John Lee, Bardo Entertainment
Who Needs Publishers?

How to build your own interactive marketing campaign. Empower yourself so that when you are working with your publisher you are in a strong position to do so.

Interactive marketing is NOT: going on facebook or twittering. Hype is huge, but they are not really for purchasing guidance, which data confirms. So go where gamers are! Marketing has moved from transaction based effort to a conversation. Address the customer, remember what the customer says, then address the customer again in a way that illustrates we remember – John Deignton at Harvard in 1996. Not just online marketing.

Step 1: create your marketing plan early. 3 pillars: advertising, promotion, and PR (+business development). Core demographics, roadmap for assets, tentpole events, and a budget. Initial programs designed to test the waters and fine tune.

Defining your tentpole events: what is interesting and relevant to customer. The stuff that gets passed around on blogs, between customers. GTA: cover/announce, then 1st ad. Use interactive marketing to build the buzz through conversation, to “fill in the gaps” between the tentpole events. Be like a celebrity doing a talk show circuit.

Find your key influencers. Don’t need to talk to everyone, to win everyone over. 80% of content on internet created by 10% of users. These “alpha” users are going to influence the opinion of your game. So how do you find them? No simple answer. Reviving Hudson: 1 in 10 retailer/media people lit up when mentioned it, those were the key influencers in any effort to bring it back. Campaign to specifically target those people – created an exclusive club for those people. Became most profitable unit within Konami.

Don’t treat the key influencers like rock stars – YOU are the rock star! These guys are your entourage, it’s a privilege for them to have access. That fosters a positive relationship, take care of them and they will take care of you.

Case study: Elder Scrolls. Really wanted to spread the word about how this would revolutionize RPGs. Flew key influencers out and gave them assets out before anyone else so they could create fan sites. Generated fan fiction, super hardcore audience. 200 fan sites by launch, unheard of in 1996, was #1 PC game preordered at retail, driven by fan initiative.

Focus on high impact programs: personal advice, online comments by users most influence on users. Salesperson advice least impactful. Focus on programs that drive conversation. Blogs have a major impact on purchasing decisions. Content always generates a greater response than an ad!

Reach out to 1 new site each week. Connect with them and know them at a personal level, get to know their culture and demographics. Within a year, 50 new contacts. Make it easy for them, not just giving them a press release since that doesn’t generate conversation. Fact, inside info, FAQ. Follow and engage readers in the comments section and the forums! Don’t do 1 big story, do lots of smaller stories. (Kotaku, Joystiq, Destructoid). Constant engagement. Small fan sites can become powerful allies!

Presentation shine – you gotta WOW them! Goes beyond just the game, also the pitch, environment, etc. Crappy demo room doesn’t speak well for a AAA game. Affect all 5 senses! Also applies to online – keep a positive attitude and don’t get caught in a flame war. When commentary gets ugly, give your fans a chance to defend you first! This is very powerful if you actually have those people, no one takes you as unbiased. Speak from the heart, but don’t get too casual about your life story. List of instant answers is very handy and helps keep people in line, though make sure to find your own voice.

Always push for in person! Makes a big difference. Party game demo using an entourage to make a fun 4 player group. Big sites only cover you a few times to factor that in, smaller sites can go into the details. Don’t give away the big stories to the small sites. Divvy up the exclusives. Setup a press asset section online with FAQs, videos, etc. Media kit – good industry data.

Go beyond the virtual world, engage people in real life. PAX! Bring gear with you to capture that experience and broadcast it to a wider group. Good for finding key influencers too. “After 6 PM” meetings, best meetings are ones with beer, food, and good conversation.

Smaller events – Destructoid’s NARP. Sponsorship opportunity, event planning for just a few $K. Smaller events can be more cost effective. Don’t just give away swag, make people work for it by interacting! Booth babes don’t speak to gamers. “Hudson Honeys” – hiring escorts to woo your customers (?!?!). Made them look like rockstars. Friendly and open, knew how to play the games. Work with other devs to share costs.

Common dilemma – limited time, budget, and know how. Invested all money in dev, nothing left, what can I do for next to nothing? Not enough product in the pipeline to maintain conversation? There must be a better way… “The Kartel” – killer gaming community, gaming community portal, no need to reach out to 100s of social media sites. Foster more positive interaction through “karma” point system to get swag.

Sega Nerds – hardcore fansite. Homegrown effort yet community more active than Sega internal efforts. But they can’t get it much bigger since it is homegrown hobby mentality. Brought them into TheKartel, +50% traffic, potential for much more based on data. +50% more time to focus on content not admin.

Build the army, take care of key influencers as your entourage, focus on high impact programs. Engage in conversation!! This doesn’t have to be costly – don’t use diamond rings and fancy yachts, use hit songs and cook a gourmet meal. Heart and soul, bring something to the table that no one else can.