We had the pleasure to be doing a special episode with three very special guests. We had Daniel Madrid and Nadav Gros, founders of Dots.eco and Caro Solari, Head of Marketing at Affogata talking about their partnership at Gamescom in Cologne this year.
So what will you listen to in this special podcast?
1. You will listen to what this partnership between Affogata and Dots.eco is all about and what will these 2 companies be doing together at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany.
2. You will learn more about how Dots.eco was born, what is the company all about, and the types of impacts the company creates in the world.
3. Why did Affogata decide to partner up with Dots.eco for this unique event, and how you can make an impact in the world too.
4. How companies in the games industry are utilizing Dots.eco and the importance of promoting sustainability in the industry.
Audio
Transcript
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata
Our first question is for Daniel, can you tell us about Dots.eco? What do you do and how does it work?
Daniel Madrid – Co-founder of Dots.eco:
Hi Natalie, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today. Sure thing. Dots.eco specializes in converting digital activities into real-world eco-impact. While we focus on the gaming industry, we do work across multiple industries such as HR and travel with clients like TripAdvisor. But again, our focus is the gaming industry where we work with large gaming studios like Praytika or hyper casual studios like OVIVO.
For the gaming industry, we have foremost a solution to boost engagement, retention and brand reputation. We achieve that by granting environmental rewards to players in the real world such as planting trees, cleaning the oceans from plastic or saving turtle hatchlings, to name the most popular ones. What makes this special is our ability to tie between the achievement of a specific player and the real-world impact. This becomes their impact, their three of their turtle hatching saved. We see that players are very proud of the impact they’ve made, meaning they are sharing their certificates on their social media channels in very big percentages.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
It’s amazing that you are helping people create an impact so easily. So it’s so nice to hear what Dots.eco does. And Nadav, can you tell us how this idea was born and what makes Dots.eco different?
Nadav Gross – Co-founder of Dots.eco:
Sure Natalie, I tell you. So the philosophy behind Dots.eco is basically the one that says that capitalism got us to this point now where there’s a lot of stress on the environment, environmental stress. And when I realized that capitalism is also the stronghold that can take us out of it, out of this situation, then I decided to become active about it and do something and I started making environmental gains back in 2019, the end of 2019, build two indie games. One of them for cleaning the ocean and the other one is for planting trees in the real world. But it became clear very fast that in order to make an impact in scale and actually move the needle, one game and one gaming studio is not enough. I need to harness the power of the community, harness the power of the industry in order to make this change.
At that point, I decided to establish and pivot and established Dots.eco, and I called Daniel that is here with us to help me spread the word and join the ride. And that’s kind of the story of Dots.eco. And regarding the question about what makes us different, I think that we have two main USPS. The first one is that we put a lot of effort into uplifting our partners’ KPIs, and that is our main focus. So we want to make sure that the integration with us is successful and that we have positive ROI. And the bigger ROI that we can make together with our partners, the more impact that we can do in the long term.
And the second big USP that we have is that we are an aggregator that offers a simple integration to over 150 different ways to impact. We call them Eco units, like planting one tree or saving a sea turtle hatchling, or cleaning 1 pound of plastic from the ocean. And this variety, this simple integration, that means that our clients can easily A/B test, personalize and even react to events in real-time, like the fires we had last week in Europe or oil spills, etc. I think the main difference is we have ROI positive impact, the big variety of impact units, and our simple integration, that’s the main differentiator that we have.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
That sounds amazing. And the variety that you described, actually, makes everybody want to choose something and do something to impact the world. So that’s amazing. And Caro, we would like to hear how are Affogata and Dots.eco partnering up. What is this partnership all about?
Caro Solari – Head of Marketing at Affogata:
Yes, sure. First of all, Nati, thank you for having your podcast. It’s the first time I’m here and I’m very excited about this. So I think the impact on the world in terms of sustainability has never been more crucial. I think that as companies, we need to find ways to give back also. And I think the partnership with Dots.eco is just a match made in heaven.
We’ve been attending a lot of events for the last few years. Actually seeing the amount of swag that goes around those events and the number of bottles and bags and paper and cups, and it’s insane in my opinion. It’s something that is out of control in a way. So we were looking for ways to bring something to the people who visit us in our booth, but that won’t make a negative impact on the planet. And that’s why I’m saying that when we met with Dots.eco, we felt it was a match made in heaven.
We’re not only not bringing more plastic into an event, but also we’re actually doing a positive impact on the planet. So that’s how this partnership was born, and we plan to expand it to other activities that we do.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
That sounds great, and it sounds super interesting. And I agree that this is the time to really focus on making a change and impacting the world in a positive way and what better way to start that at Gamescom, which is also focusing on sustainability. So that’s actually great. And impacting the world in terms of sustainability has never been more crucial, just like Caro mentioned in her answer. So how do you feel about the fact that you’re coming to such a big event like Gamescom and helping other people make a difference in the world now? Nadav, let’s start with you.
Nadav Gross – Co-founder of Dots.eco:
That’s a good question. So I think at the end of the day, the most important people are the champions inside organizations that decide to partner with us. And these people are the ones that will utilize the game, their games, to make a real-world impact. And these are the people that will have great stories to tell around the dinner table, how many trees they planted today, or how many sea turtles they helped to save, or how much plastic they have cleaned from the ocean. And to the question how I feel about it, so with every such collaboration that we do with every new partner, I feel humbled, impressed about this move, and full of gratitude. Every time a monetization manager, product manager, marketing manager give us a go, I’m just thrilled about it.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
Of course. And Daniel, what is your take on it?
