hope to raise at least $5,000 for the VBIS. Click here for more information.

Look for us at Casual Connect in Seattle

2009-06-22T16:40:28-07:00

Once again Backstage will be well represented at this year's Casual Connect in Seattle. Four of us will be heading down to the Emerald City to enjoy the company of 2000 other members of the Casual Games Association. This year we are a Silver Sponsor and busy setting up meetings with other casual gaming companies.

We are super excited about this year's event, and unlike last year, Marc and Russ are committed to attending the party at the aquarium.