Hello from Paragon Marketing

Yet More ideas for spreading product awareness and generating/retaining subscriptions-


* A webcomic-format continuation of the CoX comic books, if kept on a reasonable update schedule, could expand product visibility, generate more fans of the core mythology and be readily transportable via link sharing over IM's, blogs, twitter, forum sigs and so forth.

Rationale: It's very easy for people to spread'n'share a link to an easily loadable comic page as opposed to getting people to view/DL the full comic books, and supporting a webcomic would be easier than maintaining a comic book/graphic novel series.



* Quarterly "Best Web-Based Ad Designs" contests. Offer swag, game time or other goodies as prizes for playerbase-generated things like border panel ads, embeddable videos and so on. Use those selected ads as part of or featured in player appreciation/celebration based internet ad campaigns.

Rationale: Save some money by offloading strictly in-house or retained professional design costs, increased customer base rapport, expanded demonstration and availability of valued, meaningful player contribution to the success of the game.




* Officially declare Disco to be dead and put a dancing chibi-Statesman mascot in the upper left corner of the CoX website mainpage doing the Macarena. In the upper right corner of the website mainpage, place a chibi-Recluse doing the Electric Slide.

Never explain why to anybody, ever.


Rationale: Ultra low-cost talking point subject to market saturation and expansion on the wings of controversy and speculation. Possible cult-status of the chibi mascots, generating word of mouth. Possible elevation to 'Internet Meme' status of Recluse doing the electric slide.



:-D

Google Ads.

It's really that simple. I've seen Champions pop up in the side bar from time to time on sites, as a Google ad. If they can do it, surely we can to?
And comic book ads sound like a great idea to me.

Now...Welcome to the forums, oh marketing one and, what was that you mentioned about Booster Pack?
Start talking, or my namesake is going to get to test his new torture chamber

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Try to get nominated for The Spike Awards show.

Hulu, Hulu, Hulu.

Advertising there has got to better on both price and demographic.

Let Samuriko help with the ads.

I cannot recall the last time one of the geeks or gamers I know told me abouth anything they watched that was not a movie or on Hulu.

Did I mention Hulu?

Very quick (my goodness there's a lot of posts already!):

Co-op advertising

I remember seeing a co-op between AMD and the Exteel guys before, and would certainly like to see more. Certainly, focusing on COH's relatively low system requirements compared to some other titles might be useful - consult with engineering to find an acceptable level of price/performance and get together with some of the OEM's out there.

Likewise, doing the same for companies that sell upgrade parts might be worthwhile.

I say this because one of your competitors has the reputation of being able to run on pretty much anything (even though, like all games, its put on some "weight" over the years). Dispelling the notion that you need a nice or super-nice machine to run COH playable would be good.

Inclusion on OEM computers

A commission program for them. They include a copy of the game and a trial, and should that turn into a subscription they get a commission on that (instead of free game time).

"Spawnable" copies

This would require some help from engineering, but one of the things I loved about Starcraft (back in the day) is that I could get friends to play very easily via "spawning" copies. COH is not a small game, and many of us have out-dated installers (if we even have them at all). Not everyone has high-speed broadband or (in some areas) even have metered internet. Being able to take a current version of the game and easily "spawn" a copy/installer would be very helpful in terms of getting the community involved.

This coupled with the normal referral programs would be synergetic, I think.

PR "relaunch" or a re-education program

One of the forums I regular tends to have certain questions come up on a consistent basis. One of those questions is, "I stopped playing back during iX, what's new?" There are a lot of people who have a lot of old assumptions about the game as it was, or simply don't know about it at all. A PR relaunch would be quite help, advertising the game as it stands today, with its strengths/features. Educate customers about what can be done and enjoyed in COH today; breadth of content, maturity of features, friendly community, doesn't require an uber-computer, etc.

If you want to be particularly aggressive, see if you can get advertising on websites dedicated to competitors and such.

