Part 2: Games and Customers


Annotations for Chapter 2

Advertisements “In” Games

This is a video of someone playing the recently released enthusiast game, Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4). MGS4, which was very successful from a sales perspective, features a number of highly integrated product placements, including the Apple iPod placement seen in this video. Note that the iPod isn’t simply seen in the game — you can actually collect and play songs on it!

 

The next video shows scenes from several Xbox 360 games, all of which incorporate peripheral product placements powered by Microsoft’s “Massive” dynamic advertising network. While all the ads in this particular video take the form of billboards and posters (promoting the TV show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), it’s worth noting that peripheral product placements can appear in many other forms, both 2D and 3D.

 

Are you a fan of The Sims 2? Check out this collection of Ford automobiles, which you can download for free. If you do, you’ll be one of more than a million people who have taken Ford up on the offer. Product placements like these are special because they can be created after a game has already been released to market, mitigating any challenges associated with the game’s development process and enabling advertisers to know exactly what they’re getting themselves into.

The Psychology of Product Placements

 

Annotations for Chapter 3

Advergames

  • You can download Jeep 4×4: Trail of Life for free here. Warning: it’s a very big download.
  • Visit Wrigley’s Candystand.com, a portal comprising a huge selection of free, web-based video games, the sole purpose of which is to promote Wrigley’s various brands.
  • Create and customize your car in Chevy Cobalt Labs, produced by the advergaming experts over at Blockdot.

Of course, no commentary on advergames would be complete without a glimpse into the groundbreaking Burger King Xbox 360 games, which were first released in 2006. Of the three games produced by Burger King, the most inventive was unquestionably Sneak King, which you can see below. However, Sneak King is also the most shallow Burger King game, and the least likely to engage players for more than a short period of time.

 

This is a video of Pocket Bike Racer, another Burger King Xbox game. While not particularly innovative or remarkable, Pocket Bike Racer does include online multiplayer functionality, which significantly increases the game’s longevity and can inspire consumers to tell each other about the game (i.e., so they can then play with each other online.)

 

Annotations for Chapter 4

Adverworlds

  • See Webkinz.com, the first virtual world to use the purchase of a physical toy (a “Webkinz” stuffed animal) as its price of entry. Of course, you can’t actually do much until you, you know, buy the toy. Be careful… they’re kind of like potato chips — kids are rarely satisfied with just one.
  • Plenty of major advertisers have taken notice of the success of Webkinz. McDonald’s recently launched a virtual world, which is linked to the purchase of happy meal deals at McDonald’s restaurants. It’s called “McWorld” — surprised? McWorld currently feels less coherent than other virtual worlds, but given that it was launched only recently, we’ll defer judgment of it for the future.
  • Mattel has gotten into the act as well with Barbiegirls.com. Go ahead and check it out — access to the world’s basic functionality is free. Or if you’re in a hurry, just check out the video below:

 

Reverse Product Placements

Square Enix, a large Japanese video game publisher, partnered with beverage producer Suntory to create a new health drink called “Potion” — named after the “health potions” found in Square Enix’s famous Final Fantasy video game franchise. In Final Fantasy, health potions are consumed by characters who have been harmed in battle and are in need of recuperation — a premise that lends itself well to a real-world health beverage. Check out this cute TV advertisement for Potion, showing two consumers battling for one bottle, then healing themselves (in the graphical style of the video game) by taking a sip:

 

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs)

There really is no video we could link to that would adequately encapsulate the full scope of a well-designed, fully-funded ARG. If this topic interests you, some articles worth reading include the Wikpedia entry on the history of ARGs, Wired’s article on I Love Bees (one of the earliest, most ground-breaking, and most successful ARGs ever launched), and this video presentation on The Art of the Heist, an ARG created as a promotion for Audi which we discuss in the book.

Experiencing the grandest ARGs tends to be a fairly significant time investment, but we found one that will only require ten minutes of your time. Eagle Eye Freefall is a mini-ARG designed to promote the Steven Spielberg movie Eagle Eye. You can play it here, and we highly recommend that you do! (But we must re-emphasize: this is by no means the most deep or complex ARG. In fact, the best ARGs typically attract a large community of players who work together to solve puzzles posed by the game; Eagle Eye Freefall, on the other hand, is currently a single player experience. But that makes it great for a quick play…)

Changing the Game (order via Amazon or B&N) is a fast-paced tour of the many ways in which games, already an influential part of millions of people’s lives, have become a profoundly important part of the business world. From connecting with customers, to attracting and training employees, to developing new products and spurring innovation, games have introduced a new level of fun and engagement to the workplace.

Changing the Game introduces you to the ways in which games are being used to enhance productivity at Microsoft, increase profits at Burger King, and raise employee loyalty at Sun Microsystems, among other remarkable examples. It is proof that work not only can be fun--it should be.