Games Marketing + Potential Blogs for advertising


http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie-game-marketing/

http://www.gamesradar.com/the-very-best-and-worst-of-games-merchandise/

http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-most-baffling-pieces-of-video-game-merchandise.php


Potential blogs for advertising or feature articles - http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie-game-sites/
http://midnightresistance.co.uk/

The main gaming websites
computerandvideogames.com/
ign.com
gamespot.com
gamesradar.com
eurogamer.net


MARKETING - JUNE

So far you should have the following information

- A clear understanding of your product
- A clear understanding of who your target audience is
- A clear objective to your marketing campaign
- An understanding of the role of ASA and ISFE
- Multiple drafts and ideas for adverts and promotions AND feedback on these ideas.

THE NEXT STAGE IS:
1) Decide on your ideas - what (as a team or individuals) are you going to do. Remember you must have the following:

Direct advertising
Indirect advertising
Promotions

ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE AND FEASIBILITY

2) To create a clear marketing plan that must include the following:
A schedule: when is your product released, when will the marketing and promotion begin, when will the separate parts be actioned, why have you chosen this strategy.

3) How you intend to get feedback and information from your target audience and consumers as to how effective the campaign is.

4) Create the materials - evidencing the process along the way.

CREATE EVIDENCE FOR YOUR BLOG!!!!




Plan a photoshoot

Plan:

• type of photograph, eg portrait, action shot

• whether on location or in studio

• equipment to be used, eg camera, tripods, lighting, lenses

• time

• budget based on professional rates

• people, eg models

• safety considerations

• legal and ethical considerations, eg gaining parental permissions

for child photography, use of shocking photographs of violence

or death

• development, eg in a darkroom, digitally, quality of paper

• editing techniques

YEAR 2: Marketing UNIT 04 AO2

WORK FOR HALF TERM

Using all the research you have done (on your own product, market segmentation, games market, SWOT analysis, ASA) to inform the construction of three types of marketing
1 x DIRECT ADVERTISING
1 x INDIRECT ADVERTISING
1 x PROMOTION

The definitions for all three of the above are quite vague. The specification, however, gives the following examples for the 3 categories:

Direct advertising such as:
• trailers/posters
• television/radio commercials
• sponsorship

Indirect advertising such as:
• feature articles
• guest appearances on chat shows

Promotions:
• competitions/sponsorship
• merchandising

The description for Direct and Promotion are easily understandable.
Indirect is a bit trickier to get your head around - the best way to look at it is marketing that doesn't explicitly target an audience DIRECTLY - it's marketing that a consumer discovers.
This could be feature articles about the game, it could be something more creative, perhaps a viral campaign.

1) Brainstorm ideas of what you could do for all three marketing types (keeping in mind your research)
2) Evidence your creative thinking and process on the blog - perform extra research into other marketing campaigns if necessary.
Then select your strongest ideas and do the following:

Drafts and proposals for 2 adverts (TWO)
Drafts and proposals for 2 promotions (TWO)
(These drafts can take any form just as long as the ideas can be seen and presented)

HAVE THESE DRAFTS READY FOR PEER FEEDBACK AFTER HALF TERM AND EVIDENCE YOUR PROCESS ON THE BLOG




WORK FOR 22/05/13
SWOT ANALYSIS
Write up and perform a SWOT analysis for you marketing campaign.

Here's an example SWOT analysis for Batman: Arkham City.


RESEARCH THE ASA & ISFE
Look up the Advertising Standards Agency and produce a relatively concise post outlining the history, purpose and role of the organisation.
Here is the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP Code) - these are the guidelines and regulations about marketing to protect both the consumer and marketeer. These are the rules you must follow in order for your marketing campaign to be both legal and ethical.

IF YOU WANT THE CAP CODE ON YOUR BLOG HERE IS THE WORD PRESS EMBED CODE:
[slideshare id=21662431&doc=capcode0712-130522035234-phpapp02&type=d]


Research the Interactive Software Federation of Europe and produce a relatively concise post outlining the history, purpose and role of the organisation.
Go to the Industry Facts page of the ISFE website - look at the statistics - and cut and paste of any data you believe could be important for your marketing campaign. This will add to your market research - BUT ONLY IF YOU WRITE A PARAGRAPH UNDERNEATH THE DATA EXPLAINING WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED.






