Why aren't we advertising?

Hey guys, just wondering why we aren't advertising not only City of Heroes/Villains, but other NcSoft games? I discovered that about 62% of MMO players subscribe to World of Warcraft. 0.8% of MMO players subscribe to City of Heroes/Villains. Those are some pretty nasty numbers. I'm not surprised since World of Warcraft has their own mountain dew, everyday broadcast commercials, and of course MR. T. City of Heroes wasn't revealed to the world since E3 2003 since I remember. Our community is getting smaller and smaller what feels like everyday. Half of the servers are dead and hardly active, it seems it's harder to find a good supergroup or team that isn't PowerLeveling or Farming... All I'm saying it WILL be amazing if NcSoft could do some advertising towards all of their games. I just wish I could tell them upfront instead of hoping the'll see it on their forums.

~@Iciclemistress

Most companies (across all industry, not just games and not just MMO's) don't understand marketing. As a result they will demand specific ROI on the dollars they put into marketing ventures, but the chances of finding a marketer that will guarantee a certain return is slim to none. Especially because most companies expect a near immediate ROI from campaigns.

For instance (seeing as how it was brought up) does each commercial WoW runs directly lead to X number of subs? No probably not. More importantly, does the entire TV campaign lead to a certain expected number of subs? No, definitely not.

One of the hardest things about marketing is actually attributing the accurate amount of success/failure the campaign has. Even if you ask them "are you playing this game because of the Mr. T commercial?" and they answer "yes" that may have just been the toppling point for them. As such attributing that sub to that campaign is debatable.

Marketing for the purpose of increasing customers is only part of the reason you do it though. Most companies don't realize that though and fewer still ever get to the point where making that realization could even happen.

Oh look advertising on one of the biggest game stores there is.

http://www.gamestop.com/browse/searc...%20of%20heroes

That's not advertising, that's product listing. Kinda big difference. Go find me a banner ad, you.

Marketing only works if the company that is paying for the campaign has a good reason to believe that the campaign will generate more interest/revenue than it had prior to the campaign.

Having said that, exposure is very important as well, and marketing helps games get exposed. WoW commercial with Mr. T is classic. If it draws any new players, then it is revenue. Marketing is part of the cost of doing business.

Just hope to see something done for advertising in the EU shortly.
OP's question could easily have been said about the EU community.
(Insert cheeky smiley here.. if it had not been so sad)

also, don't forget that if you drop by game.amd.com the splash screen rotates between CoH:GR and a few other games.

Again though, that's probably not the original poster's idea of "advertising"

One of the basic problems that Black Pebble has talked about before is some of the advertising opportunities players have expressed interest in... simply won't be happening. DC Comics is not about to allow a trailer for City of Heroes to be included with any Batman, SuperMan, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, etc. Production. You'd have to come up with a really good reason why DC Comics would want to "help" cross-promote a game that is a direct competitor to their own DC Universe Online.

By the same token, Marvel comics is never going to sign off on a trailer or advertisement of CoH accompanying the likes of Spider Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Avengers, or any other Marvel property.

Basically, you can just wholesale forget the entire idea of CoH being advertised alongside in-theater superhero movies, on-television superhero tv shows, and on dvd / blu-ray copies of superhero stuff from Marvel / DC Comics... which... come... on be honest here... is 95%+ of all superhero stuff released into such mediums.

Then there's the question of TV Spots. One of the reasons World of Warcraft can do television ads is that Activision / Blizzard is freaking huge, easily one of the largest combined developer / publisher houses ever. It's also not a super-hero themed game, so it can be safely shown during Geek-Oriented stuff like Smallville, or any Batman / Superman / comic-book hero television show. Activision Blizzard can also afford the huge up-front cost to buy advertising spots on prime-time television shows such as Lost, Heroes, or pick your other favorite prime-time-show.

Then there is the problem of magazine subscriptions. The rise of sites like www.gamenikki.com / www.gamenikkiinexile.com :: www.ign.com :: www.kotaku.com :: www.beyondunreal.com :: and so on have eroded the potential subscriber base for typical magazine advertising. Why pay for a magazine that carries news a month late (and in the case of Game Informer often gets basic fact checking wrong), and often has clearly paid-for-reviews? Okay, I'm ignoring the big problem that most of IGN's stuff is probably paid-advertising as well to make my point... but there just isn't a reliably gamer-centric magazine source to leverage. Most savvy gamers have their favorite news / opinion sites, and a list of reviewers they trust to give them the straight shot on whether or not a game is worth buying. That type of situation doesn't lend itself to advertising as a person commonly thinks about advertising.

Again, some of these difficulties would not exist if it were not for the basic foundation of CoH as a Super-Hero themed game, and if it were not for the direct competition with both Marvel and DC Comics. However, CoH is a super-hero themed game, and is in direct competition with both Marvel and DC Comics.

Which is why the marketing team has to get creative with marketing opportunities. Razer's a pretty big name in the gaming hardware business with their own line of gaming problems, and having swallowed up SteelSeries. Parternships with Gamestop are also another way to increase sales at time of Sale. Setting up shop at various conventions is also another way to increase exposure to potential players.

One of the other problems facing the marketing team is CoH's age. Pretty much everybody who was interested in a super-hero themed RPG has heard of or tried City of Heroes. The amount of hard-core gamers that at least have not ever heard of the property is pretty small. Which means that COH's greatest opportunity for growth is convincing hard-core gamers that CoH offers more than other MMO competitors, or finding new markets to sell subscriptions into.

I find internet ads (banners) do work. I can't remember which game it was but i once started playing it because it sounded and looked cool from the banner.

if I can put my two cents in: the game needs more exposure. Every person I talk to knows what WoW is, but virtually Nobody I know has even heard of City of Heroes. I've played WoW, and CoH is the better game, and if more people knew about it, we would do alot better

I'd just be happy if they hired Dark_Respite to do a Going Rogue action teaser. Then have it run on G4 inbetween AOTS and X-Play.

Core Audience.
No Marvel or DC ad's running.
The exposure alone would generate buzz, and we all know buzz is a good thing!

How bout we elect to have the next two boosters revenue go straight into marketing? This would mean a smaller issue release down the line but may prove profitable if it gets our brand out to the masses of players who were to young in 2004 and haven't even heard about us.

Why not have one of the more popular website game reviewers do a review on the finished product. Some one like Zero Punctuation from escapistmagazine.com. Of course that might be a double edged sword since he could honestly dislike it but I know that I check out his newest review every week and sometimes check out a game because the review got me interested enough.

I'd rather not see commercials for the game unless we get people who put some thought into the costumes and not some bland/generic/uninspired crap running around like we typically see from upcoming issues/projects...