Long Road Applied Media Diploma

1 x DIRECT ADVERTISING

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

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)

SWOT ANALYSIS

Write up and perform a SWOT analysis for you marketing campaign.

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

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.

- 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.

Here's some places to start your research
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2013/apr/10/anna-anthropy-twine-revolution
http://mkopas.net/
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/tweecode
Twine development

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

Think about the branding for your development team.

EVIDENCE ANY PLANNING ON YOUR BLOG - MAKE THIS 'WORK IN PROGRESS' SO FEEL FREE TO TWEAK THE DESIGN AT A LATER STAGE

Start a post called 'POTENTIAL MARKETING OBJECTIVES'

Begin to mindmap/think about what you want to achieve with your marketing campaign.

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

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

Not essential but you could create a logo and some branding for your company.

One marketing plan to be produced

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