Hello from Paragon Marketing
By
Ad Astra,
Posted on: 2010-04-16 09:39 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
i think a TV commercial would be awesome
i watch TV whenever im playing cov (which is usually on average 4-14 hours a day, so i see A LOT of commercials)
whenever i see those WoW commercials with mr.t or william shatner, i always imagined how hilarious those would be with a CoX twist lol
another good thing to do is to take a look at Samruaiko's videos for possible commercials (the ones i saw were all good)
(heres some examples)
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I'm guessing that means you won't be able to answer any questions about EU marketing at all......or complete lack thereof?
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
Hello everybody,
I am the silent Black Pebble, otherwise known as the new North American brand manager for City of Heroes.  |
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
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Not if it promised to kill the crab spiders you may have picked up from that one night trip to the Rogue Isles...|
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
This is great. No one on this conference call knows I'm forum trolling.
Wouldn't there be concerns of tackiness if you started seeing Billboards advertising shampoo? |
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
PS - Did you notice I ignored the bacon question?
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Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:
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Somtimes PST, somtimes EST. |
Originally Posted by Moggie
Hi-ya Peb!
I won't welcome you in because clearly you've been here awhile. Out of rampant curiosity, are you CST or PST? Anyway, I'd like to point you back to what D_R said. While most of us are pretty good at telling our immediate circle about this game, we'd really, really like to see it out and about in more places. TV ads, Web ads, print ads might even work. Heck, go crazy and get a billboard or something. This is the biggest and best superhero game on the market and it would be nice to not get blank looks from game store clerks when we talk about it. Thanks! |
I think it'd be pretty neat to see CoX everywhere you go, until it starts getting creepy.
However, we do need to balance things out.
For example, Superbowl ads. I think most would agree those are memorable, but does it always mean new sales? The City of Heroes blimp may be cool, though.
Instead of going nuts, I'd much rather we get as many new prospective customers as possible with planned, focused campaigns.
-Hosun "Black Pebble" Lee
Help me beat Dr. Aeon! Follow me on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/hosunl
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Hehehe, can I call one of them right now and tell on you? I'd be willing to pay for a video of the response... if I had the money to spare. |
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
This is great. No one on this conference call knows I'm forum trolling.
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| Wouldn't there be concerns of tackiness if you started seeing Billboards advertising shampoo? |
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| PS - Did you notice I ignored the bacon question? |
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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TV ads are pretty expensive, and unlike print ads.. don't stay out there very |
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
This is great. No one on this conference call knows I'm forum trolling.
Wouldn't there be concerns of tackiness if you started seeing Billboards advertising shampoo? PS - Did you notice I ignored the bacon question? |
long after they've been executed.
I like in game advertising too but on billboards and incorporated in game. It's
awesome cause it actually puts things in reality while getting funds for the game.
*Sigh* I hate talking seriously.
Not gonna lie, I totally thought this was going to be a snarky parody thread. Welcome Black Pebble, hope you've girded (girt?) your loins for this!
I want to second the motion to put more ads in comic books, print ads (gamer magazines and such), and yes, even the in-game advertising.
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Originally Posted by Kheldarn
Not if it promised to kill the crab spiders you may have picked up from that one night trip to the Rogue Isles...
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Maybe.
The great thing about this game is you guys. You're more active, informed and passionate than any other MMO community I've ever met.
If you really want something, let us know and we'll do our best to make it happen.
That doesn't mean send 18,293 e-mails to Positron.
Billboards...hmm...
-Hosun "Black Pebble" Lee
Help me beat Dr. Aeon! Follow me on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/hosunl
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I think TV would be too expensive. So would broad based comic book advertising. However there's something to be said about some specific targeted efforts.|
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
So, do you think if we did more ads in comic books, or had TV commercials, it would be a a lot of bang for the bucks?
In other words, do you think will we get a lot of new subscribers that way? |
Maybe you could consider doing something in conjunction with a network like g4tv, apart from just reviews (though those would be good too). If they're handing out GR codes as a contest, or beta slots or something, it could start to generate buzz among people who havent played or stopped playing.
