A blog about digital, social and the games industry. To stay up to date you can subscribe to the RSS feed or follow me on Twitter

4Oct11 Case study – Forza Motorsport 4

The target audience of most realistic racing games is fairly straightforward; generally 16-35 year old males most interested in:

  • Cars
  • Tracks
  • Experience

The current Forza advert clearly aims to impress and excite this audience, and you can see it for yourself here. See you after the break!

For the most part, this is a well planned and executed advert. The impressive game visuals are presented well, conveying an image of high detail and immersion. The choice of music also reflects the game’s tone nicely.

It’s clear that the advertiser thought it important to advertise which cars are available to the player in the game. Furthermore, there is an important appreciation that while most of the target audience will be familiar with the cars, most shall never have the opportunity to drive one in real life. It’s a very emotional proposition, and it’s expressed beautifully in the strap line;

‘Where dreams are driven’

While other games brands try to attain a wider reach by partnering with other entertainment and lifestyle brands (often music artists and celebrities), this Forza ad attempts to do this through the popular TV show Top Gear. Again, allowing players to drive the Top Gear track in the game brings a potentially unrealisable dream to life for the player. Placing this feature in the ad is perhaps obvious, but it’s also a powerful method of attracting a wider audience.

On the less positive side, there is a missed opportunity due to the lack of social integration in this ad. The advertiser could have done more to encourage the viewer towards a higher level of engagement. For example, a QR code throughout the ad (accompanied by a clear reason to interact with it) could change lightly engaged viewers into more highly engaged Forza community members.

On the whole, it’s a good ad. The viewer should be left with a good understanding of what the game is about, along with a feeling of having the opportunity to experience something fantastic (less likely if you aren’t into cars).

The room for improvement – always encourage and make it simple for the viewers to interact on a deeper level.

No Comments Posted by in Blog
Tagged , ,
3Oct11 Haiku Game Review – Limbo

Puzzle platformer.
Avoid traps and huge spiders.
Really good ending.

No Comments Posted by in Haiku Game Review
Tagged ,
26Sep11 Putting social media in context

In the current social sphere, brands have become increasingly focussed on gaining a high number of likes and followers. The reason for this is simple: the more engaged an individual is with a brand, the more likely it is that they shall buy and advocate it’s services and products.

While fans and followers are an important measure of awareness, they are not necessarily an accurate measure of engagement. Numerous brands often spend large amounts of money running campaigns in order to increase these figures, only to lose these fans quickly afterwards. After all, if a person only liked a page in order to stand a chance of winning a prize, why would they remain a fan thereafter?

Profiles and pages should be used to enhance and extend brands. Attracting new users is a positive thing, but stopping at this point is a waste of time and money. The aim should be to nurture and grow a community. This community should also reflect the core values of the brand.

One of the risks of brands continuing to use social media in a superficial manner is the devaluation of the medium itself. The current state of affairs is remarkably similar to that of the Internet bubble before it burst. Attempting to attract new users without having something genuinely valuable to offer them is essentially like building a house on sand.

So don’t plan some superficial tactics and call it a community. Consistently focus on what value you will deliver to your audience. Once you realise this, you will have a chance of growing a genuinely mutually-beneficial and successful community for your brand.

3 Comments Posted by in Blog
Tagged , ,
6Sep11 Haiku Game Review – Bastion

Braid meets Diablo.
Great story, well narrated.
Well worth a purchase.

No Comments Posted by in Haiku Game Review
Tagged ,
18Aug11 Go to an emotional level

When faced with promoting a brand/product, it’s easy to focus most the attention on its technical aspects. Most products will have some technical advantages over the competition and it is clearly important to recognise these. Cheaper, safer, easier, faster are all strong selling points, but these can be quickly replaced by other newer technologies.

There is usually an opportunity to understand the target audience on an emotional level. This is not to say that the product/brand’s messaging should heavily feature it, but it’s highly useful to have it as a starting point for your thinking.

Marketing to tweens (9-12 year olds) is a good example of this. Looking at this audience on the surface might lead us to think that they are mostly motivated by crazes and celebrities. This view isn’t wrong, but it’s superficial.

Both of these aspects may be understood on a deeper level. Crazes and celebrities might be casually explained away as being ‘cool’, ‘trendy’ and ‘fashionable’, but they can also be viewed as being based in deeper insecurities and desire for social acceptance.

A campaign that starts from this emotional understanding will have a much higher chance of being relevant and creative. Starting from, ‘tweens love collecting’, on the other hand will likely result in old ideas.

How do you get to this level? Mark Pollard sums it up best:

“Start with something that seems obvious and keep asking ‘Why?’ and ‘What if?’.”

No Comments Posted by in Blog
Tagged , ,
Pages (6): 1 2 3 4 Next » ... Last »