By now, most marketers have a social network presence. But those looking to capture the attention (and even wallets) of women may want to dig a little deeper to make sure they have a presence in social gaming.

“It’s grown so fast and so rapidly that brands are struggling to keep up with it,” Matt Wise, CEO of Q Interactive, tells Marketing Daily. “If you’re looking to find consumers online, it would be hard to find a better opportunity than social games.”

According to a survey by Q Interactive, half of the women playing social games either earn or spend the “virtual currency” within the games at least once a day, while 23% are spending or earning multiple times a day. And they are looking for help from marketers.

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The preliminary findings indicate that although the profile of casual gamers is broadening women still make up 74 percent of all paying players online, with male participation half that for free casual titles. The most popular titles in 2006 were found to be Mystery Case Files, Diner Dash, Cake Mania, Bejeweled and Slingo.

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Videogames have long been considered the domain of teenage boys and young men. Though a few publishers have developed computer games for women, the genre wasn’t considered significant until the past several years. Nintendo helped fuel the change with its touch-screen DS portable device five years ago and Wii console three years ago, providing easy-to-play games that appealed to a broader audience—including women—and helped spur its sales.

Since then, publishers have made a serious effort to develop mass-market games beyond the usual shooter, racing and sports titles. According to financial firm Wedbush Morgan, female game players now account for about 40% of the overall market, compared with the IDC research firm’s estimate of less than 12% in 2001. Wedbush calculates that a 5% increase in female players could translate into as much as $1 billion in new revenue every year.

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