Community

A game's community helps sell the game for many people. The more avenues the positive aspects of COH's community can be announced, the better. Likewise, the more tools we have to facilitate community events, the better. There are many tools possible in this regard - not the least of which being a community calendar that is not tied to the forums. Player profiles of some of the really nice folks here might be good, as well as of families that play together. Help bring the human side of the game out. "Hi, we're normal folks, just like you!"

Or, hey, if there are any celebrities who don't mind speaking up, great

Promotions with other companies

This is related to enabling the community. Maybe getting together with various companies to offer bundles? COH/gametime, FRAPs and a video editor might be such a combination. Or have the bundle but enter CityOfHeroes as the coupon/offer at the checkout/rebate. Basically, help us to help you.

Just a few ideas, really.

More mainstream coverage/advertorial

Many publications (online and print) should have a schedule of what they're planning to focus on within the next year. Grab those, see where you can get COH mentioned, and offer interviews, articles, soundbites, etc. Content, basically. They need content to for their audience. They need the audience to sell advertising. It doesn't have to be a big, in-depth thing, necessarily, but enough to let folks know you're out there and how to find you.

Group advertising

Advertising for NCSoft's games in general. Pool the marketing budget/muscle together, work out better deals, lower the costs for everyone while increasing the value for your money. NCSoft has a LOT to offer, has some very successful games, but I don't think it has as much awareness as it deserves.

Note: I work for a newspaper, and have been in the publishing industry for 9 years about. So, I'm coming from the slant our sales reps can use for some of these.

How very good you are at deflecting/ignoring questions... bless your little black shrivelled heart.

Is there an EU counterpart to you? I would like to discuss some points with them.

Before I forget... are you an ebil marketer?

Oh, and before I forget: no (direct) digs at the competition. Classy is good. By all means mention your strengths compared to their weaknesses, but never single them out or make it glaringly obvious who you're talking about. There are plenty of MMO conventions that can be noted without attacking anyone.

The Sidekick/exemplar/super-sidekick system has a lot of potential for social/casual players.*

The game not starting at level cap (a common feeling for many people in other games) is something that can be addressed.

The sameness of everyone (be it visually, build-wise, etc) is a great point to bring up.

The quality of microtransactions (account wide) is a good one.

Being able to actually talk with people cross-server/faction is a great one for many people.

edit: *This is one reason I stopped playing WOW. There was no reasonable way for me to play with friends when there was a significant level disparity!

Welcome to the asylum, Black Pebble!

As for in-game advertising, I'm all for it if it's another revenue source, so I can get my Mutant Origin Booster Pack all the quicker.

Heck, I stop and read the billboards we have now in-game. If you marketing guru's (or theirs) could apply a new twist to actual product advertising so that it actually fit into the CoX world, I'd think that it would be a blast.

I can just see a hero running down the street in their "Hey! Kool-Aid!" temp power costume...

Also, I loved the in game billboards. I don't feel that having ads for real life stuff breaks the immersion because this game is set in the real world, just not ours. Why wouldn't there be sneaker ads or food ads in Paragon City? All I ask is that there be a large number of them so that there is variety. I remember when the nike shoe was in there it was on every other billboard. At that point it seemed a bit overdone, but if each billboard on your run to the next mission is different, it won't be annoying.

also, many billboards in the rogue isles are tarnished to fit the environment, so an overlay of tarnish should be kept on those on top of any ads used there.

Oh, and maybe having a person who can regular outside forums who can (appropriately) pimp COH, pass out trial codes and the like might not be horrible. Granted, this is skirting close to astro-turfing, but if its done in an open (or not obnoxious) manner it could be helpful.

Hey BP! Glad to have your presence felt here on the forums.

Now, instead of bombarding you with a ton of questions that you can't answer or don't have the time to, I'm going to try my best to summon up where I think this game would benefit the most for the least amount of money in advertising. Hopefully this is constructive enough to get your brain juices flowing on how to make our beloved game more widely accepted.

WARNING: EPICALLY LONG POST FORTHCOMING!


Still with me? Good...

