Brand Noise

Funneling is Not Sustainable Branding

Mekanism recently announced the launch of the Rockband.com social network. We first heard about the plans for the network back in October. We were hoping for a bit of evolution in that time. Rock Band is a great game. Rock Band as a social network is not. Not to say there is anything wrong in its execution, but the premise of a destination channeling people is not the direction to head in. Conde Nast came to that realization with Flip.com, which is now available as a widget on Facebook. And American Greetings approached its Kiwee brand from the get-go as one to work in tandem with existing, fabulous properties. Even Second Life only becomes something interesting when it becomes part of things outside of itself. Hmmm...maybe Guitar Hero is getting a handle on that now that it has launched Guitar Hero 3. Sustainable branding means working with resources that exist and function well among their users.

(Photo: 'Rock Band' set-up with 110" screen from a Panasonic PT-AX100 Projector. Onkyo 605 feeds the sound from the Xbox 360.)

IGA Announces In-Game Advertising Study

IGA Worldwide announced an intensive U.S. study to be conducted with BASES/Nielsen Entertainment on the effectiveness of in-game advertising. The research will examine the integration of brand advertising into multiple genres of PC based video games.  “As people have shifted away from must-see TV to must-play videogames, many of the leading consumer brands that we work with are interested in video-game-based advertising;  but the industry needs to better track effectiveness to help justify the marketing investment,” said Rick Corteville, Executive Director of Media at Organic, a partner in the study.

The following objectives for the study have been set:

• Support in-game advertising opportunities:  To test and determine the significant factors of in-game ads, including size on screen, time exposed to the ad and angle of view across multiple advertising formats and game genres
• Deliver new insights between brands, consumers and the medium:  Uncover fresh data on consumer brand engagement in games and other forms of media and entertainment

Setting Up Shop in Second Life

Blogs allover are reporting that Crayon is claiming to be the first company to be launched in SecondLife.

Setting up shop to help novices “get it” is missing the point and likely to turn Second Life into the AOL of virtual worlds. Just like going the way of MySpace, expect avid SecondLife players to go deeper underground. Yes, granted our other forms of entertainment like TV and movies are driven by advertising revenue. Yet they started as vehicles for advertisers. Think soap operas, which launched as melodramatic stories that aired commercials for soap products.

This is different. Second Life is one of several virtual worlds that have been inspired by the science fiction novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and the Cyberpunk literary movement.

A colleague likens business opportunities like this to making money on Ebay. It’s nice when someone makes your point. However, the dilemma is about understanding how media consumption differs from group to group.

You can't suddenly create an American Idol brand experience in Second Life. By being on the scene as Crayon cohorts were decked out in logo t-shirts fundamentally misses the point. This results in Crayon or any other firm like them as enemy like Microsoft in a Linux world. It's the problem with marketers looking at technology first, before mapping people and understanding their media consumption.

Why are there no women on the launching team of Crayon? Perhaps, there are but all I'm seeing on the site are Mike, Neville, Shel, Gary, Joseph, Aaron, CC and  Chris.

Don't Mock the Gamers

Their way of life is beyond compelling. It's fascinating to watch as gaming behavior mimics real-life ever more intensely, with the promise of more powerful dynamics than ever before available to marketers.

A new race was reported in the NY Times:

"Much of the storyline in World of Warcraft, which now has more than 6 million paying subscribers worldwide, revolves around the strife between two competing factions, the Alliance and the Horde. Players can join either side of the fantasy conflict; the Alliance includes races like human, dwarves and gnomes, while the Horde includes orcs, trolls and the undead...Blizzard announced last year that in the expansion it would add a new race called the Blood Elves to the Horde, but the identity of the new Alliance race has been a closely-guarded secret..."

Meanwhile, a News.com article talks about the “We Know” club. "We Know" exists only in the virtual world. It's one of many virtual guilds, or groups of kindred players, in the popular "World of Warcraft" online game...With more than 5.5 million people now playing WoW and joining guilds for everything from police officers to soldiers returning from Iraq, it was bound to happen: The rich guys have carved a virtual space to call their own…"

Further, also in the NY Times…”The console video game market is entering an online era that could take the $30 billion global industry to a new level, and giant software company Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) is leading the charge...Sony and Nintendo will launch their new online services later this year. Like Xbox Live, those rivals will allow game makers to sell games directly to users already familiar with buying and downloading music and video from the Internet.”

“Dynamic in-game advertising, made possible by high-speed Internet connections, is also expected to drive revenue by giving marketers a way to reach young male consumers who have moved away from network television and other mainstream media.”

Puma's In-game Product Placement

We've been doing a lot of research around the possibilities for in-game advertising here at scenarioDNA, so I finally have gotten around to giving a bit of a review to the recent Puma integration into Activision's True Crime, New York City.

Overall the ad placement is much better than the usual billboard ads and thankfully no interstitial.  Where Puma trips up though is how some of the placement is written into the game play.  You can find Puma sneakers throughout the game and unlock special features.  I'm not sure that this has a long term benefit.  It will likely alienate the core of gamers.  They are savvy to the process of game development.  What could be worse than game play that is pushed on a developer for a placement?  It is similar to brands being written into TV shows artificially. It always ends up seeming contrived and puts the overall placement into question. I think the only player who might really respond to this form of placement is likely to be too young to buy the sneakers anyway.

