Creative Traction » Advertising

Ubisoft Wants the Female Market

Duane Brown — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:00:48 +0000

Ubisoft wants to start spending more money and go after the other half of the video game industry, females: Ubisoft Gets in Touch With Female Side. The article talks about how half of gamers are female and don’t get marketed as much. However, the latter part of that statement is not true. Female gamers have been marketed to every since EA bought Pogo.com all those years ago. It’s only in more recent years that game publishers have decided to create more games for this demographic outside of the usually casual game.

However, when they are creating these products I don’t know if going the stereotypical route like a barbie video game or this new Your Shape product is the best way to go. Going after a new market with a steretypical product or an idea based on stereotypes is never a good route to gain market share. With the product being made for the Wii. It’ll be interesting to see how Ubisoft integrates Miis and the Internet into this product.

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How is this a game?

Duane Brown — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:00:14 +0000

The title of this post is the very question I asked myself this morning as I read Cadbury eyebrows game goes live at the O2. The agency behind the campaign Drum PHD and has been working on this since the beginning of the year.

Concert-goers, who will be watching acts including Lily Allen and The Saturdays, will be asked to move from side to side and wave their arms to direct and control falling eyebrows on a giant screen.

The game rolled-out at cinemas earlier this year but the O2 setting, with up to 20,000 people attending both nights of the Jingle Bell Ball, is the largest live environment for the game so far.

How is this a game? That’s what I’m still trying to figure out. I might call this an interactive experiene that is in vaine to subservient chicken circa 2004 but I wouldnt call this idea or campaign a game in any sense of the word. Also, not really sure how this is going to help cadbury sell more chocolates in the end.

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Cooperation in branded entertainment

Duane Brown — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:39:34 +0000

Came across a post Friday night that M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment is partnering with video game development house nDreams. This is nothing new as company’s like Fuel Industries are providing global companies with these kinds of service(s) for more then a decade now. Even when nDreams appoints M&C Saatchi guru as non-exec director you could say that this type partnership was a matter of when and not if.

This isn’t a unique deal by any means but it’ll be interesting if we see more of these kinds of deals going into 2010. The last 6-12 months has been more about cooperation then competition and I don’t see that changing in 2010.

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Think B4 You Speak Campaign: You’re So Gay

Duane Brown — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:03:37 +0000

Facebool - Conversation about Think B4 You Speak

There has been some chatter around my circle of friends about the recent launch of the Think B4 You Speak Campaign. Even the guys at Penny Arcade have done a comic on the marketing initiative. When I first saw some the tag lines they were gong to use with the campaign posters I laughed out loud, which I don’t do often:

That’s So “Cheerleader Who Like, Can’t Like, Say Smart Stuff.”

After thinking about the campaign some more, talking with friends and rereading Penny Arcade. I’ve to agree with what a lot of people are saying. Think B4 You Speak is trying to fight fire with fire and that won’t work against teens who don’t give a rats ass about what we think or how they might be making their fellow classmate feel. My friend Miles also pointed me to this YouTube video by Katy Perry – Ur So Gay:

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s hard to say if the teens who say “That’s gay” is a minority or a majority from a North American perspective. However, I know when I first got out of school. I had a VP say it a few times and one look from me got him to say sorry and not do it again. From that point on no one said it again. I think small steps like this work on a bigger scale then trying to change everyone at once. Pink Shit Day and the Stupid campaigns related to smoking are great ways to gain support and grow a cause organically across the country and around the world. The Think B4 You Speak Campaign should have taken this route in the end.