I don't envy your job though. Our game is great and wonderful, but in any group of gamers, old games are a LOT harder to overcome inertia. I know whenever I see a positive review on a site, there will be a handful of bitter ex players more than willing to vent the bad parts of their time here, despite the fact that things may be completely different.
As for ingame advertising? I have it turned off for a reason, even though we haven't run it in a long time. I really have never heard of a story where a game that uses it gets enough money to do more shiny stuff. That's way too simplistic a generalization and I feel people who conclude that don't know a lot about advertising.
For the same reason that putting out ads in other media are very expensive, getting ads placed here would not be. Rates are charged based on the number of eyes seeing it. I don't think we'll ever see a game where advertising is worth the money, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
Even if we don't get in game real ads could we use the tech that was placed in for it to rotate fake ads?
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Ahhh, the old "tacit approval" thing. I stand corrected.|
Originally Posted by Kheldarn
Silence is acceptance. The bacon has accepted your acceptance of it.
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Y'know what I *do* find a little odd? A red-name responding this much to... ummm... anything...
THAT'S creepy. Cool, but creepy.
Then again, maybe that conference call is REALLY boring.
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
I think TV Program sponsorship might be worth doing, as you could tailor it to a specific genre then.
Perhaps not something high profile like Heroes, but there are shows in the UK that might work. ITV did a sitcom based on superheroes recently that would have been perfect, although saying that, it was bloody rubbish
Given how popular the genre is becoming on TV though, it's definitely something that might help the game. I know I remember games that have advertised Stargate Atlantis on Sky 1 in the UK, for instance.
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
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"This Task Force is brought to you buy Zipee(R) Diapers."|
Originally Posted by ThongSnapper
TV ads are pretty expensive, and unlike print ads.. don't stay out there very
long after they've been executed. I like in game advertising too but on billboards and incorporated in game. It's awesome cause it actually puts things in reality while getting funds for the game. *Sigh* I hate talking seriously. |
"Uberburger(R)'s Delight - 3 set IO healing set. Increases your size and gives you $5 off lunch."
"Reichmans is unstoppable.....unless you have some Zing(R) deodrant. It knocks out all nasty odors, even from alternate dimensions! Go to the abandoned warehouse and click on all 30 glowies until you find it"
Would those be okay?
-Hosun "Black Pebble" Lee
Help me beat Dr. Aeon! Follow me on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/hosunl
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ROFL, I like you; you're silly. |
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
"This Task Force is brought to you buy Zipee(R) Diapers."
"Uberburger(R)'s Delight - 3 set IO healing set. Increases your size and gives you $5 off lunch." "Reichmans is unstoppable.....unless you have some Zing(R) deodrant. It knocks out all nasty odors, even from alternate dimensions! Go to the abandoned warehouse and click on all 30 glowies until you find it" Would those be okay? |
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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So... 18,292 would be okay? We can do that!|
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
That doesn't mean send 18,293 e-mails to Positron.
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| Billboards...hmm... |
Ahem.
One other point, though - we noticed a while ago that the CoH website has region-filtering, so it automagically pings EU-based browsers to the European site - if there is ONE message to pass along to the people in charge of making sure things happen right, make it this one: It is widely believed that it would be healthy for the EU servers if EU-based players were bounced to the EU purchase of the game. Whether that's through the NC Store, Steam or whatever, we don't care, but past experience tells us that they're more likely to be pointed at the US version, which deprives the EU server playerbase of more players!
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise ; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
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Okay, now THOSE I have to make videos for.|
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
"This Task Force is brought to you buy Zipee(R) Diapers."
"Uberburger(R)'s Delight - 3 set IO healing set. Increases your size and gives you $5 off lunch." "Reichmans is unstoppable.....unless you have some Zing(R) deodrant. It knocks out all nasty odors, even from alternate dimensions! Go to the abandoned warehouse and click on all 30 glowies until you find it" Would those be okay? |
Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)
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ditto! and welcome
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Originally Posted by Kheldarn
MARKETING!! THEY'RE EVIL!! GET 'EM!!
