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Gamers

Joanne Huang — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:09:54 +0000

I was surprised when I discovered the 50 years of video game console history, the amazing technology has made a huge progress in such a short time.

Nowadays marketers also have made their progress on gaming marketing. Gamers are no longer geeks but responsive and engaged target audiences to the marketers. A lot of marketing reports regarding gaming marketing have indicated the characteristics of different gamers and try to categorize them for segment marketing.

The most common way is to divide gamers into two groups: casual gamers and hardcore gamers. Casual gamers are more willing to play games with simple rules and easiness; Casual games present a pick-up-and-play experience that people from any age group or skill level could enjoy. Hardcore games are those whose leisure time is largely devoted to playing or reading about video games.

To segment the gamers more specifically, we can factor more elements in such as ownership (how many game consoles they have), usage (how many games to buy in a certain time period), and frequency (how often to play games). By doing so, marketer would have a more clear picture of gamer behaviors and customize different marketing strategies.

Since holiday is approaching, I think the casual gamers are ready for shopping, as they prefer games with the theme of family and friends scenarios, and they definitely can’t wait to share the wonderful gaming experiences with others!

Obama Goes to Gamers ….

Aretta Frazier — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:57:28 +0000

Nearly a third of US households have a XBox 360, Sony PS3 or Nintendo Wii. According to BrandWeek 11 percent of gamers say that they seek out a brand after seeing it in a game. So then the Obama camp made a very wise choice by making Obama the first Politician in history to use in-game advertising. Obama is relying on young voter turnout so using the XBox community is a smart place to invest. There has been some speculation that these in-game ads were Photoshop fakes. But Holly Rockwood, Director of Corporate Communications at EA has confirmed that this is an authentic purchased ad spot.

The Ad is placed inside the video game Burnout Paradise, a popular racing title for the XBox 360. The ad for Obama urges early voting and appears on billboards while players race each other online.

Obama inside Burnout Paradise, XBox 360

- Aretta (Media Coordinator)

Game on!

Joanne Huang — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:08:09 +0000

Being a video game lover (not a geek) since 2nd grade, I’ve been experiencing the console evolution and witnessed the amazing innovation of technology. I still remember that 15 years ago parents and teachers considered and expressed how bad playing video/online games is. It probably is still bad now if you’re too addicted to it, but not that bad to marketers anymore.

A report issued by a stat-tracking firm, The NPD Group claims that 72% of United States residents aged 6-44 years played some sort of video game across 2007, representing an 8% jump from 2006. Gaming actually becomes one of the mass media however it can also provide rich experience plus one-to-one interaction at the same time.

Why should marketing be interested in gaming? The answer is simple – to find a new connection with your consumer and have fun with it. We all know that people’s media consumption habits have been changing; we have so many options that not only make us to spend less time on one specific medium but the technology also make us to even consume multiple media simultaneously. (I always read when I’m watching TV). So the only thing matters is ENGAGEMENT, which is exactly the word to describe gaming.

I could and I will spend a lot of time introducing how fast the gaming market is growing; My first question, however, will be how to really connect gamers’ engagement to marketers’ goals, without interfering their gaming experiences? That’s something to be continued….