blending the mix

So EA are to launch their first free online game with integrated ads.

But is this a sustainable business model? With games that make it big now costing several tens of millions (normally dollars), can a game contain so many ads and the advertiser achieve so much appropriate gamer engagement as to create value for each other?

TV learned very quickly that there is only so much you can cram into a small 1m 30sec ad break. As a result, there is only a finite level of revenue you can generate from any one show. Whilst technology (TiVo et al.) was a big driver for show sponsorship, this again shows that conventional ad revenue alone is not enough.

So how can games provide sufficient APPROPRIATE ad opportunities so as to ensure it does not a) interfere with the game itself and b) provide value to the advertiser?

I can totally see how product placement could work. Cans of drink and foodstuffs would be visible within domestic environments. Billboard ads would be nothing more than digitised versions of their printed big brothers when outside, but how many billboards exist in space? How can a fee-paying model be carried across so many different scenarios?

Is the target market for WW2 shoot-’em up Brothers in Arms likely to appreciate an in-game ad for deodorant? Don’t think so.

What about Halo? What earthly brands would fit into that environment…come with me on a journey…

Over the speaker: "Master Chief…this is a warning message brought to you in association with Ford Motors - Driving you to Halo and back. You are surrounded by aliens, why not use your Rentokill rocket launcher which kills so much more than weeds".

…suddenly…

Marine: Master Chief, Sgt. Honda Civic has been hit in the shoulder. We have tried using standard military issue bandages to heal the wound but nothing beats the soothing effects of Elastoplast with its new thermal strip to keep injuries warm.

Master Chief: Soldiers, be brave, be men…be. Try the new fragrance by Tom Ford - Be Man.

Marine 2: But Master Chief, working in such difficult conditions does not call for an avantgarde, masculine, yet sensitive fragrance. You need Axe for men. Apparently it keeps you cool under all sorts of pressure.

OK, so this is just a bit of fun, but if nothing else, it makes one wonder how it is going to be possible to transfer over this ad-based model to all games.

This has got to be a niche market unless someone can shed some light on it for me?

My Sony laptop is on the verge of packing in, after years and years of (ab)use it is at death’s door.

The CD drive does not allow me to burn back-up discs anymore and it is pot luck as to whether or not it will work from one day to the next.

So, I am offering a unique opportunity to sponsor ME.

Apple, Microsoft, Dell, or indeed any company willing to provide me with a half-decent laptop will have their name mentioned as part of my email signature.

In ALL communications in which I participate and which requires me to use the laptop (pretty much all the time!), I will apply the following signature text for a full 12 months (and I WILL provide weekly evidence of this):

Paul Fabretti

Director

Written on an Apple Macbook Pro by Company X.

Or

"Written using the latest Dell Precision M90"

or whatever suits the company providing it! You get the picture!

I may even think about something that sounds good too!

I am a minimum 3-times a day, 3-blog blogger with a (growing) average 800 unique visitors per month (ok, not a lot but growing all the time!). I am an active member of linked-in, openbc, ecademy as well as the pinkomarketing wiki and google group.

I am also an eBay (UK) Gold Power seller. A link to the company providing my laptop will also be included in ALL my eBay auctions.

Some will no doubt snigger at the visitor numbers (and advertisers may balk at the numbers!) but I am an extremely active member of the communities in which I mix, and present you with an opportunity to touch business professionals deeper than any banner ad would.

If this is of interest to you and you would be able to provide me with a laptop, I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Tags: ebay, Dell, Apple, Macbook Pro, laptop, pinko marketing

A great article here about using goodwill to either extend or promote a brand.

Cause-related marketing is often judged quite cynically in the UK, but my business uses this type of promotion to great effect.

Yes, our title is a great, catchy one, but without any credible cause to back up the name, we are nothing but a gimmick.

Customers are responsive to the fact that we give a stuff about the animal that we are using to promote ourselves and that we are doing something to protect it - let’s face it, without the animal, we don’t have a brand!

In the case of American Express, I strongly believe that cashback offers on credit cards are a waste of time with the returns being relatively insignificant and I also think many consumers think likewise with the likes of American Express Blue being banished to memory.

Ask yourself what ONE thing credit card marketeers push more than anything?

Security! (then rates!)

That said with the launch of AE Red, it makes me wonder whether marketeers are tuning in to the increased public empathy for charitable work which helped bring in hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to people affected by the terrible disasters like the 2004 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

If people can enjoy their own guilty pleasure on their own credit card, knowing they are helping others less fortunate than themselves at the same time, then I think AE are on to a winner.

Technorati Tags: goodwill, Cause-related marketing, American Express, Hurricane Katrina, credit card

This article here, by one of the UK’s leading direct marketing news services, mad.co.uk seems to take an overly negative stance on the use of blogs - or more precisely a blog that doesn’t even exist yet.

The webiste (which funnily enough doesn’t even have its own blog and adds a pharcical RSS feed system to its pages) goes on to criticise what I feel to be one of the most signficiant shifts in blogging for months. Honda have announced that it will be supporting the 2talkabout blog when it goes live with contributions from engineers to receive and give feedback on Honda models and queries.

Quite how the journo can find room to criticise a company’s willingness to open up more channels of communication with its customers and to receive and give more customer feedback is beyong me - it worked alright for Stormhoek and has enabled it to flourish.

Equally, Guinness has made a splash into blogging with the purpose of listening and communicating with customers.

So Honda may open itself up to more criticism. So what? That comes with the territory when blogging or marketing ANY product. Surely the benefit to engaging customer’s criticisms ios that NOW they are aware of them (rather then just watcvhing people drive past their chsowrooms!) and can act upon them.

Stormhoek contemplated changing its labels, so it opened up the idea to the blogoshpere (many of whom are its customers) to gauge their opinions. Consumers feel involved with the brand and that their opinions matter - and that can only BENEFIT the brand, not damage it.

The only piece of the article I mildly agree with is that sponsorship of someone else’s blog by Honda MAY be seen as hijacking the blog, but hasn’t this kind of thing been happening on forums for years, with unidentified emplyees dishing out information unregulated?

At least here, customers will know they would be dealing with someone whose job it is to listen to their comments?

This has GOT to be a good thing for Honda unless someone can tell me otherwise!