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The Little Fine Print in Digital Marketing

Duane Brown — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:10:23 +0000

On Thursday I was surfing Facebook and noticed a Social Ad (the one to the left) for Family Guy. I don’t usually click on Social Ads but this was for a contest to win the complete series up to season 6 . I said hmm… why not make this one click. I’m that much of a die hard Family Guy fan that I went for it. I hit the website and noticed a very simple site, nothing like you usually see form the big entertainment studios but I continues on my journey down this little adventure. I hit the contest details page and filled out my name, phone numbers and e-mail. I wasn’t going to read the fine print at first…

Summary terms:
For customer care, please email cahelp@sms-helpdesk.com or call 1-888-846-6939. By calculating your IQ Score and by entering your personal PIN code which will be sent to the cell phone number supplied by you on this website, you acknowledge that you are subscribing to a daily IQ Score service. You may stop this subscription service at any time by sending a text message with “STOP” or “ARRET”, to short code 22334. The daily IQ Score offer is only for compatible handsets on Fido Solutions, TELUS Mobility, Rogers Wireless, SaskTel Mobility, Aliant Mobility / Bell Mobility, NorthernTel Mobility, MTS Mobility, Virgin Mobile Canada and Telebec Mobilite. Customers will be billed $1.25 per day. All charges will appear on your cell phone bill or be deducted from your prepaid balance. All plans are subject to the Terms and Conditions. Your phone must have text messaging capability. You must be the owner of this device and either be at least eighteen years old or have the permission of your parent or guardian. Standard text messaging rates may apply. For information text “HELP” or “AIDE” to 22334 or call 1-888-846-6939. Please click here to see full Terms and Conditions.

.. but then my mind said I should just read the fine print. It’s only one paragraph after all. The long and short of the fine print is that I agree to get text messages to my phone by entering my number. This bothers me on two levels:

In Canada (since this summer) we as consumers are getting charged for every text message we receive on our phones. At $1.25 per day (on top of what your carrier charges) that can quickly add up in a month.
I’ve heard of more then a few bad stories of people who tried to stopping getting these daily texts and had challenges.

I’m entering a contest to win a series Family Guy pack and not get bombared by text messages and I’m giving up my personal information (name, e-mail & phone number) to do this. This feels like a bit of a bait and switch hidden in the fine print. I always read the fine print and I’m glad I did this time agian as I didn’t figure one paragraphy could do this much harm. As digital marketers we should be more upfront and not hide stuff in the fine print. The future is already here and sites like this are going to get a bad name. And in case you care, no I didn’t entern the contest.

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Razorfish’s Digital Outlook Report 2009: Ad Exchange

Duane Brown — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:00:59 +0000

We’ve been talking about private & public exchanges a lot in my eBusiness class over the last 2 month. So when I got to Razorfish’s Digital Outlook Report for 2009 that mentioned ad exchanges, I kind of got excited because it’s an area I’ve been learning, studying and writing a lot about over the last couple months. Razorfish had some thoughts on that area:

Ad exchanges provide three primary advantages for digital marketers:

1. Auction-based, spot market: Advertisers can buy inventory on an impression-by-impression basis — in real time. No upfront commitments are needed to secure delivery. Data portability.

2. Data portability: Advertisers can layer data on top of inventory to cherry-pick their target customers.

3. De-averaged pricing: Advertisers can set variable prices for different types of inventory — and different kinds of customers. Rather than paying a flat CPM for a specific placement \ or behavioral schema, they can now price each impression according to its expected return.

One of the concerns for ad exchanges was the privacy of consumer’s data. This is one of the major issues with public or private exchanges. You’ve to make that you are protecting your customer’s data because they could up and leave if they don’t feel it’s safe. How many clients did CIBC lose in 2007 when it lost a hard drive? Privacy is important but the idea that you are adding value to the clients business is important.

With 4 potential ad exchanges competing for advertisers, publisher and clients money, it’s going to get very competitive in 2009 as they try and show they can provide value over the long term. Vaue can be both tangible and intangible but I feel that tangible values are going to be more valued in 2009 with the recession we are in. In the end, Razorfish has some good ideas but adding value and privacy of customer’s data are also going to be sticking points for ad exchanges in 2009.

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Why a Facebook Page is similar to nurturing a garden

Duane Brown — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:57:09 +0000

I had the please of talk with an account manager this week about how a Facebook Page is like nurturing a garden. They both take time/investment, planning and passion.

