Liliana.
Azmi-Galoczi
Marketing
When it comes to marketing, there is a large spectrum of departments in order to successfully interest and sell games to the team’s target audience. Departments such as concept artists, writers, audio designers, and graphic designers. But in terms of games, they are normally advertised digitally through media such as YouTube adverts, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter, TV adverts, and online pop-ups. But games can also advertise themselves through traditional advertising, such as stands and booths in, most commonly, gaming and creative industry conventions. However, sometimes games also advertise mainly with billboards and banners in bus shelters - depending on the game’s successes and rank in profit. But also, some games are published as demos, which allows players to experience the game’s future release, which then also enables the players to be excited for the full release. Then they keep themselves posted from the developers’ blogs about the game and its full release. In addition to this, players can also leave reviews for the demo, which then is posted on the media, to allow other people to view the opinions, spreading excitement across the world - if the game is good.
Mobile games are also normally advertised through mobile in-game advertisements. Even though they are, personally, highly irritating to constantly have adverts pop-up on my screen every time I lose a game. However, with this method, this allows the audience to explore more games they’re interested in, without having to explore games and apps themselves. In fact, I downloaded a game that interested me from an in-app advertisement.
The marketing team are responsible for promoting the exhibition of the game. This includes planning and assembling, such as setting up activities for the exhibition and ensuring it flows through with the right features to attract the audience. And in relation to attraction, not only does design have to be a part of the advert, but also consist of energetic and proactive people for the audience to feel confident to ask questions and talk to. However, this type of advertising would be categorised as traditional advertising by using stands and booths at conventions.
The marketing are also usually skilled in 2D art, along with some knowledge of 3D art, as they can be presented at conventions, to present to the audience the work developed by artists in the game’s development team.
Marketing co-ordinator (lead) - As well as duties of a campaigner, the marketing co-ordinator are responsible for devising an effective marketing strategy with their team, and keeping themselves highly organised. The leaders would normally be constant communication to ensure that the marketing team are producing adverts that they were set to do and ensure that adverts in progress will be marketed correctly. As well as this, they also need to ensure that their game is being actively advertised throughout the project.
Marketing campaigner - Not only do marketing campaigners need to be organised individuals, but they also need to face the challenge of building an absorbing and fascinating, yet, honest marketing campaign around the game’s features, such as story and gameplay experience that tempts and entices the players to buy and play the game. To heighten an effective marketing strategy, they should be involved with the game they are advertising during pre-production. This allows them an opportunity to suggest features and other features to make the game increasingly marketable and interesting for their target audience.
RESPONSIBILITIES
• Create promotional 2D graphics for use in current and new title
• Create graphic assets for our official websites and social channels • Edit existing video and animation footages to produce short clips suitable for contents on social media, user-acquisition or promotional purposes
• Work closely with the in-house game developing, marketing, user-acquisition, and community management teams to full-fill marketing graphic requests
• Produce visual communication complementary to the established art direction, maintaining a consistent visual style
• Prioritise workflow and complete assigned tasks utilizing tracking tools used by the projects
REQUIREMENTS
• Proficient with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
• Experience in producing 2D graphic assets and text layout
• Experience in video capturing and editing
• Proficient with Adobe Premiere, After Effect, or any other major video/motion editing applications
• Good artistic sensibilities and great attention to details
• Able to work respecting strict technical and artistic limitations and instructions
• Versatile and willing to switch tasks based on the project’s need
• Flexible and prepared to engage in problem-solving
• Good communication skills
DESIRED
• Basic knowledge of Unity 3d
• Ability in 3D modelling or animation
• Experience in Casual Game development
• Knowledge of composition and colour theory
• Knowledge of layout and typography
• Knowledge of layout and typography
Google Jobs | OPM Response Ltd (date unknown)
Roles & Responsibilities:
Reference:
Google Jobs | OPM Response Ltd (Date Unknown) Digital Marketing Assistant – Mobile Games - London [Online]. Available from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?safe=strict&sxsrf=ACYBGNS87EEfxAKgm_mu8e2Po7Qr7T-k8g:1575051467597&ei=y2DhXcf8I8HD8gLBvpvIDg&q=marketing+for+games+jobs&oq=marketing+for+&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.35i39j0i273l2j0l7.1654.1654..2380...0.2..0.90.90.1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.0eCYJ0ccZj8&ibp=htl;jobs#htidocid=Hq9vNAe7BPQ2-V3mAAAAAA%3D%3D&htivrt=jobs&fpstate=tldetail [Accessed 12 November 2019].
