It Doesn't Ad Up feature - your thoughts

[MattyD]

Most videogame advertising isn't aimed at people who play games but people who buy games - they're not always the same people.

Parents buy games for their kids but they don't have a clue about them, which is why licensed tat like Harry Potter and Madagascar sells by the truckload. Target video makes parents sit up and take notice, and crucially it also gets kiddies nagging their parents. They are a sham, no two ways about it, but the fact we're even having this discussion proves they can't fool the people who know their stuff.

On the other hand, the sort of adverts that don't show anything at all about the product - like the PSP ads - are aimed at people who do play games, or at least have some awareness of games and trendy technogadgets. They don't need to spell out what a PSP is to these people, rather they seek to create desire by selling the possiblities that come with the product, like looking at photos of "your girlfriend's white bits" at the bus-stop.

[Jimmy]

On the other hand, the sort of adverts that don't show anything at all about the product - like the PSP ads - are aimed at people who do play games, or at least have some awareness of games and trendy technogadgets. They don't need to spell out what a PSP is to these people, rather they seek to create desire by selling the possiblities that come with the product, like looking at photos of "your girlfriend's white bits" at the bus-stop.

One of the key tenets to an advertising campaign is the selected target audience. This will by and large shape the majority of any TV ad as it finally appears on out tellies. Those PS2 ads during previous seasons' Champions Leagues and before them the 'mysterious' campaign (don't remember details) for the PAL launch of the PS2 were all about creating the 'Sony meme'. For something as significant a release as the PS2, it seemed to me that advertisers were well aware of MattyD's point and thus decided that it would be more beneficial to create a 'Sony gaming ideology' that gamers could buy into and be a part of. It could be argued that by showing any actual in game footage as part of these adverts would in actual fact detract from the ad's efficacy.
Those PS2 ads were very good and helped to sell a shed load of PS2s. Many of the customers (primarily 16-30something men) who bought a PS2 because of the snazzy TV ads have now intergrated videogaming as part of their lives and not simply as a guilty childish pleasure, solely because, it could be argued, of a TV ad that showed no in game footage.

Alot of ads for videogames are produced by different ad agencies for different target audiences. Some will grate others will slip under the radar precisely becasue they've worked.

Thought provoking article Jamie; advertising is one of my favourite (?) pet hates - but only because it interests me so much! What do you think of ITV (and more worringly of late the Beeb) advertising later programmes within programmes (like the news)? Also (off topic sorry), what do you think of those ridiculous cut scene type things that come on before the programme titles start?
Pure cheese.....destroy ITV......sub-standard TV appealing to the lowest common denominator.....blah, blah, rant, rant.....

[Sony Fanboy]

the ASA is a bit ignorant over what games really are.

No more or less than what they know about every other product featured in adverts.

The ASA gives the consumer the benefit of the doubt that they can make their own mind from the advert to a much greater extent than the article incorrectly assumes, and the article fails to see game advertising in the same knowledge as other goods e.g. does any detergent/cleaner/washer work remotely as well as you see in the adverts? Of course not, but the ASA assumes that we know promotions are exaggerations.

Adverts by default are a form of entertainment - they don't have to represent a particular product. Games ads targeted at children featuring CGI is no more misleading than confectionary ads featuring CGI characters as far as the ASA are concerned.

[fallenangle]

Where does the showing of actual in-game FMV fit into this argument? Is it disingenuous to use that in an advert? It is part of the game just not the playable part.

I ask because one of the first games I bought for the PS, Colony Wars: Vengence was sold to me via a very long well cut late night ad, featuring much of the intro FMV - it looked great.

When I started the game, there was all the stuff I'd seen and then the actual game started. I wasn't disappointed at all because I knew it wouldn't look like the FMV. Although my imagination had been aroused by the pretty pictures in the ad I wasn't fooled by it. As far as I was concerned as long as the gameplay lived up to the promise (it did) I was happy..

[chipsgravy]

I like adverts. Infact I have just ordered GRAW on the strength of the commercial alone.

[randombs]

Remember that Street Fighter 2 advert? The original one shown on the tv over here for the SNES bundle?

Memories...my first hard-on...

what? the one with the guy in a dark room playing as zangief against the car?

that's the only one i can remember

[Rebelli0n]

Wasn't the problem with the Call of Duty ads, that the CG shown was all done in first person view, as if it were in game. I can see how some people would call foul, there.

Conversely, knowing whats what, i knew full well it wasn't in game footage, (if i recall it was for the xbox/ps2/gc 'big red one' game, rather than cod2) and so to me, the ad came over far better in terms of production quality, than an inexpensive ad made up of game-footage would have done. The suggestion with a bunch of footage and little else, is that the advert has been cheaply put together, which can then reflect badly on the product itself.

They could have shown both the CGI and a bit of game footage, but then they're deliberately setting themselves up for a negative comparison. The question is why did they decide to go in such a specific direction (mocking up a game) where that comparison would be made anyway.

[randombs]

what about the forza ads where they speeded the game up? that was proper skanky as i'd played the demo and thought it was a bit ****e at **fps, then saw the ads and nearly rushed out to get it thinking they'd speeded it up to **fps! i went to gamestation a while later and saw it running and realised it was still just **fps.

(the **'s are to avoid any fps-related conflicts considering what happened last time. pgr3 anyone? )

[toythatkills]

We didn't know this was going on!

[randombs]

"The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre" - lol what a name. i can imagine quite a few disappointed bargain-hunting mums showing up at their doorstep

[Golgo]

[edit by charlesr: please use feedback links detailed in first post of thread]

The games industry is not a religion, not a coterie of initiates...it is an industry, a business...so why should anyone feel aggrieved that it adopts the same marketing techniqes as any other industry?

[charlesr]

Interesting article about feeding ads into games:

http://www.theregister.com/2006/05/04/microsoft_ponders_massive_purchase/