Hello from Paragon Marketing

Hello and welcome, Black Pebble, I have, first, Some questions, then some suggestions.


Questions:

1. Is it at all possible for us to get some information about you?, name, Were/if you went to school, Experience.
2. Do you have any plans of your own, concerning advertising, and if so, what are they?
3. What have you done thus far concerning the advertising work for this game?

1. Merchandising: Two reasons
   • It's Free Advertising
   • It's almost free money.
   
   This doesn't just include T-shirts, mugs, posters,and such, but also what(and I hope you know this already) some folks call "feelies", as well as things like game pads( oh what I wouldn't give to be able to play this game properly with a Controller) adorned with City of art, more "Special editions" releases of the game, and things like that.
   
   You mentioned give-aways at cons as a possible deterrent for merchandising earlier in the thread:
   
   
   Quote:

   Don't you like getting neat things for showing up to cons? We like giving out neat things. They wouldn't be as neat if they were easy to get

   You know what's just as good, or even better then getting something at a con? Getting something that's More Specialer(R) than what somebody gets with their credit card from an online store. Imagine this scene
   

   Quote:

   *Guy1 walks down the street with his online-bought Arachnos T-shirt*Guy1:Hum-De-um, I love Lord Recluuuse *Bumps into Guy2, who's wearing a button-down black shirt*Guy2: HEY! You play City Of Heroes? I LOVE city of heroes! that's an awesome shirt! Guy1: Thanks! Guy2: but you know what? Guy1Curious: What? *Guy2 Rips Button-down Black shirt open, buttons flying, to reaveal his totally-awesome-super-special- City of Shirt that you can only get at the con and may or may not have also been signed by Dave Nakayama or somebody or has War Witch's lipstick on the colllar* Guy2:MINE'S BETTER! *runs off cackling like a lunatic.*

   
   
2. "City of"-Specific Advertising:
   
   I feel like City of should be presented as it's own thing, instead of part of NCsoft's stable of games. For comparison. Spider-man is Marvel's biggest draw, but he is advertised just as much with his own merchandise and advertising, as he is on "Marvel Comics" advertising and merchandise.
   
   City of's merchandise store should be it's own thing, linked from the main site.
   
   
   
3. Demographic Targeting:
   
   Your core demographic is the overlap between fans of Super-heroes, fans of video games, particularly MMOs, and Fans of comic-books in general.
   
   Any action taken to bring in new fans should have this heavily in mind. While it is very true that you get lots of business from either respective group, as well as lots of different demographics, the biggest chunk is almost undeniably from the primary demographic* which brings me to my next points
   
   
4. Comic Advertising
   
   I personally believe how the Business of comics is run will see significant changes in the next five-to-ten years, but that has very little to do with how you should use them to advertise. The basic thing to do would be to put ads in the various titles. Beacause we're primarily advertising a Super-hero game, it'd be less effective to advertise in Anita Blake, or Shonen Jump, than it would be to Advertise in Spider-man
   
   It's also important to think about what ads to put in which books.
   
   In a DC title, I would advertise the game's more Traditional Super-hero elements, Fighting the In-game criminal types, leaping across roof-tops, and taking down Giant monsters.
   
   In Marvel, I'd advertise a lot of the more complicated story elements, Such as Faultline, Going rogue, and some of the Villain Content.
   
   In Dark-Horse, I'd go more across the board, advertising with more crime-fighter type heroes, and more of the Midnight-Squad, Orobouros, and Vangaurd elements. This targets both your core demographic, and the sub-groups within them with the material they like to enjoy.
   
   
5. Web-Comic Advertising:
   
   Everything I've said about Comics? applies here as well. Look up popular web-comics, peruse their content, pick one of the many banners you should have prepared that fits the general tone of the site.Sit back and rake in the new subscriptions.
   
   
6. Video-Game website and Magazine advertising
   
   These ads should be more technical than artistic. In a Comic ad, you're advertising going on a super-heroic adventure. In a Video-game web-site or magazine ad, you're advertising all the new features.
   
   I'd be a bit scarce with the graphics, as the ads are gonna be sitting right next to the newest X-box 360 First-Person-Shooter-Gorestravaganza of the week with all the Bloom, Blur, and Brown that everyone loves for some reason.
   
   
7. Cheap Box, and changes to the way trials are acessed
   
   I'm wierd, I like having a box for my game. So I'm putting that up front right now.
   
   I am generally disinclined to pay for a game if I feel it's not worth it. Fifty dollars for a trial of a game, then fifteen dollars a month indefinitely would be something of a deterrent. Even more so for a game that can, (hard truth time ) feel a bit dated sometimes.
   
   If I were in charge of marketing and sales, I'd Release a hard Boxed version of the game, In a Decent DVD case, not a sleeve, that not only holds the game and a decent start-up guide, but also Comes with a full Month's subscription.
   
   The price ofr this box? roughly Fifteen dollars. So, Buying the game gets you a full month of subscribed time, with or without a credit card or regular monthly subscription.
   
   Where I live, I can't find Game Time cards in any store, So starting up can be somewhat hard to people who can't properly subscribe, like myself.
   
   
8. Free Trials
   
   Keep the current format of the Free trials, both the access available to download, and the things that can be acessed in-game. In adition to the online download of the free trial, release free trial discs whenever major changes occur, say, every issue, or Every time something major is released
   
   In addition, Release a Booster-pack version of the free trial that comes with the newest Super-booster pre-installed, so prospective new members can get a free trial, with one Booster, and maybe subscribe from there.
   
   
9. Social Networking
   
   You're already pretty much doing this, I just feel like it needs to be said. Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, whatever else. Keep them up, keep them very active, have devs and members of the team posting on them almost as regularly as they do on here.
   
   
10. Web-comic
    
    I have an old insert from the DVD edition of City of Heroes, it talks about my subscription(I got the DVD used, after the comic ended ) and how "Maybe you'll see you character in the comic!" Well that had me Throoughly geeked out.
    
    The community on this game is one of the best I've ever seen, and something like that would be a fantastic gift to the fandom. In addition, as the core demographic LOVES super-heroes, and seing one of their own superheroes brought to life in true comic form is incentive enough to play the game.
    
    As I've said earlier, I imagine the world of mainstream comics changing soon, with the rise of successful web-comics, and the advent of mobile comic-reader apps for smart-phones, the traditional 20-30 monthly format couldv ery well be made obsolete, in favor of a 20-30 page online monthly, that is later released in trade format in print.
    
    What this means is webcomics are the future, and reviving the City-of comics online is a great way to get in on this boom.
    
    The comic would be useful for these reasons
    • It, obviously, is it's own form of advertising for the game
    • Done properly(and I have ideas for that) It would advertise the ongoing story of the Game's lore, as well as be it's own form of an update for the game's story
    • If player-created characters are used as secondary, and background characters, as well as possible main character in side stories, it bolsters community, and incentivises continued activity in the game community, and thus, incentivises continued subscription to the game itself.