Ad Age had an article today, Making Marketing as Creative as Its Games, talking with Brad Jakeman, Activision’s chief creative officer. He talked about the changing demographics in video games and how it’s not just about the 14 year old in their moms basement.
Brands like “Guitar Hero” and Wii are elevating this entire category outside the 14-year-old boys’ bedrooms. The games [have moved] from a solitary activity to a social activity.
Absolutely. When brands like “Guitar Hero” and “Call of Duty” reach a kind of mass scale, then they also drive toward a mass-marketing approach. But more important than that, it drives to a segment-marketing approach. It’s important for us to continue to fulfill the product and advertising to our core user — call them the hard-core user — and at the same time address a new segment, like family. It would be a mistake to say the marketing moves entirely to embrace mass-marketing vehicles, because it’s important that there’s something in the brand for everyone.
I think both of these statements echo the point that more changes are coming for both video games and marketing. However, I don’t think it’s just going to be in the living room. One of the major pushes in the last year has been around micro-transactions. Micro-transactions are huge in South Korea and other parts of Asian but are only now starting to take off in North & South American.
Micro-transactions will take off more as mcommerce, sponsored microtransactions and society using their iPhones, Blackberry’s and other mobile devices for everything becomes more of a reality. When we look to the future, it’s not just about Twitter, Facebook and sponsoring PAX but it’ll also be about getting in from of the next two generations using micro-transactions whether they are in MMOs, casual games or social games on Facebook. As my generations grows up this is going be a fantastic opportunty for marketrs who know about it. You can also read when VentureBeat had a talk with Gareth Davis and how this one area of marketing and gaming is changing.
VentureBeat Source [Joystiq]
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