* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Video Game Marketing Sees Lots of Action in Social Media
Marketing plan wikipedia , lookup
Integrated marketing communications wikipedia , lookup
Guerrilla marketing wikipedia , lookup
Ambush marketing wikipedia , lookup
Marketing mix modeling wikipedia , lookup
Sports marketing wikipedia , lookup
Multicultural marketing wikipedia , lookup
Advertising campaign wikipedia , lookup
Direct marketing wikipedia , lookup
Youth marketing wikipedia , lookup
Digital marketing wikipedia , lookup
Global marketing wikipedia , lookup
Street marketing wikipedia , lookup
Sensory branding wikipedia , lookup
Green marketing wikipedia , lookup
Personal branding wikipedia , lookup
Viral marketing wikipedia , lookup
Social media marketing wikipedia , lookup
Entertainment market Video Game Marketing Sees Lots of Action in Social Media Facebook and Twitter offer broader platform for consumer engagement in DR campaigns. I f there was ever a group of consumers ready for the advent of social media, it was video gamers. Long before marketers started utilizing social-networking sites in direct response campaigns, fans were creating their own online communities to network and discuss product releases and gaming strategies. As social media have gone mainstream, big names in the video game industry, including Ubisoft and Sony Entertainment, have begun drawing fans to one central entertainment hub, taking consumer engagement and brand interaction to a whole new level. “It was a natural evolution for us,” says Ryan Yount, manager of digital marketing at Ubisoft, which has shifted much of the marketing for its “Assassin’s Creed” franchise to Facebook. “We’ve been doing community outreach and management as a core part of our marketing for about a decade, but social media has allowed a lot of that to come out of the shadows and become the forefront of our marketing.” Ubisoft launched a Facebook fan page for “Assassin’s Creed” in 2007 when the first game was released. It was “a no-brainer” to incorporate social media into continued marketing for the second and third editions of the game, Yount says. “Assassin’s Creed” characters have posted Facebook status updates to engage fans, and marketers have launched plot-based challenges where users can directly interact in real time with key figures from the game. “Social media keeps conversation going in between game releases,” Yount says. “Conversations are happening right now on the front pages of Facebook and Twitter and we’re able to bring that back to our site’s pages. Fans naturally want to talk about our games and we’re encouraging that.” Facebook and Twitter have become integral marketing tools when advertisers don’t have a lot of information about a game that can be released but want to keep consumer dialogue going, says Justin Landskron, director of digital marketing for Ubisoft. “Facebook is really how we get to be creative and have fun with the fans even in the earliest stages of marketing,” Landskron says. “It’s been very successful for us. Dramatically, it plays really well for the marketing and the fans really love it.” Sony Entertainment took its use of social media a step further while marketing “The Agency,” launching “The Agency: Covert Ops,” a social game for Facebook users that lives inside the world created for the main action game, according to Chris Barnhart, senior manager of online marketing and analytics for Sony. “The Agency: Covert Ops” exists solely on Facebook but incorporates storylines, character tie-ins and similar art from “The Agency,” says Taina Rodriguez, Sony’s senior public relations manager. In this way, Sony has been able to use social media as a broader platform to solicit interaction from consumers, even before “The Agency’s” official launch. “There was this buzz already out there, so we could ride that wave a little, all while creating new buzz by launching the social game,” Barnhart says. “The Agency: Covert Ops,” which has about 372,000 monthly active users, is the eighth fastest-growing Facebook game, with an 818-percent increase in daily active users, according to data from Inside Social Games, which provides news and marketing research on social gaming. “It’s been awesome,” Barnhart says. “The response has well-exceeded what our initial expectations were. (Facebook games) are living products that allow us to take feedback from the community and constantly improve our game.” The real-time feedback that social media offer is a powerful DR tool the video game industry can use to its advantage when reaching out to consumers, industry experts say. “We can immediately tell when people like what we’re doing and we can encourage that,” Ubisoft’s Yount says. “When we see things that work for our fans, we’ll keep doing that.”