IMGyear2 (2019) The Marketing Department [Online]. Available from: https://www.imgyear2.com/marketing [Accessed 12 November 2019].
During Paul’s lesson when the class had to list a variety of marketing strategies, Paul added guerilla marketing. The entire class became confused until I looked it up and immediately understood what it was. It’s merely advertising in an interesting and entertaining method. For example, to advertise McDonald’s they use the zebra crossing as individual fries from the fries box. Or use one of the sweepers as an Oral B toothbrush from a street cleaner vehicle. Or a large comb on a pavement to hold bicycles. However, definition, featured by Investopedia (1999), of guerilla marketing is:
“Guerrilla marketing is a marketing tactic in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service..” - (WILL KENTON, 2018)
Guerilla marketing are mostly used by internationally popular companies, whereas video games and films are normally advertised through trailers, billboards, bus and bus shelter advertisement, and in conventions.
With guerrilla marketing, it is a very effective strategy because it’s modern and it makes the audience surprised and entertained, and they would perhaps consider looking into the product that was advertised, because of how they may have been impressed by the advertisement, because it’s surreal, and merely interesting to look at.
Guerilla marketing:
Reference:
Google Images | Lumen Learning (2012) Reading: Guerrilla Marketing [Online]. Available from: https://images.app.goo.gl/JvQHWWpQMA32HErv8 [Accessed 12 November 2019].
Google Images | Lion Tree Group (Date Unknown) WHAT IS GUERRILLA MARKETING? [Online]. Available from: https://images.app.goo.gl/SrDE3DPZ2bqpDf1UA [Accessed 12 November 2019].
WILL KENTON (2018) Guerrilla marketing [Online]. Available from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/guerrilla-marketing.asp [Accessed 12 November 2019].
The history of marketing for games started with a profit of below 5 billion USD, and they were merely arcade games from old televisions or old devices for games in 1971.
Within the last fifty years of games have been designed and developed in their infancy and went through a huge period of evolution to where they rapidly developed to advanced technology and games to today. The graph conveys that mobile games have gradually grown more income up till they overtook the entire game platforms - arcade, console, hand-held games, and personal computers. This is because of the App Store and Google Play, as they are the core of holding millions of games that anyone can play. However, arcade plummeted as people started growing to newer technology and newer games because they have more game mechanics and more developments than the arcade games.
History:
An example of the marketing strategies, Pong (Atari) from 1976, was advertised through television. However, by how we all identify old television, the narrator usually speaks fast, and rather posh. The advert presented screenshots and the mode the device can switch to. Which means that the advert was informing what the product has to offer through simple demonstrations by the players.
Whereas today, an advert by Call of Duty Black Ops 4 (Activision, 2018) - and other games today - presented an immersive and hyped advert with rhythmic music, no narration, and screenshots of the story and other parts in multiplayer. They also present what they include by the camera travelling forwards past occuring battles of multiplayer, zombies and battle royale.
The trailer doesn’t include narration, as it disturbs the immersion to the audience - but also because in order to attract them, they need to watch because the music is luring them to where it’s coming from - therefore the video, making them watch because the music is in beat with the actions of the game characters, and the atmosphere is hyped and immersive.
Reference:
Business Insider (2007) How video games became a $100 billion industry [Online]. Available from: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-history-and-evolution-of-the-video-games-market-2017-1?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 26 November 2019].
Google Images (2001) Peak Video Game? Top Analyst Sees Industry Slumping in 2019 ... [Online]. Available from: https://images.app.goo.gl/DHuzSyRVLCv4nA7n7 [Accessed 26 November 2019].
Aleks Pofigus (2015) ‘Pong - Video Game Console/TV Game Commercial 1976’ YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCqIkgFKHr4 [Accessed 26 November 2019].
Call of Duty (2018) ‘Official Call of Duty®: Black Ops 4 – Launch Gameplay Trailer’ YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kqe2ICmTxc [Accessed 26 November 2019].
