Video Game Advertising

Marketing through games has become a popular channel as gamers have take to multiple channels to engage; computers, consoles, and even handheld mobile devices have become gaming devices.  Recently there has been a shift in console gaming away from violence filled games aimed at young males and now aimed towards the entire family.  This has caused marketers to spend more advertising dollars on gaming as the target market has skewed dramatically.  Advertising and marketing through video games can be grouped into two major categories; Advergaming, and In-Game Advertising.

            Advergames – Advergames are games developed by a company solely to promote a specific brand or product.  According to a news article on CBS News most of these games are aimed at youth because they can hold their attention longer than a typical ad and build loyalty for the future.  These games are typically short in duration, require no capital investment, and can be played by all skill levels.  Some examples you may be familiar with have come from Orbitz Travel and began with a pop-up ad which allowed users to sink a putt, hit a home-run, or flick a field goal.  The advergame went so well that Orbitz started a website dedicated to the games, Orbitz Games.

            In-Game Advertising – In Game Advertising consists of advertising built into video games with pre-existing narratives.  This advertising can be static such as a billboard for McDonalds that remains in a video games environment, regardless of where the user is playing. 

This type of advertisement works well for national brands but will not work well for regional or local companies.  A second approach to in-game advertising can be through dynamic advertising targeting local consumers who are connected via the internet for gaming.  This can allow companies to target specific regional areas based on connection.

The picture on top is an advertisement for State Farm on MLB Live that appears based on connectivity, the actual field is below and show the billboard does not exist in real life.

            Both of these types of marketing will continue to prevalent in the near future as marketers look for alternate ways to reach a more captive audience.

Channel Conflict

In the recent years many established companies have shifted their focus from selling product solely through traditional stores to a combination of a physical store presence and an internet presence.  This has caused conflict as distributers now resemble competitors for product sales.  I want to expand on some of the ways companies avoid channel conflict that were touched on in the class notes, and give real-world examples of companies who do a good job managing their distribution arrangements.

• Partnership – One example of a company that partners manufacturing and distribution is Pirelli Tires. Pirelli manages over 6,000 distributers for their high end tires and uses software to help the process run efficiently.  Pirelli handles all manufacturing and manages the website.  Sales made on the website are automatically fed to computer systems at local distributors for delivery.  Pirelli was able to cut inventory and distribution costs by 20% and has shared this profit with many of their distributors who have partnered with them.  A snippet of this business case can be found at Tibco Software.

• Non-Participation – Companies that do not engage in online sales but have an internet presence can run the risk of losing sales as customers have trouble finding their products.  One industry that operates with this model is the Golf industry.  Manufacturers such as Ping, Titleist, and Cobra Golf.  Each company offers product reviews and specification on their websites, but directs customers to local distributors through the use of a zip-code locator.

• Direct Sales - One example of direct from the manufacturer sales that works well is for large products with relatively low unit costs, such as low end furniture.  Companies that manufacture low cost furniture can avoid the costs of a warehouse distribution channel and increase the margins on each product.

5 Best & Worst Practices for Search Engine Optimization

Just because Search Engine Optimization is about improving the page rank of a site through un-paid, or "organic" means, doesn't mean that investing capital into the process of SEO won't bring high ROI if done correctly.  Listed below are some of the best and worst practices for Search Engine Optimization:
Great Link to SEO Techniques

Best Practices for SEO

1. Relevant Keywords - Search Engine Optimization only works if you are using keywords that people actually search for.  Spend some time looking for what words and topics are relevant and timely.
2. Page Titles Lead With Keywords - One common mistake is to have keywords in the page titles appear after non site specific words such as "Welcome" or 'Enter".  All title pages should lead with the keywords.
3. Meta Descriptions That Have a Call to Action - Although meta descriptions do not change the page rank of a site, having a relevant meta description with a call to action can increase the click rate which can lead to higher page ranks in the future.
4. Custom Error Pages - A customer error page with the company's logo and correct status code can help reduce a site visitor's frustration if they reach a page that no longer exists.
5. Optimized Internal Linking Structure - The hierarchical linking structure on your site tells the search engine how important you feel each pages is compared to each other.

Worst Practices for SEO

1. Spread Site Across Multiple Domains - Although spreading your site across multiple domains can reduce traffic to each site, each page is thus reduced in page ranking as your traffic is divided among multiple pages.
2. Title Tags the Same on Each Page - Using unique keywords on each title page will increase the page rank of your site.
3. "Keyword Stuffing" - Putting the same keyword everyone on the page including comments and tabs may actually hurt your page ranking if Google feels you are being deceptive on your site or the keywords are not relevant at that specific place.
4. Pull Down Bars for Navigation - If you use pull downs for navigation, search engine robots will not be able to follow your site past page 1, navigation must never be in drop down form.
5. Not enough Copy - Pages rich in graphics are often most appealing to users, however text is what increases a pages search ranking.  Text/Copy should be included on each pages of a site.

Take a look at various pages you visit and share some areas for improvement you see.