I want to start by saying that I think the biggest issue with our game's advertising (or lack there-of) is that there is a serious lack of awareness. People who remember seeing those small ads when the game first came out, don't know that we're still here. People who might have played 3 years ago, don't know that a LOT has changed in the time they were away. People who might have researched the game during the release of CoV, but didn't like what they saw then, might not be aware of the ground breaking additions that have been incorporated into the game since.


The biggest asset that City of Heroes has going for it is the amazing list of accomplishments that this MMO has over all the others.

It's really that simple. Get the awareness out there. Let people see the long list of features that this game has, that no other MMO has, and allow them to compare that to their current/favorite. Then they will start to see that maybe they ARE missing something special.

How many other MMOs can say that they came BEFORE WoW and lived to tell the tale? How many other MMOs can say that they have the most comprehensive, expansive character creator in the business? How many other MMOs can say that they have the most passionate and active forum community in the business? How many other MMOs can say that their Devs post daily and have an openness about their designs as ours?

Just posting a long, bullet-point list of every feature this game has, and laying it beside another MMO would potentially be enough to open the eyes of the most negative of viewers. My friends and I have a game we play where we list off things we like about our respective MMOs and then counter offer with something we think is better. A list would only increase such debates.

The examples I have presented below are meant to be cheap, effective ways to gain the awareness this game needs through advertising. These are in no way the full extent of what could be done, but they highlight the biggest and simplest ideas in my opinion. With all that in mind, I present to you my long list of advertisement awesomeness!


1. Request an Update to Game Summaries and Reviews: This has been said by a few people and I think that it would greatly help our cause. Websites like IGN, MMORPG, Metacritic, etc all have information on CoH that has been stored since it's inception that anyone can just go and recall. It would be great if those blurbs were updated to incorporate all of the HUGE, AMAZING updates this game has received over the last 6 years. That Way, when someone goes to look up info on the game, they don't see screen shots from Beta, or read about how there are 5 Classes/ATs in the game.

When Going Rogue is released, all the cookie cutter stuff you guys hand out for websites to post to promote the game's release should include instructions on placing all CoH, CoV, and Going Rogue information all under the same header. It isn't that terribly hard to go back through and edit a few tags and reorganize their information. This would have a huge effect on the people who won't give this game a chance because it's "old". They think like that because of what they see readily available to them on these sort of websites.


2. Give Us a Real Online Store: If for some reason NCsoft doesn't want you posting a ton of merchandise on their website, set up a subdomain for CoH.com that has eCommerce and put all those wonderful trinkets you guys have had laying around for years inside for us to finally purchase. Others have said it, but we don't really care about Con freebies. That's what Costume Codes are for!

Give the players who already play this game a way to support you beyond the occasional Booster Pack and Boxed Expansion. With bumper stickers, t-shirts, hoodies, posters and the like, it becomes much easier for us to show off our love for the game and make others realize what they might be missing. There are so many items that you could make for fairly cheap and sell in the store that would bring in extra revenue. The community has been asking for statues, figures, and plushies for SIX YEARS...we're not kidding. We'll buy them. A lot of them.

And when I say merchandise, I don't mean a blue shirt with the CoH logo on it. Grab the Marketing Artists that are getting paid to make box art and posters for the game to come up with some really amazing and funny shirt designs. It's not hard. Ask the community here for some ideas, I'm sure you'll get a ton that all make perfect sense and would have an awesome factor that would make us want to purchase them.


3. Free Advertisement from Internet Media: This game is amazingly fun, incredibly different, and has a lot of things to offer that no other MMO has. Give free trials to some choice websites on the internet that has a lot of traffic. Let them test the game for themselves and you might find that they are so elated at how awesome this game is, that they'll run and tell their audience.

Send Sexy J or BaBs to a few Headquarters with a rig that has some unreleased stuff on it, and let them toss out some great humor while the person tests out the super secret stuff. You'd be amazed at how far a little kindness and some top secret stuff will go to make a person excited about a project. We have amazing Developers with great personalities. Let them "hang out" with some of these people for an afternoon and see what comes of it.

Which brings me to...