An example of a game with their marketing strategies, is Apex Legends, a battle royale game that I particularly really enjoy playing. In terms of personal experiences, I saw Apex Legends being advertised through my Instagram feed, and saw a few adverts of it on TV. It was the time when I first bought my new laptop and was adapting with its features and transferring files and downloading programs that I couldn’t download on my old laptop because of its small, basic specifications. Because I bought a gaming laptop, I wanted more variety of games, and I was looking for a deathmatch first-person shooter game. Since I saw Apex Legends being often advertised across the media, I downloaded it, thinking it was a deathmatch game. Until I played it and it was actually a battle royale game. I was disappointed, but as I played more of it, I gradually started enjoying it and now I really enjoy it. This connotes that when downloading or buying something, consumers raise their expectations, thinking to themselves what the product will bring to them because of what the advisement presented to them. Apex Legends wasn’t advertised as a deathmatch game, I simply didn’t read any information about it and I merely wanted a first-person shooter game to my collection.
But to reflect on this experience, it implies that Apex Legends successfully advertised for their target audience: players who enjoy first-person shooter, players who enjoy battle royale games, players who would be interested, or people who don’t tend to play video games, but would be interested.
Case study: Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment, 2019)
During the process of looking for games for my new laptop, this was the advert I viewed on both Instagram and television whilst Apex Legends was still fresh from the developers’ oven:
John Gutierrez (2019) ‘Apex Legends Over 50 Million Players 30 US TV Commercial’ YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1YN4jMBcXc [Accessed 19 November 2019].
The advert revealed live screenshots of first-person view, which interested me because I was looking for that genre of shooter. But they also portrayed an overview of the game, for example, how many players were playing: “over 50 million”, which is a strategy to make the audience watch in awe, surprise, shock, or simply raise some eyebrows. With this strategy, it surprises the audience to make them believe the game’s amazing popularity, therefore, because of the popularity, it makes the game appear like a superior and fantastic product to play. In addition to that “50 million”, the definition behind that number, means that, of course, the game started with a small number, but the majority of players within that small number, must have enjoyed the game, and shared it with their friends or other people. And if they enjoyed the game, they would also share with their friends - and so it spreads and multiplies, in addition to the adverts and commercials to increase the player count, and so it reached fifty million and counting.
Furthermore with the advertised overview, they presented screenshots of a team member healing another, a sniper shot, zip lining across the grounds whilst shooting, running from a major explosion and “the next evolution of battle royale”, and “you in?”. All this combined with the music that consisted of electronic beats and bass with rap. Altogether, the advert is mostly a masculine themed advert and game. Which was what the developers successfully achieved, but they also allowed females to become interested, because equally male and female players have become interested in the game, such as I and other female gamers I found who played the Apex Legends on Twitch.
In addition to the music the marketing team selected, because of the beats and bass within the song, it creates an emotional sensation of becoming hyped and excited as they watch the live screenshots of modern combat along with the beats of the song.
The game also presented the Legends that are within the game, “choose from a roster of unique legends”. By the words “choose” and “unique”, this expands the developers’ target audience because it allows players to enjoy their gameplay with their own Legends of their choice, unless another player chooses a Legend that the other wanted to choose, and they’re left obliged to choose another Legend… But that is if another Legends suits their ideal unique abilities.
The ending of the trailer suddenly transitions to a background of a rough red, with patches of darker red, slowly floating across the screen. And then the Apex Legends logo at the top with a call to action saying “PLAY FREE NOW*”, along with smaller writing about copyright, information terms and conditions, logos of platforms and then the ESRB rating on the bottom right corner. The logo of the game is in white. Semiotically, white represents goodness, innocence, safety and purity. Which does not reflect the personality of the game. However, white lettering is popular in advertising, because it’s modern, professional, and clarity. But admittedly, it depends on the colour of the background, otherwise the audience would be able to see what is written.
As a plus to imply the work of the trailer, I found some reviews on YouTube:
SoundSmith (2019) "Damn this looks sick
Also give whoever did the sound editing on this a raise, they did a phenomenal job” [Online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJb_mkqynU&t=17s [Accessed 13 November 2019].
Jess Black (2019) "10 million players in 72 hrs congrats 😏🙌🏻” [Online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJb_mkqynU&t=17s [Accessed 13 November 2019].
.sCHROD1NGER (2019) "Just played it, its actually super fin. And that comes from a dude who hates BR. But it doesn't feel like a BR. And the ping system, oh God. It's genius” [Online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJb_mkqynU&t=17s [Accessed 13 November 2019].
Paradox Wolf (2019) "Really beautiful trailer, definitely gonna download the game and give it a try!” [Online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJb_mkqynU&t=17s [Accessed 13 November 2019].
