BandwidthCamp

Once the Domain of Cellar-Dwelling Teenage Boys, Video Games Hook Fans From All Walks of Life

Ad Age has a mini break down of a new report from NPD about gamers and our demographic traits. Thought not a marketing/communication piece, it does play into demographics and maybe even phsycographics, which is important when you are marketing and communicating in this global world of ours. Check out the article and you night learn something.

Brain A over at Kotaku mentions my latest column. The comment sections light up as gamers debate the www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com debacle as well as what all three console manufactors have been doing right and wrong in marketing, advertising and PR. I hope all three are reading what is going on and learn a lesson from this. The rules are changing and I love it.

David Meerman Scott from Web Ink Now is getting ready to publish his latest book; The New Rules Of Marketing & PR. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of the book and just finished reading it this weekend. Fundamentally the book is about communication and opening the channels between you and your different audiences and knowing what those different audiences are. Then using that knowledge to communicate through blogs, wikis, podcasts or whatever means works for you to get your ideas across. It’s also about being honest, open and not hawking your product/service, but providing useful information to the masses.

In the blog world, when someone writes a great post, you link to it. It’s a virtual pat on the back and acknowledgment that the effort was worthwhile. And it recognizes the original idea.

The rules of the game are changing and this is one book that gets it. We are now, more then ever, in a global economy and you are not just competing with the guy down the hall, but with people spread out across the globe. Use the new rules for now because it’s all we’ve to play by.

Disclaimer: David has added me to the acknowledgments section of the book. Thanks David. Now I just need to write my own book.

The Nucleus art gallery in LA will be holding an exhibit featuring works from the artists of God of War 2. In attendence will be artists Andy Park, Charlie Wen, Cecil Kim, Dwayne Turner, Erik San Juan, Ryan Meinerding and Scott Seeto.

The opening reception kicks off on Saturday night at 7 PM and includes unspecified door prizes and raffle giveaways. The work, although commercial, proves worthy to be framed and hanged and appreciated by game lovers fantasy lovers and art lovers alike. This is a great way to show your game and art to a community who might not be up on the latest in video games. It’s always great to look for local and national ways to show off your video game to a broader demographic.

[Via Kotaku]

Gears of War was one of the high points in video games last year. “Mad World” for Gears of War was one of the best commercials from last year that broke out of the pack and truly summed up what compelling content, especial online, can be. Fan or not, everyone in the community has seen this commercial. Speaking at the Microsoft Strategic Account Summit, Mich Mathews, Senior Vice President of Central Marketing at Microsoft has come out admitting that they didn’t intend to create the mashup phenomenon it generated. She spend the day discussing the effects of building reach through information sharing by the customer with the Gears of War commercial as an example. Check out her video here.

The ideal campaign may get two times, four times, even ten times more of that reach via pass along and remixing. We got more than 700 community-created mashups that are being posted on YouTube that have now been viewed over a million times. This type of passionate engagement with the brand we think helped make Gears of War the No. 1-selling videogame last holiday season and, indeed, has helped to make it the fastest selling videogame of all time.”

She then goes on to spill the beans. “Now, one dirty little secret here that I have to confess, we didn’t create this ad for this kind of customer-generated content, and I have to say, though, it’s something certainly now that we factor in when we’re going through that creative process.

This type of passionate engagement with the brand we think helped make Gears of War the No. 1-selling videogame last holiday season and, indeed, has helped to make it the fastest selling videogame of all time. Now, one dirty little secret here that I have to confess, we didn’t create this ad for this kind of customer-generated content, and I have to say, though, it’s something certainly now that we factor in when we’re going through that creative process.

What’s interesting to note here is that they were simply creating a great commercial for their video game and it ended up going viral. The lesson here is if you create compelling content, give your users the tools and support them along the way then there is no telling how far and wide your product can go.