Monday, January 26, 2009
Points of Touch: User Experience in Spore
So that got me thinking to more of an end to end experience of a video game. Total User Experience encompasses much more than just the game itself, in the marketing realm, you have to generate interest and connect to your audience even before the game itself is launched.
As a full service agency typically our process to engage in both media drivers as well as creative experiences to approach potential customers and create a continuous relationship with them in the months leading up to a game's launch.
1. Develop the integrated strategy with the client
- Market research and user research showing where prospective customers will engage with gaming related resources and types of behaviours they have online
- Create a content calendar that mixes in media buys and video content as it will be released up to launch
2. Excite the early adopters
- Video game teasers and trailers tend to have standard release schedules and this content gets presented to video game sites where games in-the-know will go for the latest on a new game
- Enable CRM activities to catch potential customers that want to give you their email address
- A website with social media functions can start the formation of a community as they discuss and guess at the story of the game
- Alternatively other social networks such as facebook or myspace can be used as a social platform instead of building your own
3. Push people into the site
- As the game nears launch and if the demand warrants, you can get some to purchase the game ahead of time
- Media buys with banner ads on targeted sites can have a huge impact on web traffic, if you're really well targeted, you can see a 2-5% clickthrough rate
- Catchy viral sites may get some interests pushing to games to like My Black Valentine. Which pushes to the EA title, Black.
4. Stay with customers through their gaming experience
- Actively manage your community and look for ways to solve pain points of your gamers
- Your most vocal customers will be the gaming review sites, make it known if there are patches or updates that improve the game
Keeping on top of all the ways gamers interact outside the game certainly helps put a nice touch on the game and more importantly helps push the bottom line and set you up for a sequel!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Clip: Search Spending Off 8 Percent In Q4
From: Arthur Law <arthur.law@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:14:00 +0000
Subject: Report: Search Spending Off 8 Percent In Q4
To: alaw_viigo <arthur.law@gmail.com>
While search engine marketing has been somewhat more durable during
the recession (to date) than other media, that may not save SEM from
negative growth. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on the latest
Efficient Frontier search marketing report, set to be released
tomorrow. According to the Journal, the report will state that SEM
declined 8 [...]
....
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"Voici mon secret. Il est tres simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le
coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."
Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince
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Sent from my mobile device
"Voici mon secret. Il est tres simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le
coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."
Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince
Friday, January 2, 2009
Start of the New Year Potluck
See you all tomorrow (Saturday)!
6pm for drinks
7pm for dinner
Appetizer:
- Be the first!
Salads:
- Pinenut & Blackberry
Entree:
- Black Bean sauce chicken breast
- Black-eyed peas and spinach
- Whole duck
Starch:
- Coconut sticky rice
Dessert:
- Raspberry Lembic & Ice Cream
- Ginger Cake
- Pie
Drinks:
- Red Stripe