So Gamescom is really the perfect place to spread the word. We like the gaming industry as players. Just by playing their favorite games, they can do real-world impact on very large numbers. And this also brings awareness on how we can all protect the environment. The numbers can also be very large. For example, we just finished an activity, four days with Playtika where we planted over 200,000 trees in several countries, again, only in four days. So we clearly have an environmental agenda. But we also understand that to do a massive impact at scale, this eco-activity needs to be profitable for our clients.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
I agree. And wow, that’s amazing that in just four days you just did that with Playtika and it’s such an amazing example. And Caro, what do you expect will be people’s reactions at the event with the booth and the prize wheel and the prizes that you’re offering with Dots.eco?
Caro Solari – Head of Marketing at Affogata:
I think it’s going to be super positive. I can’t imagine someone telling me, no, please don’t plant a tree in my name. I can’t imagine a person like that. I think people are going to be happy that they’re doing a positive impact. I think they’re going to be attracted to the wheel and to come and visit us around our booth. And I think I hope we will at the end of the day, we will be able to reveal an impressive amount of numbers of trees that we planted or turtle hachlings that we save, or plastic that we removed from the ocean. So I’m really looking forward to seeing how people receive it.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
I agree. And also the certificate that people will receive just makes it even more special. Right? Which I really like.
Caro Solari – Head of Marketing at Affogata:
That’s so true. I’m sorry that I didn’t mention that, but every time that someone has positive impact on the planet, they will get a certificate that will explain what is the impact. So it’s something you take with you. It’s a nice thing to tell around the dinner table.
Nadav Gross – Co-founder of Dots.eco:
Story to tell and to share, a big part of what we do and what we also boththe players, the end users and our partners the ability to spread the world, to share the impact and to top up on that.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
Definitely. And Daniel, I know you mentioned in your first answer a bit about this, but can you tell us again what are the types of impacts we offer to people? So if people are listening to the podcast and will be attending Gamescom, they will already know.
Daniel Madrid – Co-founder of Dots.eco:
So, first of all, we focus on 3 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and they are Climate Action, life below water, and life on land. So most of our activities are around planting trees, preserving land for wildlife, protecting marine area, and protecting endangered animal species.
So each of these activities is broken down into micro units. So the Eco reward per player would be planting one single tree or cleaning 1 pound of plastic from the ocean or saving one turtle hatchling. When this is multiplied by tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, the impact is massive. For us. It’s also crucial to collaborate only with renowned vetted and certified environmental organizations that are transparent about the impact, that have established monitoring in place.
For example, for planting trees, one thing is plant them, but not less important, it’s their survival rate. We work only with organizations with the survival rate higher than 80%. Also, the specific species planted is crucial. And when we are talking about clearing the oceans from plastic, we want to ensure plastic collected is upcycled and it won’t find itself in the nature. If you’re curious to know about all the Eco impacts that we offer more than 170, you can check our website on Dots.eco.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
That’s amazing. And Nadav, can you tell us a more in-depth example of how gaming companies are utilizing that Dots.eco?
Nadav Gross – Co-founder of Dots.eco:
Yeah, for sure. I think that’s maybe the most important question and interesting because we do provide the abstract API and there’s a lot of ways to use Dots.eco, a lot of ways to implement us. And I think the most successful implementations are the ones that push the players to be more engaged and boost the game economy.
So a really good example is what we see in House of Fun where the players have planted trees along the game, specifically on levels that normally have bigger drops and that way players made more effort in order to achieve and reach those levels and achieve the goals. The logic here is to focus on the game economy and while you focus on the game economy and making sure that you have a positive ROI on the impact, you also want to allow as many players as possible to make the impact and to get our certificates as mentioned before, share those certificates and improve the game KPIs, including by the way the game brand reputation. And this is how we met Affoogata from a mutual partner. And yeah, I think that is definitely one of the most important KPIs that we look to improve.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
I agree, it sounds super interesting for gaming company so I hope they get to know you more as well at Gamescom. And Caro, for our final question, can you tell us how can attendees at Gamescom participate in the prize wheel and where can they find you?
Caro Solari – Head of Marketing at Affogata:
Yes, of course. So we’re going to be in the business area during the business exhubitors day, that is the 24th to the 26th of Agusut.
Our booth number is B-054, and you can just drop by, say high and spin the wheel. We’re going to have a wheel with a lot of different impacts that you can do for our planet. If you spin the wheel is free and we’ll be planting the trees thanks to Dots.eco, saving turtle hatchlings and removing plastic from the ocean all in your name. And after you spin and you win, of course you get the certificate like the team at Dots.eco explained, so you can share it with your friends, you can show what you did for the world today. I think we’re all going to be sporting some nice smiles around that.
Natalie Markovits – Host from Affogata:
I agree and that sounds amazing. So everybody, you can now join Affogata and Dots.eco and make a real impact in the world by joining both at Gamescom. So don’t forget to come visit Affogata’s booth, learn more about the power of player insights and make a change.
And before we end this podcast, I would like to thank again Daniel, Nadav and Caro for your insights today. It has been great and we can’t wait to see the impact you created at Gamescom.
Thanks all for listening and don’t forget to visit at www.affogata.com