BandwidthCamp

Something I love about the internet is discovering new blogs and websites dealing withe business and marketing side of the video game industry.

Kzero
Kzero’s blog, of the same name, deals with the virtual worlds but not so much with MMOs like World of Warcraft. Kzero’s chart on registered users within each virtual world is one of the reasons I subscripted to their blog. Also being based out of the UK, give me a broader perspective on the virtual world/ gaming industry.

Jeff Carnahan
Jeff works at Massive and covers the in-game ad scene. He’s not the most frequent updater but he does ad a great voice to our small niche. Last year he did a nice post on Nielsen’s new metrics for video games called GamePlay.

Russell Carroll
Russell is the VP of Marketing at Reflexive Entertainment. He only started writing the blog last fall, but his knowledge of the industry is strong and comes through in his posts. Russell also also was my counter-point Aurthur last fall on Counter-Opinion: Why The Orange Box’s Name Is Alright.

I’m looking forward to coming across more blogs that cover the art and science of marketing video games and interactive entertainment in our global economy.

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.

A few weeks ago, I finished reading Bob Pritchett’s Fire Someone Today and starting putting the advice to good use. I setup a separate account to track all the GST money I’m going to own the government come June. The chapter, “Don’t Hire Anyone You Haven’t Interviewed” was in lighting and interesting from a few viewpoints. I’ve had to hire people over the years, but usually the candidates where chosen and I got to make the final decision at best.

However, I get to make my first hiring decision this week and this chapter is going to be re-read for last minute advice. I want to make sure I hire someone that wants the job, but doesn’t need the job. The candidate seemed really cool and wanted the job to gain experience and learn more, which is what I love to hear next to this is my dream job, of course.

Bob also keeps a blog going, and is a fun read, when he gets to posting.

I just finished reading Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Warren Berger’s Hoopla. It’s an intriguing looking into an ad agency from Miami that came from obscurity and became known as a household name for all things that this industry doesn’t stand for. I’m starting to see why this agency went left while everyone else was going right. An interesting passage form the book:

“…If they’re making compelling forms of communication that are actually useful to people, the money will come-in the form of increased sales for the clients and maybe even directly from the consumer. CP+B believes that in the days ahead, consumers may pay money for the stuff that the agency creates. If it seems odd to think of people paying for advertising, the point to remember is that it won’t be advertising; it’ll be an advanced, highly useful mutation thereof.”

Read the rest of this entry »