The Secrets Of Video Game Marketing (And Some Great Marketing Tips For YOU)
The video game industry took in about 9.5 billion in 2007, so obviously the people doing video game marketing know what they’re doing.
I literally just spent the past 30-40 minutes getting completely sucked into a Playstation 3 game I’d previously never even looked at, and will be buying it when it comes out later in the month.
So while I was sitting here, getting completely off-task and unproductive, I figured I’d tell you about it and give you a marketing lesson.
I know this is for video game marketing and you most likely don’t sell video games, but stay with me because there are some golden nuggets in this one.
Ok so first of all, the game I fell in love with is “Fallout 3” for Playstation 3.
I heard about it while shopping at Amazon for a different game (I like to play Playstation 3 during my down-time to relax and have a little fun while I listen to educational audio’s).
So I checked out YouTube and typed in “fallout 3” and up came a list of videos about the game from the owners of it.
I watched a short video talking about the game, how they made it, etc. and thought the concept was cool, so I checked out a related video. In that one I saw the people actually playing the game, showing proof of how awesome it really was.
While they were playing, I noticed they talked about how it was different from other games. There’s a game very similar to it called “Oblivion” and they mentioned how it was different and better than that game (which was a best-seller).
As I watched a few more videos, I was hooked very quickly. I got suckered into the storyline and the uniqueness of the game – and now I’m going to buy it when it comes out.
Now, what kind of marketing lessons can you learn from how they set up their video game marketing?
Before you launch a product (or relaunch), you need to show PROOF of whatever benefit you’re trying to display.
In these videos, they showed proof of the uniqueness of the game. They showed proof of how fun it was to play – which is why people buy games in the first place.
They also had the videos to make you fall in love with the storyline, which is very important in today’s video game marketing world.
In any product launch, you want to hook your prospects on an emotional level. In one video, the creator talked about how you could be “evil” and live out your dark fantasies like blowing off somebody’s head who pissed you off.
Now think about that. We’ve all had that “thought” of killing somebody but we don’t do it because of the consequences (going to jail, having a bad conscious, possibly going to hell, etc.).
Killing someone is a very strong emotion for virtually everybody on Earth. We just don’t do it for obvious reasons.
However, in a video game there are no morals. You can do whatever you’d like with no consequences, and the owner took full advantage of that emotion within us.
Does that sound like smart video game marketing to you?
It definitely does to me.
When these companies start video game marketing, they do it in sequences. Although I saw them all at the same time (since it’s coming out in a week), they usually make you look forward to upcoming videos and actually show you the game.
The next time you’re doing a product launch, think about how video game marketing is done and “swipe” their marketing ideas.
The main points to take home are that there are other ways to show proof than simply showing testimonials. Videos work great, even with digital products, so start using them.
Also, make sure you understand the psychology of your buyer like the people who did the video game marketing for Fallout 3 understood the dominant residant “killing” emotion that all of us savages have inside us 🙂
Post your comments and let me know what you think. I’m gonna go watch the last video.
Jeremy