Bacon wasn't on the list. Do you like bacon? Note: There is only one correct answer. Yes. In-game advertising means more monies for the game, means more shineys in da future!! Oh, and welcome to the forums!! |
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I'm totally fine with it my self. More monies for the game is good.|
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
You want to see in-game advertising?
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Though I would limit content to...geeky/gamer/computer stuff. It wouldn't bother me to see a diaper add, it would seem a but silly to me though.
Things like Thinkgeek.com, newegg.com, new toy or comic products.
Try to tie in specials for CoX players that respond to the adds.
I'm afraid I don't have much to add to the thread at the moment in terms of serious, relevant discussion of existing and potential future marketing strategies for the City of Heroes franchise. But I'm thinking about it (Cthulhu help us all).
In the meantime, allow me to post what everyone was thinking when this thread was made:
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
Hello from Paragon Marketing
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Positron: "There are no bugs [in City of Heroes], just varying degrees of features."
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In-game advertising is tricky. For every player who thinks it's cool, I'd bet there's a player who feels like it breaks the immersion for them. Even targeted advertising can be tricky. I have a friend who plays CoH who'd much rather see diaper ads vs computer ads. Just not interested in tech.|
Originally Posted by CoX_Zombie
I'm totally fine with it my self. More monies for the game is good.
Though I would limit content to...geeky/gamer/computer stuff. It wouldn't bother me to see a diaper add, it would seem a but silly to me though. Things like Thinkgeek.com, newegg.com, new toy or comic products. Try to tie in specials for CoX players that respond to the adds. |
If we ever did it, we would make sure it works for everyone. I don't think any of you would like to see something haphazard, no matter how cool it could be.
-Hosun "Black Pebble" Lee
Help me beat Dr. Aeon! Follow me on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/hosunl
Well welcome Black Pebble to the forums...
A mythical being has just entered? Woa. But wait... NorthAmerican... Do that mean that you got a tag-team partner for Europe?
Or is it you that have the job for both communities?
(Yes one of the Europeans here... *looking* Nope.. not with a pitchfork)
*Looking again at Black Pebble* What no white cat? No dark room with a velvet covered chair, no suit or suitcase? Aaaaaaaah....
What can you tell of european strategies to get many players to those servers? Will f.ex trial codes given to European mags... actually have european codes and not american trial codes? Will these mags be updated that european servers have 4 not 11 ;P
Or will we have some more info about ... server list merge? Could you give more information about what War Witch just could hint about?
You should if not already read the Eu gets shafted again -thread.
Post 596 (one of the latest so far) sums up a lot of the feeling in that looong thread.
In it War Witch did give a little glimmer of hope, could you elaborate more on what she hints at, give us some info?