4. Do Guest Appearances on TV and in Magazines: It shouldn't be too terribly hard to get a small 5 minute guest spot on G4 or GameTrailer's. Give our amazing Devs some air time, let them show just how cool they are and how passionate they are about the game they have been making for six years. Like someone else said, how many other games on the market are being designed by a female Lead? Get War Witch on a guest panel and have her talk about how women fit into the industry. Have her show up on MSNBC where they are talking about the negative effects of video games on kids, and have her stand up for the industry she's helping lead.

Likewise in print. Have the Devs get interviewed in Magazines. PC World, GameDesigner, Game Informer...they are all popular magazines that get read by an entirely different audience. If you can get a little blurb in a magazine about the game, or about the MMO business, then you'll get word of the game circulating again. It'll bring out interest from readers and rejuvenate the awareness of our little dark corner of the MMO business.


5. Advertise on Youtube: Not with pop up ads and side panel stuff! What I mean is, take idea #3 above, and do it for some of the larger members of Youtube. Toss some cool videos and info towards Machinama and LikeTotallyAwesome. Let them play with the game and get acquainted with it and ask them to post their opinion on their respective channel. Heck, even offer to pay them a little to advertise the game in a video. Just a small mention in a 4 minute video can garner HUGE press.

Everyone is on Youtube these days for one reason or another. Reach out to these large audiences and see what sticks. If anything, it will get more people looking at the game. That's a start to getting new members who will stay. The more people talk about the game, good or bad, the more press it will receive, and the more people will keep it fresh on their mind that the game is still out there.

Even better, would be to have a person start a Youtube account that does updates and new vlogs about the game. Talk about the updates and advances the game is making, and when times are slow, talk about things that happened to them in their SG or on a really bad PuG TF. This would be more for the community that already exists, but if popular enough, could gain a great awareness of the game and it's kind of community. A figure-head that could represent the community and give us a presence on Youtube could be huge. If nothing else, a lot of fun. (Hire me, or at least buy me a nice Webcam and I'll do it for free!)


6. Advertise on Hulu: The more expensive idea. Unlike the Youtube suggestion, here I actually DO want you to run traditional ads. For less than half of what it would cost on Television, you can run short 15-30 second clips on Hulu in-between and before a show. Tons of people use Hulu to catch up on their favorite shows, and no one has a way to avoid those commercials. Unlike banner ads or little pop-ups, these clips are in their face and talking to them.

HOWEVER!

Don't go and blow your money on stupid, washed up, no-name actors (Shatner aside). Do something quick, cute, and catchy...preferably with something from the actual game. Those "I'm a Hero, I'm a Villain" ads were the right idea, but try something a little more original. If it's funny enough, catchy enough, then it will stick with the user. They might become interested in the game, or at the very least research it a little.

Again, awareness is the key. Let the user decide if they like the game. All you care about is getting the name to circulate among friends and family. Don't tell them how much they love the game already. Those ads NEVER work for me. Another big NO NO is trying to do a 15 second montage of epic scenes with some John Williams type music behind it. As cool as some of those may seem, they never really get the point of the game across. More often than not, these sort of commercials sell music more than they do the actual game (See Dante's Inferno)

If the advertisement gained enough approval and Marketing saw that it was actually working, then it might be reasonable to consider a release to Television. This is only in the event that the ad works and proves effective. I would not advise doing television ads prior to said success.


7. Make a Mobile App: Something simple that could be put on the Apple Store and Droid Phones could be a huge venue for gaining awareness. Pretty much everyone has a smart phone these days and having a small app that relates to this game would bring in a whole slew of new customers that may have never even considered playing an MMO before. Don't make it too costly, or maybe even offer it for free. It could be a character builder like Mids or even a small, low poly version of our in-game character design interface. I for one would spend countless hours playing on a Mids for my iPhone. There would never be a time where I was bored waiting in line!


*DEEP BREATH*


And that's my list! Hopefully I didn't put you to sleep or make you so bored that you just skipped over my post. I want to help the game become even brighter and somehow obtain the awareness that it deserves.

Thanks BP!