When Will Game Marketing Grow Up?
When did every gamer become a fifteen year old X-Games addict? Wait, that’s not true? Sorry – that’s just the impression I get from videogame advertising. When was the last time you saw a stock photo of a kid playing videogames where he wasn’t holding the controller off at some crazy angle with his face contorted into feral glee? Nearly 50% of the households in the United States have a gaming console and we aren’t all into Mountain Dew.
While marketers might be a little behind in their demographic studies, we as gamers certainly aren’t doing ourselves any favors. I want to analyze why recent advertising hasn’t matured from a decade ago, and why we might (finally) be seeing some signs of hope.
Bigger, better … more badass!
Game marketing has been ‘in your face’ and risqué to the point of being cliché for a long time. I remember first reading about how John Romero was going to make me his bitch and how I should suck it down, and even then thinking that it was farcical.
That was over a decade ago, however, and we still have advertising campaigns like Gears of War’s ‘bigger, better, more badass!’ We also have recent snafus such as adding Marilyn Manson music to the end of every trailer for Bioware’s Dragon Age, a decidedly traditional RPG whose fan base is probably more into the Lord of the Rings than ‘the new shit.’
Didn't you hear? Medieval armor is the new shit. Are you motherfucking ready?
One might wonder why nobody seems to be learning, but Gears of War was one of the largest and most successful franchise launches of the past five years. Dragon Age is likely to be one of the most successful and longest-lasting RPGs in recent memory and we all continue to talk about it even if it’s in a critical light. No publicity is bad publicity?
You chug it to get charged. You don’t crank it
It would be forgivable if print ads and trailer music was the worst of the advertising, but then we come to tie-ins. Every videogame these days has their own ‘hardcore’ energy drink. I won’t fire up an FPS before I take my X-Fuel energy shot complete with … Tyrosine? I’m pretty sure that was outlawed in the 70’s, or at least it should have been. At least energy drinks might conceivably improve alertness.
Energy drinks aren’t the worst example. Videogame growth in the first few months of 2009 was one of the few aspects of the economy to hold up in the recession. Proctor and Gamble, being the savvy advertising gurus that they are, decided a Gillette videogame razor tie in was just what the doctor ordered. Gillette Fusion Power GAMER was the result, and if a virtual Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter didn’t sell you on it, maybe the Penny Arcade guys could.
That guy on the right has his game face on. Now shave it the fuck off!
Do a little research
The average age of a videogame player in the United States is 35, and 40% of them are women. This is partially skewed towards older/female vs. the demographic that hardcore ads are targeting because somebody playing spider solitaire or Snood counts equally as somebody putting in their 150th hour of Persona 4. Even so, the average gamer isn’t 14 and obsessed with WWE (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Videogamers are getting older as they grow with their favorite pastime. When are they going to tell marketers that current ads aren’t resonating with them, either vocally or with their wallets? Movies are a comparable hobby, but until I see a Blu-Ray razor, I’m going to assume gamers are still being viewed differently.
Steps in the right direction
Not everybody is just standing by. Geek Chic makes heirloom-quality gaming tables for tabletop players that they hope are serious enough to be displayed with pride in any room. Games are starting to get mainstream Hollywood voice talent and sponsorship from A-list (ok, B-list) actors, and Modern Warfare 2 even has Hans Zimmer doing the score.
Why does your dice holder need felt padding? Why do we climb everest?
It’s going to be a slow and frustrating process, but until marketers realize that the people making the spending decisions likely respond better to less ridiculous advertisements, we won’t be taken seriously.
I wouldn’t expect a washing machine salesman to promise that their spin cycle is bigger, better and more badass than Maytag’s, and their steam feature will cause me to suck it down. When you’re spending $599 on a PS3 at launch, the experience should be comparable.
I don’t want to take all the fun out of advertising, but Sony’s latest ‘Rumor Control’ advertisements show that clever doesn’t necessarily equal EXTREME.
I’m interested in your thoughts on the matter. Hit up the comments!
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