WORK FOR 20/05/13

FINISH MARKET RESEARCH ASAP
- Present the information in a clear and interesting way (graphs, pie charts, infographics)
- Analyse - what have you learned from it, how will it help you achieve your marketing objectives

Consider fans of your genre (sci-fi, fantasy, supernatural etc)
Are there forums, online sites, communities that could be targeted (especially literature fans)

Look at Richard Bartle's gamer demographics (Killer, Socialisers, Achievers, Explorers).
Which one of these would play your game? What types of marketing would attract them?


WORK FOR 16/05/13

TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH
This process is very important as it will inform and influence your promotion choices for your marketing campaign. You have to know your audience in order to target them effectively.
As always you must use a combination of PRIMARY and SECONDARY research.
Your starting point is the list you created for you MARKET SEGMENTATION. Last lesson we identified the following:
Fan of the games genre (sci-fi, fantasy etc), Richard Bartle's game types, Casual vs Hardcore, Social games (Facebook), Indie Game fans, text based game users, story driven game fans (Adventure/RPG). Twine users.

You can research and consider ALL of these groups or choice a selection. However, you must justify this choice.
THE AUDIENCE AREAS YOU MUST CONSIDER ARE THE FOLLOWING:

SECONDARY RESEARCH: TWINE USERS/COMMUNITY
These are the people who make games similar to your product and the obviously target audience.
The whole point of research is to understand the following of you audience in terms of demographic (age, nationality, gender), cultural references, media intake, references, online use.
What your trying to find out about is who are these people who play and make these games? What is the etiquette, reference points, language of the community? And at the heart of it how could you get them interested in your game?

PRIMARY RESEARCH: 15-20 YEAR OLD MARKET
Design a form of primary research to survey whether 16-18 years olds would be interested in playing Twine games and your games.
The research must figure out whether it is worth your time and effort to aim marketing to a younger audience in order to introduce new consumers your product.

YOU MUST DO THE ABOVE RESEARCH AND CARRY OUT ANY OTHER TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH THAT WILL HELP YOU ACHIEVE YOUR MARKETING OBJECTIVE (so this may mean researching other parts of the market segmentation).


WORK FOR 15/05/13

TASK 1
Think about the branding for your development team.
Have the name and logo reflect your development style and game style.
Something that might appeal to a potential target audience.
Interesting design and logo.
EVIDENCE ANY PLANNING ON YOUR BLOG - MAKE THIS 'WORK IN PROGRESS' SO FEEL FREE TO TWEAK THE DESIGN AT A LATER STAGE

TASK 2
Start a post called 'POTENTIAL MARKETING OBJECTIVES'
Begin to mindmap/think about what you want to achieve with your marketing campaign.

TASK 3
Mind map a rough market segmentation that you could potentially target
PREZI is a useful bit of software to illustrate your work. (ask Conner how to use it).



WORK FOR 13/05/13
Start a new post - call it Markeing for (whatever you game called): PRODUCT
Tag it Unit 04 AO2

TASK 1
Upload your Games Design Document

TASK 2
Write a 250 word 'sell' for you game that must include the following:
The basic information about the game
What value the consumer will get from playing this game
Why they should play this game rather than others

TASK 3
With your partner brainstorm all the unique selling points of your game. (FIRST FIND A DEFINITION OF Unique Selling Point)
You must document this process in a creative way - A4 paper - scan it in, use a tablet to handwrite in Photoshop etc WE DON'T WANT A DRY LIST.

TASK 4
Create a name for your games development/publisher
Create a Twitter account
Not essential but you could create a logo and some branding for your company.

OBJECTIVE FOR UNIT 04 AO2
One marketing plan to be produced
Marketing plan:
Identify product
Describes aims of a new campaign
Reviews current situation
Identifies target audience
Identifies the potential market (niche, local and national or global)
Describes advertisements and promotions
Gives schedule
Identifies ways to sample audience or consumer feedback
 
Identify official research bodies that provide information for advertisers: about user group profiles, about popularity of products.
PEGI
Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE)

Legal and ethical constraints identified: including the role of the ASA and other official bodies controlling advertising

HOW TO CARRY OUT MARKET RESEARCH

The stages of Market Research are as follows:

1. Identify the purpose of the research.
What are you attempting to get from the research? Is it an explanation as to why certain consumer behaviour is occurring? Is it to enable accurate predictions for the future? Is it to monitor current activity and record it accurately? To discover new needs and wants?