The Evolution of Social Media

The other day my wife was watching America’s Got Talent when Judson Laipply, creator of the YouTube hit “Evolution of Dance” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg), showed up as a guest star. Over 152, 534, 461 people have watched the evolution of dance on the internet and it got me thinking, just how many people have witnessed the evolution of social media over the last 10 years and not even realized what tremendous strides we have taken. Much of the credit for the following timeline goes to http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/the-history-and-evolution-of-social-media/

· Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) - In the late 70's BBSs were the first type of sites that allowed users to log on and interact with one another typically by dialing in through the host computers modem.

· Online Services - Early corporate attempts at accessing the internet including Prodigy, CompuServe, and Genie.

· Instant Messaging - Born in the mid 90's out of earlier programming IRC and ICQ

· Dating Sites – Allowed users to upload photos, create profiles, and interact with others

· Forums – A user friendly interface allowed forums to grow in popularity much more so than BBS sites.

· Six Degrees – Started in 1997, this is considered to be the first social media site, Six Degrees allowed users to create a profile and link with others

· Friendster – Started in 2002 Friendster was the original social networking site. Users could add friends and then become friends with friends of friends.

· Linked-In – Started in 2003 this was the first social networking site aimed at making business contacts rather than friends

· Facebook & MySpace – Currently the two most popular social networking sites, MySpace was started in 2003 and held the spot as the most popular social media site until 2008 when Facebook (started 2004) took over.

· Twitter- Started in 2006, Twitter was the first site to begin offering real-time updates of social information

As you think about the evolution of social media you have seen in your lifetime, what new technology or application of technology do you think we will see?

Marketing on Facebook Vs. MySpace

After viewing the Week 2 video slide discussing the difference in demographics between the two major social network sites, I thought it would be useful to compile some tips for advertising on Facebook and MySpace, and why the differences persist.

Demographics

Facebook – Facebook does not ask for demographic information from users, but they use surnames supplied by users to match the US Census Bureau and have determined that the ethnicity on Facebook nearly mirrors that of the United States with a slightly higher Caucasian instance.   63% of current users are under the age of 35, and 81% are under the age of 45.

MySpace - MySpace’s ethnic breakout is also similar to the averages of the US and Facebook, however has a higher percentage of Mexican and African American users.  MySpace has a much younger consumer base than Facebook with almost 45% of their users under the age of 24 (compared to 27% for Facebook).

Approach – Advertisers who target older consumers should use Facebook over MySpace as they will be able reach their segment more easily.  One opportunity for marketers is to use ads in Spanish on MySpace to appeal to consumers who are bi-lingual or of Hispanic descent.

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/01/04/december-data-on-facebook’s-us-growth-by-age-and-gender-beyond-100-million/

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/facebook-twitter-grow-more-than-100-11943/comscore-demographic-composition-facebook-myspace-feb-2010jpg/

International Audience

Facebook - Around 350 million international users (70% of total users) comprising 70 languages.   

MySpace – Around 60 million international users comprising 15 languages.  London, Berlin, and Sydney are the three countries that have the most promise for MySpace comprising large economic centers with high concentrations of MySpace users.

Approach – If you are marketing to an international audience Facebook is by far the social media site to use.  It comprises more users than MySpace and has a wider international reach.  Ads should be set-up in the language of the targeted consumer in order to appear authentic and real.

Degree of Segmentation

Approach – For segmenting your audience both sites should work best with the same approach, increase the number of ads and decrease the width of the group you are targeting.  Do not try to reach all users with a single ad; social media users can easily read through it and it will not be as profitable as multiple ads focused on smaller subsets.  Both MySpace and Facebook allow marketers to segment based on data collected such as age, birthday, relationship status, and interests/hobbies.  Advertisements must not come across as mass mail, but have a more subversive (not meant in a bad way) approach.  The following article http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=127907 discusses Toyota’s use of MySpace to help promote their brand image through tie-ins with unsigned artists.  Kim Kyaw, senior media strategist for Toyota, says Toyota's branding in the program is deliberately low-key. "MySpace is a complex social network, and in order to be authentic there you have to relate back to what it is people are doing there.”

Ethics & Targeted Advertising - MKT 595 Wk 1

As the internet becomes the new marketplace for commerce, companies’ advertising budgets are getting redirected from traditional media (television, print, radio) towards the internet. Although the marketing principle of segmenting the market, targeting a particular segment, and positioning the product to meet the needs of the target segment still hold for internet marketing, targeting has become a significantly more advanced and controversial topic when applied to internet advertising.




A great debate is currently raging on the ethical concerns over using targeted ads based on the user’s previous website history. Simply put, a cookie is a piece of text that can be used to track the user’s previous web-site visits. A computer program analyzes the web-site history gathered by the cookie to determine which products and services would likely be purchased by the user and those ads are placed within subsequent sites. According to Whatis.com, targeted ads can have a click rate of 1-5%, much higher than the standard ads placed within websites which typically have a click rate of 0.15-1.0%. Although this technique is profitable for companies trying to sell their product, many consumer activists and even the FTC are arguing that some of the techniques used by advertisers violate the consumer’s right to privacy. Younger generations tend to value privacy less as social media sites allow them to share pictures, personal information, and updates with the entire world.  This link http://www.cio-today.com/news/Web-Sites-Know-What-You-Do-Online/story.xhtml?story_id=12000DEDB220 will take you to a concise article from CIO-Today about privacy issues and what some consumer advocacy groups are trying to do to stop it.



Feel free to post any comments or opinions you have if you feel strongly one way or another about this topic