Scottzone (2019) "Characters have some personality to them, looks fast and fluid and definitely seems like the developers have actually taken some time to think about how they'll make their BR feel different to the rest of the market instead of producing a generic title.
Excited to try it!” [Online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJb_mkqynU&t=17s [Accessed 13 November 2019].
In conclusion, Apex Legends advertised their successfully, and personally, I know that because not only does the advert tell that there are “over 50 million players” playing, but also from when I play the game and from people I know locally play the game and enjoy it. The advert was modern, made the game absolutely new and attracted a wide range of players around the world.
In Paul’s lesson, we began to learn about marketing. We started off with a quiz by writing which game was published by in groups of two or three. We then continued to list marketing strategies. This helped open my mind to many types of marketing, by the countless adverts I see on TV and on YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. Vast billboards filling the eye as I walk past, the tall posters that stare at me as I wait for my train, and the deformed posters on wheels - buses. But as we finished listing all the marketing strategies we can think of, Paul asked us to list some for him to write on the board, Jack and I were, nearly, the only ones listing the majority of the strategies.
Then we continued to the next activity: rebranding an existing game. Jack and I were set to modify the game called Not Tonight. A game about a dystopian, violent and post-apocalyptic environment caused by the effects of brexit.
It was very difficult coming up with a new title, as the story of the game was amusing and simply how politics is a difficult topic to handle. But we came up with ‘British Bounce Off’ or ‘British Boundary’, because of the border where British people can only pass through. And we also added a slogan: ‘This isn’t the Britain we planned’. We then changed the logo from the circle of the European stars to a ripped British flag with red graffiti on.
To be honest with how we managed the activity, we both got bored easily and we had to force ourselves out of it to continue with the task we were all set. However, marketing is something I wouldn’t mind doing, but drawing for marketing I would happily do. But overall, I prefer drawing and scripting.
Production diary: Week 1
Our next lesson, we were assigned to create a questionnaire in Google Forms (Google LLC, 2008) to gather a mini experience of researching as a mini marketing team of Aiden, Maya and I, and our other classmates in their own groups. As we started to create our questionnaires, I got stuck on how to start ours - what to ask my audience when I publish it. I walked around the classroom, and asked James and told me what questions he had. He seemed to have taken it much easier than me, merely because I didn’t put my head into the world research task of a marketing team. I thanked for his suggestions, and wrote down ours. I created questions such, ‘do you prefer singleplayer, multiplayer or both’, as, for example, this can help the team grab an insight of what game to create to expand the audience, as well as suit the present to maintain their latest satisfaction and consumption.
After completing it, the last Monday before the deadline for Task 1, I published the questionnaire to my Snapchat (Snap Inc., 2011) story and onto my Discord (Discord Inc., 2015) chat. We gathered eight responses - which was a fair number for us to analyse what my audience preferred and liked. For example, six out of eight like action games, half and half like both singleplayer and multiplayer, and the other like multiplayer. And they see games being advertised mostly from YouTube, since the result was seven out of eight - however, it was a mixture of advertisements.
The games they chose were a mixture of from action shooter games to fantasy and exploration games. Which can imply to us that my audience are satisfied with any type of game, unless they are “colourful”, “fun”, “beauty of story and art”, and “shoot up a bank”.
Week 2:
Reference:
Google LLC (2008) Google Forms [Online]. Available from: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCjLozs8KbVwbZIdS2A5TEe6_dyiSSSuHJMfm-FyWQbMGocQ/viewform?usp=sf_link [Accessed 12 November 2019].
Snap, Inc. (2011) Snapchat, version Unknown [Mobile app]. Available from: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/snapchat/id447188370 [Downloaded 13 June 2015].
Discord, Inc. (2015) Discord, version Unknown [Mobile app]. Available from: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/discord/id985746746 [Downloaded 2 March 2018].
During another lesson, we learnt about marketing of course - except about how to lay out a website for a game. I noticed that the majority of the websites tend to be simple and short on scrolling length to ensure the audience are not baffled by the lengthy information. What they mainly want is an overview or a brief about the game: screenshots, where you can get it,a brief razer, and social media platforms if they are interested. With this, allows the website to feel accessible and user-friendly, as well as a perfect amount of information for the audience - which is professional in marketing.
Paul showed us a YouTube (Google, 2005) video by Game Dev Underground where he informed about the types of game websites he chose. For example, HayDay (Supercell, 2012), he informs that the game made a “ton of money” yet the website “is not super fancy page” and “it’s a super super simple page”. He also informs that a complex page is worse than a simple page - which sounded to me that we can see complexity through its simplicity.
