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NTSC-RePlay 009: No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

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    NTSC-RePlay 009: No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

    27 August 2003 and Inertia_ opened the discussion on videogame marketing. The decades have seen seismic shifts in how companies market hardware and software to consumers with some infamously bad examples as well as hugely successful drives made. Some companies have been defined by the consistency and strength of their branding whilst others have gone through periods where they almost went out of their way to court controversy.

    This is what we'll be looking back over in this ninth thread...

    This isn't NTSC-UK, it's NTSC-RePlay

    What marketing efforts, be it lines on a poster all the way through to TV adverts etc, do you recall and find notable?
    Which have stayed with you either because of how good they were or how bad they were?
    How does modern gaming marketing hold up?

    #2
    The way Nintendo still put money behind launch window Switch stuff really is great business. We had a MK8D advert before the Sonic 2 flick and it made me want to play the game immediately. There was a Kirby ad as well which got my boy all excited, as we’d just bought the game a couple of days prior.

    They could probably put out a limited ARMS campaign and have it shift 50% more units. They should do precisely that, because that game deserves it.

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      #3
      This just makes me think of the awful 90s videogame ads in magazines and the like. Especially the ones with a half-naked woman on them for no reason (well, there was a reason; someone on the marketing team realised if they did this, they could go to a photoshoot with a half-naked woman).

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        #4
        I think we all know the 'I am wolfman' ad is the greatest advert ever made.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Cassius_Smoke View Post
          I think we all know the 'I am wolfman' ad is the greatest advert ever made.

          https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3OUcEjw5-Ao
          Holy sh*t never seen that before. It is awesome

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            #6
            Sony's adverts always stick out for how bat**** they were.





            That PS3 advert is cool and stuck with me, but I'm not sure it did them any favours when the 360 was eating their lunch. I don't think it was until the advert below came out that things really started to turn around.



            Nintendo's GBA SP advert took an interesting approach that wasn't needed?

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              #7
              Originally posted by Cepp View Post
              Yep, this is it.

              "They want you to make an ad about some crappy computer game thing."
              "Ugh, that kiddy crap? How am I supposed to see a girl naked while doing that!?"

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                #8
                Originally posted by Asura View Post
                Yep, this is it.

                "They want you to make an ad about some crappy computer game thing."
                "Ugh, that kiddy crap? How am I supposed to see a girl naked while doing that!?"
                It reeked of insecurity, like they were embarrassed by their kid/family image. You'd never see something like that from them today.

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                  #9
                  I wonder how long games companies kept that line of things going for? This Vita one is from 2014





                  I remember this early PS one




                  I know the Butler ads are an obvious go to but the Schaal ads for Xperia were an overlooked line too:





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                    #10
                    One of the cleverest videogame ad campaigns that I can remember is the series of print and TV ads featuring the Redknapp family playing Wii together.

                    Combined with other material featuring Ant and Dec and placements on everyman family TV fare like Saturday Night Takeaway, they clearly positioned the machine as something absolutely mainstream, suitable for every member of your common or garden British family.

                    The message was almost 'Haven't you got a Wii yet? Everyone else has!'.

                    A really smart approach to marketing something that could easily have been seen as a quirky, niche Japanese import. They successfully made sure it was seen as The Generation Game, rather than Banzai. It's always stuck in my mind.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by wakka View Post
                      A really smart approach to marketing something that could easily have been seen as a quirky, niche Japanese import. They successfully made sure it was seen as The Generation Game, rather than Banzai. It's always stuck in my mind.
                      Yeah, Nintendo absolutely nailed the Wii's advertising, and what I guess was great about it was that the adverts weren't bull****. Like I love the daftness of that "I am the Wolfman" Sony advert, but those The Third Place ads were all just hot air, selling you a "lifestyle experience".

                      The Wii's ads just showed you people playing the games and having fun. Some of them were celebrities. I remember one around that time with some boy-band all playing a 4-player co-op game on DS? But they were still just about showing the game, why it's fun, and people having fun playing it.

                      Not advertising a horror videogame by having a photo of a naked woman (who isn't in the game) in a bath of blood and a tiiiiny logo for the game on the bottom corner of the ad.

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                        #12
                        The Switch advertising is very Wiiminiscent.

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