Why So Serious?

A Hommage to the great actor Heath Ledger.

A fantastic prizewinning example of an alternate reality game to pre-hype the film The Dark Knight, 10 years after Nokia invented the genre. Just click on the film below.

Great days in Cannes!

Just some pictures of our presence during the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

BrandNewGame was there with about 35 other Dutch Gaming Industry Delegates.

We spend 3 terrific days on the 'Stad Amsterdam' and witnessed some interesting presentations. Hopefully next year will be as inspiring and enlightning as this year!

Note to self...

This is just a small summary of the Marketing Live event I went two weeks ago from the 5 or so speakers that were there.

According to research by the University of Groningen (Peter Leeflang & Ruud Frambach 2009), in times of crisis companies should keep investing in Marketing because:

1. You risk losing your position and market share to competitors
2. You risk being insignificant versus private brands
3. Company value and shareholder value will drop

It seems a trend that CFO's become more important than CMO's due to the fact that marketing accountability seems difficult to prove.

- Price promotion do not have long term effect
- Expected effects of advertising are far too high
- Innovations fail too often (more than 50% of all product introductions fail)

British American Tobacco has investigated their consumer and described 25 consumer trends. Amongst them were:

- We want everything at the same time
- We want instant luxury (we want things to be available, easy, simple...)


According to the study companies should value the following:

1. Consumer insights: Client values & principles
2. Dare to choose and do not copy competitors (being different = positioning)
3. Market orientation (branchemarking)
4. Work together (consumer generated content, CRM systems, Product development)
5. Make marketing a core competence
6. Understanding your stakeholders (learn by connecting)
7. Creativity
8. Innovation
9. Accountability (measure from time to time: brand awareness, brand equity, client satisfaction).

Overall objective should always be creating brand (added) value.



Paul Postma presented how our brain works, by shining some light in the dark land of neurology. He talked about:

- Undetermined preferences
- Old neurology systems (millions of years)
- Determination and confirmation of our own behaviour
- Simple and quick decision making

Use your gut feeling (emotional brain) when: choosing your partner, buying a house buying art.
Use you 'senses' (functional brain) when investing, organisational changes, new product development.

How can we generate consumer insights?

1. Analyse and find patterns in historical data
2. Note behaviour of your clients
3. Surpress your own preferences and deny your marketing plan

Base marketing (also product development) on buying motivations and user experiences.

Google (Noud van Alem) had an interesting presentation about the 4 Types of engagement.

Based on attention and history they divide consumer behaviour [from low engagement to high engagement] in:

1. Adoptive (tagging, bookmarking)
2. Social (sharing, creating fan groups)
3. Collaborative (filtering, rating, voting, adding to favourites)
4. Creators (uploading, blogging, podcasting)

in 2009 group 4 is no more than 5% of total internet users, but this might grow in the upcoming years since people are becoming more and more individual multitasking creators.

Google measures engagement by multiplying: clicks x visitors x revisits x feedback x purchase x forward intell x etc. etc.

Innovation in the digital landscape is basically just doing it and optimising after launch. Don't think you know it all in advance.

Launch it, monitor it, adjust it.

[Learning by Doing]

Cannes Lions Advergame by Dutch Gaming Industry

The Dutch gaming industry are developing a unique game during the Cannes Lions Festival to promote the opportunities that gaming have for brands.
Follow us on this website http://canneslionsgame.wordpress.com .


For a real bad, time wasting and nonsense inspiration video check this link: VIDEOGAME CONCEPT

Leaving for Cannes Next Week

THIS IS A CALL FOR ADVERTISING AGENCIES THAT WANT TO LEARN ABOUT INGAME BRANDING:

VISIT DUTCH GAME CONSULTANTS ON OUR SHIP "STAD AMSTERDAM" ON THE 25TH OF JUNE IN CANNES PORT STARTING 21.30 HOURS!

CALL ME IF YOU CAN'T FIND IT ON +316 4818 6632


BART HUFEN

Six levels of involvement

Image via Wikipedia

According to Gordon Calleja gamers have 6 levels of involvement when playing games, from shallow to 'deep'.



"The six frames include: affective, spatial, narrative, tactical, performative and shared involvement. These are described as ranging on a continuum from conscious to internalized involvement.
The internalization of spatial and other frames of involvement can result in what I will call “incorporation”. This term replaces presence and immersion with the aim of displacing the binary relationships implied in these metaphors while proposing a clear conception of the experiential phenomenon they are employed to describe. It replaces the uni-directional plunge of player into game-space implied by the term immersion with one of simultaneous assimilation of the digital environment and presence to others within it." Thus Gordon Calleja.

Explaining in short what the six levels mean:

Affective: do I like what I see, does it look attractive and comprehensible? Does it tempt trial!?

Spatial: do I understand the environment and basic mechanics of the game? Is the goal clear?

Narrative: How does the story involve me, which clues and progress do I get to keep me interested and involved?

Tactical: As soon as the above is clear, the player feels comfortable in this digital interactive virtual world. Gamers need to feel they understand and are in control of this constantly changing environment.

