New Marketing
Submitted by Joshua Briley on March 7, 2008 - 8:54am.I just finished Seth Godin's new book, "Meatball Sundae." It's an interesting take on new marketing mediums for modern businesses. He does a good job demonstrating how and how not to use the new social networks, and other mediums to market your business.
The Social Networks are a source to which many businesses turn. MySpace, Linked In, Plaxo, Squidoo, etc. He mentions how many businesses are using these tools inappropriately. And to a certain degree, I agree. Seth points out a few case studies, which help drive the point home a little better. I came across one company recently that seems to be using the new media to the extremes...
My mother, new to the world of gaming, is now a marketer. She doesn't realize it, but she is. Aeria Games, the creators of Last Chaos, and several other games, are doing a great job with the Meatball Sundae concept. Marketing is built right in to the system. How?
Aeria points... The accumulation of these points gives the player the opportunity to get new weapons, potions, and things that help them kill beasts. How does one earn them? Create a You Tube Video and you get 500 points. Now I don't know what that means, because I'm not a gamer... but my Mom sure does. Another option... email your friends from your game profile and you get points... Or, you can pay for points. Any way you choose, Aeria wins. You also win, because you can beat the game.
The old school mindset would be to take the Mario or Zelda approach. Everything is contained within the game. Hopefully you can find the shelf space, and create enough buzz to get people buying. Aeria incorporates the marketing into the game. You can't win without doing some marketing legwork for the company. And people don't mind one bit.
My mother just told me that she can get points from this blog posting... 200 points, in fact.
