Marketing Idea : I ain't no expert so spare me...

Arugan

This is just an idea or food for thought...

After watching the Ashes of Creation character creator it reminded me of something especially the part with asmon character... It reminded me of how WoW had old commercials of Mr.T being an orc etc..

It would be cool/funny and a good advertisement idea if Intrepid did something similar(not sure of any legal or copyright issues tho).

.Have someone like Henry cavill being an Empyrean...(I am sure some famous gamer people would do it for free or just a cheaper cost).

In those commercials, I felt interested and encouraged those that aren't gamers, or in the MMORPG world to try it out. Making people want the fantasy world... making a character that looks actually just like you but maybe elf version or orc version.

TheDarkSorcerer

Having Henry Cavill or similar being in a commercial is expensive. Any A list talent is very expensive. You would be looking at a 2 million dollar campaign if not more just for location, insurances, talent, crew (min 100 man crew), post production and editing. It wouldn't be the smartest move for a start-up. And that price tag is not even including paid media to market the campaign on YT, Streaming, TV, Paid social. I'm on set monthly for Kim K shooting for SKIMS, and people don't realize how huge of a production it is having A list talent on set.

I'd rather have Intrepid just hire Blur Studios and do the launch video for Ashes. (They do all cinematic videos for Elder Scrolls Online). And it gives Intrepid so much more freedom when it comes to storytelling. And if there would be any edits needed in post they don't have to rely on re-shooting it with talent again.

Karthos

Anything with celebrity talent is going to be expensive, and Blizzard was doing those commercials when they had 11-12 million players in their game. We're talking a marketing budget magnitudes greater than Intrepid has.

Although I love those commercials, and they would be hilarious for AOC, unless they can get the talent for free, or heavily discounted, it's not really financially responsible for them to do at this time.

Maybe if AOC had 11-12 million players....?

CROW3

Maybe we could hire Will Smith to show player flagging?

Too soon? 🤪

JustVine

All of the people above complaining about it being expensive clearly don't understand the value of things like this from a marketing perspective. You have to spend money to make money. OP's idea is a well known marketing strategy that works just fine if you pick the right person at the right time.

There are a lot of fad ways to advertise that are not effective or knock of strategies. But if you want to be culturally relevant the way WoW was you definitely pay up the money to get Mr.T to promote your game. Why? Because it draws in new eyeballs not just from people who like Mr.T but from people hearing about people talk about that kind of commercial. Advertising is an awareness promotion tool first and foremost, and from that perspective it is very effective no matter what stage of your campaign if you get the person and presentation right. Yes many millenials and zoomers will roll your eyes at you. But ultimately they are rolling their eyes because it's not 'their celeb' or 'their hobby'.

Now is it the right MOVE? Not on launch, obviously, as many commenters point out. It's statistically and financially much more effective to spend a bunch of money on youtube influencer marketing. It's a pretty well known industry fact at this point, even if a lot of marketers are hesitant to take this route. It's also significantly cheaper to pay some shmuck with a million subs who already self selectively targets your main audience ie gaming. So yes while many of the commenters are having a bad knee jerk reaction about how expensive a marketing move would be, they come to the correct conclusion.

Additionally you don't aim to be culturally relevant at the beginning stages. That is a move you make when you have an established market and player base and your scrapping for new blood. So like a year in.

Shoelid

Dwayne Johnson stands in front of a white background, staring into the camera.

THE ROCK
"Hi, I'm Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and I'm a Vaelune Tank."

Cut to b-roll of a modern AFV driving over a field, then back to Dwayne Johnson

THE ROCK
"No, not that kind of tank"

Cut to b-roll of a Vaelune Human in heavy plate armor, with no helmet to show a face that looks exactly like Dwayne Johnson's. Cut to combat footage of the Tank to showcase some abilities while Dwayne Johnson narrates.

THE ROCK
"In the world of Verra, I'm a commander on the battlefield and a stalwart defender of my allies. Through raw strength I keep our enemies locked down so that my team can do their jobs safely."

AidanKD

One thing worth noting is that while I think it IS good marketing, WoW was already out for 3 years, given 2004 release and 2007 advert according to a little search.

It might not be the thing to do right now, I honestly think that continuing to target streamers is a the way to do things in this day and age.

Also, for games are these adverts as successful as they used to be? Genuinely asking as I saw those adverts on TV. I don't really watch live TV so they would possibly be in the form of skippable ads on youtube which again might not get the full attention you would want.

JustVine

AidanKD wrote: »

Also, for games are these adverts as successful as they used to be? Genuinely asking as I saw those adverts on TV. I don't really watch live TV so they would possibly be in the form of skippable ads on youtube which again might not get the full attention you would want.

Are they as successful? Statistically no, but that's due to a diversification of media, rather than the technique itself being lower in impact. Quite frankly it is a lot more WORK than it used to be even if the effectiveness hasn't changed. You have multiple platforms that demand different formats of advertisement to be engaging and impactful. Celebrity endorsements are hard to reformat without paying more money. You only get so many shots and time. This can be mitigated with extensively planning ahead and having a multi-platform approach from the start. In other words there is a lot more room for screwing up. It can be quite frustrating to succeed on one platform only to have a bad format for the other platform causing much more mixed engagement and awareness.

The skippability of ads on youtube is actually the reason why paying streamers and youtubers money has become even more frequent and cost effective. It is a notable hurdle. However, typically you will make the ad accessible via twitter, still do a tv promo, and then have the celebrity respond to the ad on twitter as part of the contract. People will usually click and watch the ad if it's well crafted enough and the celebrity they follow responds or it becomes trending on twitter. Facebook also requires a similar but more involved strategy. Similar to twitter but with a lot more focus on targeting the advertisement in the first place and you generally need a lot more copy. Targeting those four platforms uniquely is usually enough to make it effective.

Happymeal2415

CROW3 wrote: »

Maybe we could hire Will Smith to show player flagging?

Too soon? 🤪

Definitely not too soon

tautau

Advertising is expensive and might not bring in the kind of players you want, players who will stick around for years rather than just a few months. If it brought in lots of players for a short time, then there would be a need for lots of expensive servers for a year, then server mergers soon following. Not at all what we want.

I expect IS will have carefully targeted marketing, which they already are doing.

TheDarkSorcerer

JustVine wrote: »

All of the people above complaining about it being expensive clearly don't understand the value of things like this from a marketing perspective. You have to spend money to make money. OP's idea is a well known marketing strategy that works just fine if you pick the right person at the right time.

lol K. That is not how ad campaigns work. But i will let you think that...

JustVine

It isn't even really clear to me what you are dismissing. The fact that ad campaigns cost money? The fact that games are a saturated market that can sometimes require a lot of resources to get your message out in the sea of other people trying to sell their game? The fact that choosing the right influencer has a large effect on how well the message is executed?

MybroViajero

I can assure you something.
Lazypeon, Asmongold, Tim, Summit, and CC, they've done more for AoC than any commercial TV star.
For our environment we don't need the Hollywood star of the moment, we need people like Asmongold, and I don't mean bald people, but people who know the MMO environment, who know what is needed for MMOs, and who let convey in the interviews with Intrepid what every MMO player has been asking for for more than 10 years, hope.

Balrog21

Pye Rai Mohawk, fool!

daveywavey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ouSrpsAHf8