Video game – Zack Chia

Most of you would have realize a lot of creative marketing campaigns for video games revolves around a rather passive form of communication like posters, banners and magazine articles. It used to be effective and one of the best ways to market a video game was through interesting write ups on tech magazines by “video game gurus” or launching ads with beautiful game cover designs tactically placed across the country on billboards or little posters at video game shops. These days, with the massive proliferation of rich content in the game industry, it is absolutely necessary to craft an experience rather than communicate one. Sid Lee and Ubisoft has recently came up with a project for “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.” The marketing campaign drives across their communications through online and offline. Fans were asked to log on to a site, where they would see an artwork created by artists from L’Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris. You see a really detailed painting of a fighting scene somewhat in the era of the “Age of Piracy” along the timeline where the video game is set to be.

The interactive aspect of the campaign requires users to use their webcams and have their faces placed on the characters within the painting, and the most popular faces would be featured as part of the painting. To sweeten the deal, it is said to have their faces painted on as part of the actual piece of art to be displayed in Le Musee de la Marine this November. Again, we are witnessing a creative way of engaging consumers by getting them to be part of the marketing campaign. Naturally, we would expect social and other online media to be tagging along. Great work.

A recent study has indicated that the best way a mobile game player would find their game of choice is through word of mouth. What’s interesting is this process need not necessarily come from in-person discussion about the games. All the online talk and chatter about the game is enough to convert a potential gamer. It is extremely effective and convincing.

As you would know the famous app, Candy Crush is well played by so many gamers worldwide. You could even have started playing it after seeing someone played it on the train, your mom playing it on her phone or your close peers swapping those candies whenever they had some free time to spare. 36% of users reported that their major source of games was based on the hearing of their friend or family members. The other 25% of users said it was direct influence after witnessing a friend or family play a game.

This indicates the power of the process of showing someone how fun it is and the convincing factor through seeing how fun the game was. A lot of marketing campaigns have leveraged on the power of gamification to launch several interesting engagement activities and achieved great success. Do not underestimate the power of gamification and how it can generate the desired user interaction.