The Supercool Creative blog covers topics relevant to online video marketing, social media marketing, viral marketing, online marketing trends and anything else we think you may find interesting.
Besides being a wet-your-drawers funny video, “The Beach Boys Shred I Get Around” is a good example of using less branding in branded entertainment videos. At the end of the video, there’s a shot of “Stick City World’s Largest Hod Rod Dealer,” which was apparently a top spot for custom cars back in the day. But what if it were still around and millions of people were seeing it? Focus on making your videos funny, and either work your brand in naturally or just tag it at the end.
In the world of social networks, innovation can quickly change the field of frontrunners — remember LiveJournal?
We just saw it again as Google+ overtook Twitter to claim the No. 2 spot behind Facebook. And the new kid is already better than Mark Zuckerberg’s baby for small businesses, professional firms and entrepreneurs, says Alex Hinojosa, vice president of media operations for EMSI.
“I knew Google+ would attract a big following because it really lends itself to business uses and SEO,” says Hinojosa, who has witnessed the value of Google+ grow exponentially in the daily operations of his PR firm.
A new Global Web Index study shows Google+ grew to 343 million users globally in December, or about 25 percent of global internet users. Facebook still accounts for 50 percent of the pie.
“Facebook continues to go through self-imposed changes that are seeing mixed responses from longtime users,” Hinojosa says. “The new No. 2 has much, much more to offer than simply being an alternative to the big dog.”
Hinojosa reviews the merits of Google+ as a business tool, and why he believes the social network will continue its meteoric rise: • Power: Google+ may be the new kid when it comes to social media – it’s not even 2 years old yet — but Google has become synonymous with anything online. The “new kid” offers something that no other social media platform can: Google power.
• Overwhelming advantage: “Google loves its newest offspring and it favors any post, article, picture and link posted on Google+,” Hinojosa says. “If you post a link on your Google+ about asthma remedies, and one of your connections is logged in to Google+ and searches for asthma remedies, your post will show up high in his Google search results.”
So you’ve got a big budget title in the pipeline that has an equally big marketing budget. It’s part of a developing franchise and the higher ups have decided that this is the one that’s going to be big. So naturally, you want to position your game as a blockbuster hit and bill it as a huge cinematic experience to catch the attention of the mainstream market. How do you do that? You might decide to take a page from the movie industry. Buy big billboards, slap an enticing tagline on them, a release date, and a character from your title. Maybe something like this:
Job well done right? Well, not quite. If Darksiders II is anything to go by, your title’s sales will be far below expectations, despite having double the marketing budget of the first title. The Darksiders games were both quality titles, the third-person action genre is healthy, and the marketing budget was more than enough. So what went wrong? I’d venture to guess that the problem was in the direction marketing took. Here are 3 reasons why you can’t market a game like a movie:
1. Video games have a higher barrier to entry in both cost and perceived time commitment so consumers seek more information than a typical movie-style advertisement provides before making purchases.
Advertising campaigns for movies are typically meant to entice and intrigue. They are not required to go into too much detail because consumers are willing to spend $8 and 2 hours of their lives upon seeing a dude with a gun in a poster. All they need to know is the title and the release date if they’re convinced by the tagline and creative that it’s their type of movie. Videogames cost $60 a pop and depending on the genre could take 10 hours or more to complete. This makes impulse buys much rarer. The impression of “that looked kind of cool” that consumers get from movie-style billboard advertisements simply isn’t enough to get them to make the purchase.
In his latest post on iMedia Connection, Supercool Creative’s David Murdico lists 5 ways PR agencies and professionals can up their clients’ video and social media game including asking themselves questions like:
Why should anyone care about our videos?
What kinds of videos work best?
When is the best time to launch video campaigns?
How do we engage new fans?
How committed are we to social media marketing the videos and joining the conversation?
David defines video and social media sharing as “the new reach” and video series and engagement as “the new frequency.” In addition to advising that PR agencies “… have fun and never be afraid to take chances, roll up your sleeves and get dirty,” David lists giving fans videos they’ll care about and share, increasing engagement with online video series, planning videos and outreach around the holidays, making fans into rockstars and being sure to social media market videos after they’re launched.
As important as social media marketing is to any business, a surprising number of executives, marketers, and other businesspeople fail to grasp its depth and the level of expertise required to make it effective. Social media marketing goes far beyond knowing your way around Facebook and posting regular statuses. In her article for The Agency Post, our digital marketing specialist Kirstie Jeffries explains the essential tasks that social media marketing really involves, from setting goals to reactive engagement to predicting trends and more.
Do you really understand social media marketing? Read the article on The Agency Post here.
Zeno Group teams up with Supercool Creative once again for Dickies 90 Year Strong Tour to celebrate the hard workers across the U.S. of A by giving back! We head out to New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and Los Angeles teaming up with food trucks giving out free food and gratitude (Dickies clothes and gear).
Interconnected Gaming (ICG) chose Supercool Creative to market their new Acting Out! game, available in the iTunes app store in November. The game allows users play charades using video on their iPhones. Supercool produced the video trailer for the game and is managing all of the Acting Out! social media channels
In the world of social networks, innovation can quickly change the field of frontrunners — remember LiveJournal?
In his latest post on iMedia Connection, Supercool Creative’s David Murdico lists 5 ways PR agencies and professionals can up their clients’ video and social media game including asking themselves questions like:
Supercool Creative Named One of the Top 10 Agencies for Startups