What works much better is the more simple use of puma clothes and integrating it into purchases that the character makes throughout the game.  The goal should always be to avoid pushing too hard.   

Another placement that comes off without seeming to heavy-handed, is a quick "Hello Moto" reference in one of the lines of dialogue.  It is uttered ny a character using their mobile phone. An example of culturally embedding a brand first so it can be referenced believably in other media. Not a bad placement.

What needs to be mentioned is the Activision really went all out in creating a very realistic model of New York City.  The brand of NYC is very well placed in this game.  The detail of streets and buildings is quite astonishing.  Maybe Puma should take more notice of that kind of integration.  Gamers respond to this kind of nuance much more than contrived "power-ups".  Think bigger and get more creative in getting their attention.  The overall impression of this effort though gives me some optimism as to where this form of advertising can go. 

More reading
Veeeeery long exposure (BBDO Lab)

Mad Mike/Rockstar: A Symbiotic Deal

Persistence pays when you demand authenticity.

When creating "Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition," Rockstar games approached Mike Banks (also known as Mad Mike), who founded Submerge and is a member of Underground Resistance, commonly called UR.

"The founder of Rockstar Games...came here when Mike Banks was working on construction of the Submerge building. And basically, Mike Banks is not really down for commercial exploitation of his music whatsoever. So he gave him the big Mad Mike UR speech and kicked him out," said Ade Henderson-Mainor, president of Submerge Recordings. "But J.D. Simpson, our general counsel for Submerge, kept the relationship alive for years. When I came on board in 2002, we were able to rekindle that relationship."

"So we said we will do this deal if we have Detroit in the game," said Henderson-Mainor. "And they said OK, only if you let us use the music."

Among electronic music aficionados, UR is known for its spare and hard-driving beats and strong anticommercial stance. This is the sound of secretive dance parties, not mainstream radio music...not the kind of stuff usually featured in video games.

Read all about it here.

PSP Spawns Rebirth in Multimedia Mags

It feels a bit like 1995. In the spirit of those old CRD ROM mags of the nineties like Blender, Launch and Digizine, a new generation emerges now as downloadable PSP magazines.  Joining the PSP 'Zine scene is LOAD Magazine just released its first issue. We hope the same mistakes will not be made.  The environment should offer a nice opportunity for advertisers if done right.

Where the Boys Are

This month's Business 2.0 features an interesting article on the smart ways some marketers are cultivating market opportunities in the pursuit of the young male consumer.

Advertisers are desperately trying to stay in contact with the migrating herd of young men, but that's more easily said than done. Their efforts have contributed in part to the rise in online ad spending -- up 23 percent this year to $14.7 billion. And, more significantly, a handful of media companies are beginning to figure out how to target the ad-resistant demographic.

They aren't advertisers; think of them as wranglers who are drawing guys together in large numbers, which advertisers can then pepper with highly targeted pitches (some of which, by the way, might not be allowed on network TV). What follows is a look at four upstarts -- Action Media's custom-car show Hot Import Nights, gaming network Xfire, online video venue Heavy, and blog newsfeed advertiser Pheedo -- that are helping big-name brands develop new strategies that reach young men.

These four companies are also surprisingly smart about keeping costs low, so each stands a solid chance of making money; two, in fact, are already profitable. More important, they're all pioneering new forms of marketing that could alter mainstream media. "Videogames, cell phones, stuff like that is all still in the testing stage for advertising," says Steve Sternberg, executive vice president and director of audience analysis at Magna Global Media Research. "But it's very real, and it's going to explode."  Read more (Business 2.0)

Hardcore Gaming at the World Cyber Games

The elite competitors converged on New York City for the World Cyber Games, chasing the dream of years as they attempted to conquer one of the pinnacles of their sport. Survivors of grueling tuneup tournaments around the country this summer, the players had each endured hundreds of matches in recent months, honing strategies and exercising the physical reflexes required to be the best.

"We're all gamers now, right?" one of the fans, Kimberly Belliveau, 33, of Manchester, Conn., said early Saturday afternoon. "Everybody plays video games, even if it's just solitaire on the computer at work. Well, these guys here are gamers, but they are the best in the world. They're not like you and me. You're probably not going to run a triathlon, but you'll go watch the Olympics, right? This is like that. This is like the Olympics for gamers." Read more (NY Times)

Related Material
What Avid Gamers Say (IGNITE!/youth Brand Planning Guide)

     

Court Favors Marc Ecko, Mayor is Mad

A judge ruled it was a First Amendment violation for the city [of New York] to revoke the permit for Wednesday's block party in Chelsea that will feature graffiti artists spray-painting models of subway cars…

The party celebrates the upcoming release of the video game [Marc Ecko] designed for Atari, "Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure." The game features characters who vandalize a city called New Radius with graffiti in defiance of a corrupt and tyrannical local government.

The mayor's office said the city wasn't obligated to issue a permit for an event that "encourages the vandalism of subway cars in the name of selling T-shirts and video games."

When it’s authentic enough to get the mayor’s office involved, it’s gotta be good. Go Marc!

Read the whole NY1 article.