Performative: Searching for the boundaries of what I can do in-game (mastering the game). The gamer is bending and tempting the rules of play so to speak. Character identification probably takes place in this face and the virtual world and reality seem to start blurring.

Shared involvement: In what way can I interact with objects and (virtual) characters and (real life) team mates? In short: in-game socializing - a highly underestimated virtue of gaming (by non-gamers) if you ask me!


Visit this website for more on this subject: http://www.gordoncalleja.com/

Pisswasser from Heineken and Carlsberg

For the people that don't know the game Grand Theft Auto, the game is packed with ingame (fake) Brands that wink to fastfood chains and Beer brands. One of the Ingame brands is Pisswasser. The label on the back of the bottle says: "You're in, for a good time". Enjoy crisp, salty taste of Pisswasser. The German fighting lager, of choice for the more discerning binge drinker. Brewed from rice, barley, hops and the fresh urine of Barvarian virgins. Bottled in U-Rhine.

Wouldn't it be fun and great word of mouth if a brewery like Carlsberg or Heineken would sell the actual beer in reallife short after release of the game? Great limited edition and collectors items that would definately stirr up the brandscape!

Volvo Ocean Race game continues...

After having 250.000 subscribers last year, Volvo continues their sailing simulation game where participants have to take control of their ship 6 times per day, amongst them waking up twice per night sleep during 9 months (!)

If you are a Vimeo user, you can check the Dutch interview with the developers here:

http://vimeo.com/5034639

Most important are the choices of sails in the beginning and as you play the game the course you set versus the actual wind and wind expectations.

Gamers need to wake up twice per night to change course of their ship in relation with the wind. And during the day probably need to log in 50 times per day to check their status. 50% of the gamers are actual sailors and 50% aren't. Participants come from all around the globe so this is a 100% international game for people from all cultures.

Check all you need to know here to participate: http://www.volvooceanracegame.org/home.php

Results:

40.000 pageviews per month
250.000 active players
27+ age
More than average income (3 x average)
In-game advertising pointed directly at the gamers

Augmented Reality - Hype or Future technology?

Please respond to the following statement:

AUGMENTED REALITY IS THE NEXT THING IN GAMING & BRANDING AND WILL BE USED IN MOBILE, GAMING AND WEB TECHNOLOGY IN THE UPCOMING 5 YEARS.

Festival of Games has started!

The Dutch / European Festival of games kicked off today with a 'retro presentation' by Joost van Liemt about the Alternate Reality Nokia games that have been played from 1999 to 2003. Great to hear that a Nokia had the guts to invest in a real life & online game in a time when this wasn't so 'normal' as it would be nowadays. For people that missed the Nokia game and wish to know more about it, I guess you best contact Bone.nl


















Some results:

Over 500.000 'unique' consumers (37% female) participated in the Nokia game in a 5-year period. Each period taking about 6 weeks of indulged brand experience. The average playtime of consumers was 1 hour!
It resulted in 125.000 new club members in 2001 and 60% of all participants accepted the opt in for receiving marketing information from Nokia (!).
Eventually 70 shadow websites / blogs have been set up by game players of the Nokia game.

Amazing results for a great gameconcept.

Key Learnings according to Joost are:

- Start concepting from a brand story or the company's brand values
- Allow story lines in the game
- Keep it fairly simple and focussed on consumer segments (don't try to please the world)
- Last but most important: co-create!!


The second presentation I witnessed today was a joint production by Soepel and Woedend - two Dutch agencies. I can't tell you too much about it, but I am happy to see that augmented reality is being developed more and more into game concepts. This time for a Dutch soda brand... To be continued soon (end of June)!


Add my blog to your favourites if you wish to remain up to date about Gaming & Branding!

America's Army 3 downloadable from June 17th!

If you wish to download the latest version of America's Army go to this link and experience what it's like to be in the US Army yourself!

[Please note that we do not support war or violence in real life whatsoever!]


America's Army

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America's Army - Most successful advergame so far...

[Dutch only - sorry] Cool results on the most successful advergame so far - America's Army by David Nieborg

Presentatie David Nieborg V02

View more OpenOffice presentations from mfredactie.

Project Natal for XBOX 360

E3 Update - Great Innovations or should I say: IMMITATIONS!?

Both Microsoft and Sony have announced new 'controllers' for their consoles Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.





Where Microsoft introduces 'controller-free' gameplay using your arms, leggs and possibly other bodyparts (check Xbox 360 Project Natal), Sony announces a motion sensing controller combined with a great deal of augmented reality (check PlayStation MS).
Nintendo apparently have decided to wait and see what the competition does and will hopefully stun us next year.

A small novalty on the handheld side of life is the PSP GO! By Sony. More of the same if you ask me.

Assassin's Creed II Venice - AMAZING TRAILER

You have to see this for yourself to believe it. One of the most anticipated games of this year is part two of Assassin's Creed. The trailer is just released during the E3 and is absolutely promising.


Enjoy!

www.assassinscreed.com