BandwidthCamp

I started taking marketing research this semester at school and I’m beginning to think it’s an area I would like to explore more in marketing. I’ve always known how important it is but this class is opening my eyes. The boys and girls over at hitwise have done an analized how sufers have been searching about a game pre, during and post launch.

Interestingly, 99%+ of search traffic to the top 2 cheat sites comes from organic rather than paid search, implying that this would be a good area to develop content for search engine optimization (SEO).

It would be interesting to run a fan site for a new series/franchise and use the cheat section as an anchor for driving traffic to the rest of your site. Search engine optimization (SEO) is so important and one think I think more clients should be thinking about. Take the article for a spin and see what the past can tell us about the future and designing a video game website… from the ground up.

[Via hitwise]

Last week has been crazy at work and there was more then a few items that caught my eye and mind last week in the research world. Here are a few of those things from the wired world:

Avenue A | Razorfish is starting a new post about emerging digital trends. Check out what they have to say about Unlike.net.

Apple may be changing the game of online shopping.

Mind Candy has launched Moshi Monsters, a new virtual world targeted at kids. This is one of the fastest trends right now is going after the kids market within virtual worlds.

Selling Music Through Games.. may or may not happen for every game. But Rockstar and Amazon can do it for GTA IV.

SGN acquires several large Facebook game developers

The future is going to be fun for Sony this year and the PS3.

Last week has been crazy at work and there was more then a few items that caught my eye and mind last week in the research world. Here are a few of those things from the wired world:

Search Engine Land has a run down of the search engine sphere. Not to much has changed, but that’s expected. Check out the post.

iMedia Connection has a post about about the 18 - 34 male demographic and how to reach them. The 5 key steps are helpful but you’ll have to adjust for your brand.

Pew Research Nuggets #5 - Different Media Flavours for Different Media Needs

Pew Research Nuggets #1 - Consumption of News Media Trends

I was sitting in my Introduction To Management class the other day and some how we got on the topic of Second Life. We were talking about different industries and how some have monopolies in them. The prof asked how many people have heard of Second Life and mines was the only hand to go up. I was shocked at first and then I begin to realize that Second Life has barely made it out into the mainstream… regardless of all the press it has gotten in the last few years.

This got me to thinking that maybe Second Life is only the first stage in a multi-level game. Maybe Raph’s Araea or Conduit Labs might have the right idea about the future of MMO/virtual worlds and help get it mainstream attention. I think Second Life has reached its potential in the long term and can only get better if they were to rewrite some of the underlining code within the system. Second Life has plateaued and I think we all need to move on and find our third life.

CMP’s Worlds In Motion is a new blog dedicated to virtual worlds including World of Warcraft and Second Life. A unique feature they added to the mix is an online world atlas for virtual worlds. I’m looking forward to seeing how this evolves over the longterm. This could become a great resource for marketers looking to find out about virtual, besides the usually suspects, and which ones might fit their brand, demographic and psychographic.

They have covered Disney’s Toontwon, General Mill’s Millsberry and Habbo Hotel. You should check out the Atlus and see what other worlds you might uncover. It’s always better to be a big fish in a small pound then a small fish in a big pound.