Game Dev Underground explains how the top page, represents the upper fold of the page, which consists of a CTA (call to action) saying “INSTALL FREE ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE” and the logos of applications stores below to encourage the audience to download the game, as well as expanding the audience range because it tells them that the game is compatible for their device. In addition to this, the word ‘FREE’ is in bold, which highlights to the audience that they do not have to pay - encouraging them to download it. Furthermore about the fold, he also explains how the fold connotes to opening a letter, the top fold of the letter has the title, and CTA to the audience. And then below is a video about the game, then further down includes a brief overview of the game in five bullet points, then more screenshots below to imply to the bullet points. And then at the bottom of the page, reveals social media platforms and other games made by Supercell. This is to further interest the audience if they want more updates about the game and other games they may be interested to play.
Secondly, Game Dev Underground presents his last choice of a game website - Monument Valley II (ustwo, 2017), a popular IOS game. However, he explained before this website in the video about how it’s good to include a video behind the title at the top of the fold. Not only does it reveal a screenshot of the game but also heightens the website’s marketing strategy: intrigue the audience. Then as he scrolls down, the website is filled with bright and beautiful palette of colours in harmony as the backgrounds of the page and screenshots of the worlds from the game, filling the page yet neatly. But also, as he scrolls down from the top fold, the title and gif sink down in parallax, which is a popular feature of websites. But overall, the website is dynamic, modern with its simplicity. The website is very short, but its simple information fills the eye with modern colours and the bar of anchor points as the game’s iconic shape.
Week 3:
Paul then set us off to try making own websites, except with an existing game. I chose The Pathless (Giant Squid, 2019), as I was excited for its release for me to finally play. I struggled of laying out the website with my imagination. Until I realised that game websites always have the title in the middle of a title image/professional concept art of the game, at the top fold. So I searched through Google Images for Pathless. And just then I downloaded quite a bundle of images from Pathless, and drag and dropped them into Photoshop and started assembling the images. It was easy until I stopped midway and needed ideas, since I struggled proceeding further into designing the website. I looked through the genuine website of The Pathless, and was immersed by the large concept art that filled the entire screen of the Mac, with the title streaked across. The image had a gradient at the bottom to merge with the black background, which I thought was a very effective and artistic method of presenting a website. But it also gives a smooth movement downwards towards the screenshots and icons of social media platforms. However, I decided to not fade my image into the background, and drew a straight white line across the bottom of the image, as an indication of more features to present from the website. Even though it looked pleasant and modern, lines streaked across the bottom of the image would imply to the audience a border - an end of the website. I soon realised, as I wrote the production diary for this practical lesson, that the majority - or maybe all of the websites for games do not include a solid line across both ends of the screen. Because as explained about the gradient of the Pathless game, even without gradient, it allows the audience to feel that they can continue through the website for more information. Unlike the line I streaked across…
I initially drag and dropped a screenshot of the game at the bottom of the fold, filling the page. Then imagining the screenshots scrolling sideways. To which resulted to not adding the other screenshots I downloaded from Google Images. I had to make up what I gathered. I deleted the large screenshot, and replaced it with three smaller images of the screenshots across the bottom of the white line, leaving space at the bottom for me to import social media logos. It was looking a bit better, but as the lesson ended, I realised my mistakes and learnt the features of creating a landing page for games.
Reference:
Game Dev Underground (2017) ‘Indie Game Landing Page Template - Super Simple But Super Effective!’ YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF22UxpUCL4 [Accessed 19 November 2019].
Ginat Squid (2013) & Annapurna Interactive (2016) The Pathless [Online]. Available from: http://www.thepathless.com/ [Accessed 19 November 2019].
Adobe Inc. (1990) Photoshop [Computer program]. Available from: https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw9L_tBRBXEiwAOWVVCWFVExukMb-6mP9VHhsS2oaaBsHHmhihrdr5LfCQS1QVPP05O3ca-BoCKA0QAvD_BwE&sdid=88X75SKR&mv=search&ef_id=CjwKCAjw9L_tBRBXEiwAOWVVCWFVExukMb-6mP9VHhsS2oaaBsHHmhihrdr5LfCQS1QVPP05O3ca-BoCKA0QAvD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!3085!3!385303406159!b!!g!!%2Badobe%20%2Bphoto%20%2Bshop [Downloaded by the college].