Hello,
I poured my heart out in the last newsletter, and while I can’t say that’s going to become a normal thing – I do appreciate all the love you all sent in response. Ogilvy, my employer, listened and helped get the article picked up by Campaign Live so it could reach a much larger audience. They’re making the effort to hear people like me and exploring ways they can be more supportive.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Today we’re looking at some tone-deaf video game activations. There’s a lot we can learn by looking at what went wrong for others. Let’s dive right in.
Google Stadia Launch Commercial
What is it? To launch their video game streaming service Google leaned heavily into Adult Swim (late night cartoon channel) style humor to market their product.
What’s wrong with it? The trailer comes off as if Google is making fun of gamers. It feels like it was written by a ten-year-old hopped up on Mountain Dew. To be clear, that is not a good thing.
How could it have been better? Google Stadia is a cool, innovative product. It lets users stream console-quality games with a device that is smaller than their phones. That’s awesome and should have been the focal point of their communications. Instead, they decided to hide the product features under a meme ridden ad campaign. If I was in charge, I would’ve put guerilla Stadia systems in billboards across big cities and let people connect to them to see how futuristic the technology is.
Nestle and Final Fantasy VII Remake partnership
What is it? Nestle chocolates ran a promo with Final Fantasy VII Remake. Gamers could redeem codes from their candy bar wrappers to get items in the game.
What’s wrong with it? It is an uninspired partnership. Final Fantasy VII is one of the most popular games ever made, and all they did was slap their candy bars next to the main character. Plus, the items that the codes unlocked didn’t add value to the game experience in any meaningful way.
How it could have been better? They should have pushed to do something that gave their brands more visibility in the partnership. Some ideas that would’ve worked are making a trailer where all of the characters’ sound effects are Butterfinger crunches, turning the main character’s sword into a chocolate bar, or just having clips of the characters eating different types of chocolate.
Video Game Bully Hunters
What is it? In 2018, the ad agency FCB launched an initiative to have professional female gamers hunt amateur gamers who were sexist in video game chats.
What’s wrong with it? It trivialized a serious issue in games. There were also reports that the agency was staging it in order to make a sizzle reel for a case study.
How could it have been better? Toxicity is 100% something the industry needs to address. Unfortunately, in online games it is a common occurrence to be called slurs, be bullied, and get yelled at. That isn’t okay.
Bullying a bully doesn’t raise the bar. It actually takes you down to their level. In order to make a meaningful change, FCB should’ve focused on empowering the positive voices in the gaming industry. A good example of this is Bumble. They addressed sexism by creating an all female esports team in order to make female streamers more visible to a wider audience.
What to take away:
A lot of these gaffs could have been avoided if people didn’t make assumptions and actually listened to the gamers they are advertising to. If you’re going to put thousands of dollars towards a gaming idea make sure it is adding value to the community your brand is trying to be a part of.
Gaming news that caught my eye:
Polygon: There is going to be a version of the PS5 that does not have a disk drive. That spells bad news for game retailers like Gamestop that make a bulk of their profit from selling physical games.
PC Gamer: Riot Games is in hot water after one of its executives posted something on Facebook saying that George Floyd’s death was because of his “Criminal lifestyle.” It’s a reminder that there are racists in very high places.
Youtube: This video explores how Fromsoftware breaks and reinvents the rules for what good game design looks like. It’s a great lesson in how breaking norms in any medium can result in super creative outcomes.
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