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#post 410. Yes she admits she is vague, but is it because marketing said so?|
Hey everyone, Now that I have got some more official information from our publishing/marketing teams in Europe, I figured Id give you a quick update. I'll paraphrase as best I can. This isnt just from me (because you guys already know that I love you), but the EU community is very important to both Paragon Studios and NCsoft as a whole, and have always been passionate about making sure you have a great time in the game. Everyone involved is committed to making sure that you feel loved and appreciated, and I hope that starts to come across, especially as we ramp up marketing and PR for Going Rogue. In fact, Ive been told that NCsoft is about to announce a number of distribution partners that will sell and promote Going Rogue in Europe, including offering the prepurchase program that kicked off earlier this month. Youre also about to start seeing a lot more coverage of Going Rogue on your favourite gaming websites, blogs, press outlets, and advertising as the expansion nears its launch date. (Ok, that sounded kind of marketing-ish, but it's pretty much verbatim what they said.) Next up: the box. This is a big issue and I know some of you are pretty cheesed about it. So here is the information I got (which shouldnt come as a surprise, really): because the game is online, and our consumers are predominantly online, it makes business sense to distribute online. Most MMO gamers in the EU are very net savvy and comfortable purchasing/downloading online. So NCsoft sells online because that is how more and more people are buying games, and we do get most of our new players from online distribution. There are boxes on the shelves in the U.S. because, from a distribution perspective, there is more demand herea much lower percentage of people in the US have broadband compared to the EU. (I didn't know that part.) Plus online distribution and production is much less complicated in the US, with only a single language version and a handful of major retailers and distributors, versus three languages and dozens of distributors in Europe. So there are no plans for a box on shelves in EU, but you will see Going Rogue available soon in a variety of digital stores across Europe. Before you scream at me, remember, this isnt something I have any say in. Im just the messenger, so dont shoot me! (If it were up to me, however, Id have a box. Thats just me. No I dont have the pull to get one. No, I dont understand all the financial/technical issues behind it. Yes Im shooting my mouth off. But I did ask, and point out - several times - that it sure would be nice.) As someone who prefers a box, I get your frustration; although now that I think of it, I did just buy software digital-only, so Im kind of a hypocrite. Last topic: servers. Yes, the EU servers feel underpopulated at times, and that makes it harder to group. Last year we merged the forums to bring the EU and US communities together. There are, however, no plans to merge the servers, but we are looking at designing an in-game system that will help solve the problem. One of my big personal goals is bringing people together, and this will help with that agenda. (How's that for vague? What can I tell you, it's "in development.") Anyway, I'm sure they're not all the answers you wanted to hear, but at least you have "an official word" now, which was the goal of the exercise. So that is progress. War Witch |
What many of us in Europe wants is simply to play as one big community. To have the same amount of servers (and char slots) as our brethren and sisters on the NA servers.
Heck.. If the game mags believe it is 11 servers total, would it not be a nice move to say we added 4 servers to that list?
(Feeling it is great to have a marketing rep... attending the forums
)
Lady Arete on Unionhandbook
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Seriously, though...
TV ads are too expensive for the somewhat diffuse audience they reach. If you're going to put a product in front of everyone, it needs to be a product everyone would potentially buy. CoX (sadly) is not one of those products.
Targeted web advertising comes to mind; banners on gaming sites and such.
Also, pre-movie advertising in theaters, especially at fantasy/sci-fi/superhero movies.
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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And, to be fair, if none of US buy the stuff being advertised, it's a "fail" for the folks who purchased the ad space.
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
In-game advertising is tricky. For every player who thinks it's cool, I'd bet there's a player who feels like it breaks the immersion for them. Even targeted advertising can be tricky. I have a friend who plays CoH who'd much rather see diaper ads vs computer ads. Just not interested in tech.
If we ever did it, we would make sure it works for everyone. I don't think any of you would like to see something haphazard, no matter how cool it could be. |
Where to find me after the end:
The Secret World - Arcadia - Shinzo
Rift - Faeblight - Bloodspeaker
LotRO - Gladden - Aranelion
STO - Holodeck - @Captain_Thiraas
Obviously, I don't care about NCSoft's forum rules, now.
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
So, do you think if we did more ads in comic books, or had TV commercials, it would be a a lot of bang for the bucks?
In other words, do you think will we get a lot of new subscribers that way? |
I dont know about more bang for the buck...
If youre advertising in comic books, the idea would be to attract the average comic book reader into something theyve surely heard of before....you dont do that by spreading knowledge, you do that by making it more accessible coupled with spreading knowledge. I would think a free trial or two thrown into a couple of select titles would be the way to go. My titles of choice would be the iconic ones that mirror Statesman in the function.
I wouldnt do the same with computer (software, mmo, games et al) magazines because those readers should be the plus side of the computer information threshhold that would allow them to get free trials themselves.
Stay away from large scale advertising. Youre seeking a certain demographic, and a billboard on the side of the highway isnt going to have a lot of success...
Anyhow, welcome
I think we mostly thought we'd be getting stuff aimed at geeks though when it started, comics, films, action figures/models, animé, geek conventions... instead we got a shoe.