Time/Investment: Regardless of if you are starting a garden at home, or a Facebook Page for your latest product. You’ve to make the effort to put the time in for both of them. You can’t simple check on these once a week and hope that everything will work out. You should be connecting 3 or 4 days a week if not ever other day to make sure everything is ok. You want to make sure your garden has enough soil, water and sunlight. You need to make sure your Facebook page is growing with information (threads, blog post, new pictures/video) and that there is value and a real reason for people to sign up and come back on a regular bases.

Orphaned Facebook Page

Planning: Much like making an investment of your times. You need an action plan to make everything happen. Are you going to put some red or white roses or do you prefer some yellow flowers in your garden. Knowing which flowers and shrubs work will together before you start planting in the Spring means that your garden will be a bigger success as you move into the summer. What will you update your Facebook page with today, next week and two months from now. You need to know because you want to satisfy large snackers and media snackers. I’ve had clients who just wanted to wing a Facebook Page and the success of that page was short lived. As the saying goes, those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

Passion: A garden and a Facebook Page need to be run by people with passion. As my friend Richard Millington would say, Be The Result You Want To See, and bring some passion to that garden and Facebook Page. People can tell when you are faking it and you don’t want to get called out. Making sure your next Facebook Page is run by someone in your company that brings passion to the office each and every day is vital. Their passion will shine through and your Facebook Page will be better for it.

I admit there is no guarantee of success for any company if you do the above. But if you are not willing to invest some time every week, plan for your long-term goal and make sure your Facebook Page is run by people with a passion for your business. Then I think you should scrape the idea. I’ve seen more then a few Facebook Pages that are now orphans. This doesn’t look good for your company and brand and tells people you made the page for all the wrong reasons.

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Facebook: Video Game Social Ads [Online Advertising Project]

Duane Brown — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:43:12 +0000

Flickr Logo Icons

I’m decide today to start a new little project to collect pics of some of the gaming ads on Facebook. I’ve always loved the collections you see online for beer, holiday menus, icon sets and even Bettie Page. You can check out the new set here on Flickr. Of course I’ll be sharing this on Twitter and Facebook as I add new entires to the collection.

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Facebook Advertising: Social Ad for LittleBIGPlanet

Duane Brown — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:05:31 +0000

Anyone who knows me knows that I love advertising. I live and breath the industry night and day. I’m not very good at taking vacations from work and there are times my boyfriends get a little annoyed that I obsess about work all the time.

With all that being said I’ve never been one to click on banner ads. Very few catch my attention and maybe being part of Gen Y has something to do with that. However, today I logged on Facebook and saw an ad for Sony PlayStation’s LittleBIGPlanet brought to you by future Shop. The ad took to me Future Shop’s “landing page” for the game and it left me wanting more… more information… more video… more screens and more interaction (yes I clicked on the ad).

This is the part that has been bothering me all day. Why did I click on that ad? I love video games and I love advertising but I can’t say I’m excited for LittleBIGPlanet. Also, why didn’t Future Shop do more then just take me to the “landing page” for the game? I think they left some opportunity on the table to interact with me more.

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Selling Music Through Video Games aka Official Rock Band 2 Set List!

Duane Brown — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:17:26 +0000

With E3 coming to a close this week and a few interesting news pieces coming out of E3. The one very interesting part that I loved seeing is the continued success of music based video games including Rock Band 2. You can check out the list of tracks here.

Guns N’ Roses new album “Chinese Democracy” is going to have a track, “Shackler’s Revenge,” on the next game for the fall season. When you see that the Rock Band sold 2.5m copies and has brought in extra revenue from downloads, of which more than 15m have sold at $1.99 each. You start to see the bigger picture of why Guns N’ Roses, MTV and Universal Music Group want to get togerher for a deal with Rock Band 2. Other songs are going to include Let There Be Rock by AC/DC, Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan and Pinball Wizard by The Who. The Who song reminds me of a bar I drank at in Paris, France a few years ago.

The short of it is that video games are showing more ways that advertisers can bring two industries together. Adding music to Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and The Sim DJ is enhancing and complimenting the experience that each gamer is going to have. We are really making the experience more real and making sure that we are not intruding on the gaming experience.

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