Spring+2010+Section+09-SS+Week+7

=Promotion=

Product Placement

 * Interstitual Ads **
 * Ads that fit between segments of content that consumers want to experience. An example is making an ad seem like part of a tv show by using the same characters in the ad as the show itself.

Interstitual Ads in Gaming
Video Games have subsidized production costs by selling ad space that typically targets a similar demographic to that of the game itself. Originally, graphics engine's limited the quality of the effectiveness of the partnership between advertiser and gamer, but over time, this relationship has developed as game engines and graphic cards have improved the quality of in-game advertising.

Electronic Arts pioneered the in-game billboard (pictured below) with original versions flaunting the EA logo & Adidas products, and later versions advertising everything from alternative EA titles (other sports games) to McDonald's cheeseburgers.

EA's BurnOut Paradise took in-game advertising to a new level this past year by becoming the first video game to sell advertisements to a political party. The positive response to the initial roll-out allowed EA to incorporate Obama's advertisement into their staple games like NBA Live 2009/2010 (which coupled new advertisements with each downloaded update) and NHL 2009/2010.

Not all partnerships have been positive, however, as Valve Corporation learned during the production of Half-Life 2. Despite a plot featuring a human society enslaved by an extraterrestial civilization known as the "Combine", Valve tried to insure profitability of the highly anticipated sequel by selling in-game advertisements. The result was an environment that failed to support the game's dark plot and an overall reduction in the quality of the game's experience (in addition to numerous online parodies like the one featured below).

Double Fusion, a marketing agency which focuses on in-game advertising, recently released a study that featured the following information (available HERE )...
 * 75% of gamers engage with at least one ad per minute across most, but not all, game types.
 * 81% of gamers engage at least every other minute.
 * While both contribute positively to ad engagement, placement of the ad in the primary camera plane (eye-level) is more important than large size ads.
 * Not all ads are created equal. Dynamic billboards, around-game interstitials, sponsorships, and interactive product placements all offer different levels of user engagement and pervasiveness in the game.

Vivistituals & Locostituals
How effective are these kind of campaigns? Here is an Pulitzer Prize winning article from the Washington Post. []
 * Delivers ads in life's context
 * Target environments are those with a captive audience and with information scarcity. Examples are elevators, bathrooms, toilets, and even showers. Potential other locations are subways, buses, taxis, and even walking down the street (reactive ads).

Geotargeting & Augmented Reality
There was a discussion in class in regards to Geotargeting and how websites can determine location even when we are on the move or on the internet, away from home. There is a feature called IP Spidering in which sites sort out IP addresses by location as they renew and are added to a database in which an incredibly set of complex calculations can determine location by accessing pings and traceroutes. These calculations look for "clues" about the user and can pretty accurately determine where is "home"
 * Geotargeting - targeting potential customers based on their location. For example, taking an iPhone or Android and accessing the GPS system to determine exact location. Then, merchants in the nearby area could text or email a potential customer about ads or provide the customer with coupons. As the person walked/drove around these messages would change.
 * Augmented Reality - a way to augment the reality in which we live. For example, taking an iPhone or Android and combining the camera, GPS, and tilt sensors to display an image on screen of what is in front of the camera. Then, on the image locations of nearby restaurants can be added, complete with contact information, ratings, menus, etc.

Anthrostituals
> > ** Psychostituals ** > Motivational ads. Nike's "Just Do It" ads utilize this advertising strategy.
 * Targeted toward people who need to use brands for identity expression. Prominently displayed labels can make people feel like part of the group.


 * Google Ads **
 * Changed the game with their concept of charging on a Cost per Click (CPC) basis rather than the then industry standard of Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM).
 * A very successful form of generating revenue
 * One wonders if they could every amass enough information and maintain web visitor identity long enough to change this to a Cost per Purchase (CPP®) where they charge for every transaction completed. Of course if they could pull this off Google would have come full circle with their acronyms. Starting out with CPM, they changed to CPC, further improved to CPP® only to come back to CPM (colossal profit margins).
 * Uses a slight generalized variant of a Vickrey auction
 * A sealed-bid auction, where bidders submit written bids without knowing the bid of the other people in the auction. The highest bidder wins, but the price paid is the second-highest bid.
 * It gives bidders an incentive to bid their true value

**Sociostituals Facebook Insights Viral Marketing**
Sometimes "viral" is not by accident - such as using **__Buzz Agents__** to informally promote products to friends at a party. Another example:__SoulKool Tori Vodka__

Basically normal vodka has no taste, so marketers must rely on gaining awareness and cool factor by marketing to trend-setting influencers. Using viral marketing firm [|SoulKool], [|T�ri vodka] has done just that. SoulKool hooked up with Philadelphia club owner Tommy Upgrove who invited "influencials" to his 32 Degree nightclub to sample T�ri. Upgrove then took the sampling event to his other clubs in the area, personally pouring the product for patrons []

When you first get infected with enthusiasm, you pass it on to your friends and they tell others about it. As more people know about it, the number of susceptible people declines and there are an increasing number of people who are “recovered” or over it – no longer interested. Cycle continues over and over as new products/ideas generate infectious interest, and then the interest dies down. Sometimes it never does decline, and those people become "carriers". Harley Davidson has type of enthusaiastic following; members of religious groups can be like this too.
 * __Organic (SIR Model): Susceptible – Infectious – Recovered (adapted from the model for how diseases spread)__**

BZZZZ Marketing: The Power of Word of Mouth Marketing
Host a party...invite some friends...try out new products. All in the name of marketing things "old school". Word of mouth marketing seeks to capture those of us who have become "immune" or better "numb" to the barrage of marketing ploys we deal with on a daily basis. But, one has to ask oneself...is this going too far? Being invaded in our homes? And how would you feel about your friends, subjecting them to yet another ad ploy?

Backchannel Media Case Study
BCM developed software to make tv clickable by enableing viewers to interact with the content visible on their screens.


 * BCM Decisions:**

1) Rollout strategy

The advertising value chain: Push --> <--Pull Advertisers -- Content Providers -- Distributors -- Consumers

2) A revenue model

Installation Fee Pay-per-click vs. Flat-rate fee

2) Raise additional funds







The A-Team