2. Design the research
This is far more than just knocking out a questionnaire or an online survey. First you have to ensure that research you are undertaking is valid – that the research really does measure what is it supposed to measure.
Then the research must be reliable – so is the data collected honest, is it a fair recflection of the rest of the chosen group that are being studied.
Then there’s different types of research that can be carried out as depending on the research objective you might need quantitative research or qualitative research. Quantitative research is pursuit of empirical evidence and data using in numerical form – for instance the percentage of iPhone owners who play Angry Birds.
Qualitative research is finding out the stories behind the facts and figures, trying to understand opinion and motivation of consumers – just what is it about attacking pigs with beaked kamikaze-pilots that is so appealing.

3. Data Collection
The type of data needed has been identified for the purpose of the research, now its about getting the information. This is can be done with collection of original information and data – which is primary research. It can be the gathering and summary of existing research and data – which is secondary research. Typically – for a thorough research project – a combination of primary and secondary is used.

4. Evaluate and analyse the data
Evaluating requires a looking at the raw data and ‘cleansing’ the data in terms of incomplete and unrepresentative responses that might have an affect on the overall outcome.
Analysis can take two forms;
Descriptive analysis – this is a summary of the findings, a description on the data. This could involve pie charts and tables for quantitative research and categorisation of consumers for qualitative.
Inferential analysis – using the data to make inferences, predictions and judgments on the area research.

5. Communicate the results – the final stage is to present your research making clear the purpose of the research, the design, the finding and the conclusions made from it.

Remember this is market research so extends beyond surveying consumers attitude to products. Business need information on every factor of the marketing process - products, packaging, distribution, pricing, advertising, cultural trends, social attitudes, brand recognition – anything that they believe will inform and give an edge in communicating the value of their product and creating demand.

Credits for CAM opening titles

1. Dexter Fletcher

2. with Carey Mulligan

3. Steven Mackintosh

    Tamsin Outhwaite

4. David Wilmot

     Rosie Day

5.  Simon McBurney

6.  Special guest Jerome Flynn

7.  Created & written by Tom Green

8.   Produced by Katie Swinden

9.   Directed by Irene O'Brien

10. CAM

WORK FOR YEAR 2 - 09/05/13

UNIT 04 AO1

So far you should have researched half of the marketing mix (2 of the 4 Ps - Product, Promotion) for Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption.

Now complete the other 2 Ps

Placement
How was RDR distributed? What shops? What online retailers? When did it come out in different countries? When and where was it available in terms of digital distribution? Where is it available to purchase digitally now?
What DLC was there? Where could you get it and when?

Price
How much was it on release? What retail promotions were there? What pre-order incentives were there, with whom? When was a budget version released? Was there a collectors edition - how much? How much was the downloadable version?

Research this yourself but these you'll find some information here.

If you finish this move onto to a second case study and do the same type of research (4 Ps): either Angry Birds or you can choose a game of your choice as long as it is iPhone/smartphone game or a social game (Facebook).

For Angry Birds there's a ton of resources online but below is a very good document and there's something interesting information on how they marketed it here.

MODERATION: Unit 02 Links

With the following links you will find the following evidence.

1) Text and illustration
Evidence of sketching techniques - line drawing, using Photoshop and tablet, creating own font, brushes and textures
Research into illustrators and their work as well as existing texts.
Concluded in the pitch for a children's books.

2) Audio-Visuals and Audio
Evidence of post-production and filming techiniques - New York Editing Sequence, Western Credits - combing text & key framing with sound FX and Music, Foley sound production, One minute film challenge and recreating Misfits opening credits.
Each of these techniques has an evaluation on the skills learned.
Then there is research and preparation for the Sci/Fantasy TV opening credits - primary and secondary research, research into relevant practitioners and identification of a target audience.
Final product and evaluation.
(ALSO SEE THE UNIT 02 A4 FOLDER)

3) Animation techniques
Evidence of post-production techniques - parallax scrolling, rotoscoping, stop motion, flick-book - each with evaluation.
Final product and evaluation.

Jack Craig

Ed Fawcett

Tom Hughes-Faulkner

Lee O'Keefe

Zack Barton

Freddie Sutcliffe


The next links take you to the pitch for the Film Education Poster task which includes primary and secondary research, evidence of Illustrator techniques learned and a final product.

Jack Craig
(Supporting blog)

Ed Fawcett
(Supporting blog)

Tom Hughes-Faulkner

Lee O'Keefe
(Supporting blog)

Zack Barton
(Supporting blog)

Freddie Sutcliffe