"Far and away, the best kind of social networking is having an affective blog. A blog with an authentic voice, with someone who has something to say, consistently and transparently, makes you part of the conversation." - Seth Godin.
Ugly word, 'blog'. Sounds like bog and log. But, by far, the blog is the most important aspect of any social marketing campaign. It allows you to access and maintain audience at a very low cost.
It allows you to message directly, without any media third parties sucking your budgets clean. It allows you to be the conversation you want to have with your consumer. Little wonder Fast Company called blogging "the first commandment of social marketing".
HOW IT WAS
In the past, magazines and their audiences belonged to third party media organizations. Games companies that wanted to access these audiences did so by handing over lots of money.
Same in the games industry. With the exception of Nintendo Power (which Nintendo once owned and produced), that was how the media worked.
For the games industry, it sorta made sense. Games producers do not want to spend their time producing magazines. With the exception of the hardware manufacturers, there was not much call for media properties focused around individual companies or products. It is hard to imagine The Official Codemasters Magazine or even The Official EA Magazine.
So magazines were the original aggregators. They aggregated content, which begat readers which begat audience. Fine.
HOW IT IS
But the infrastructure underpinning this model is crumbling and swaying. Audience is not dependent on print or on news-stand. Audience is not even dependent on the traditional web.
There are now so many access points to audience that are vastly more cost-effective and message-effective than print or banner-advertising. And they are available for games companies to build themselves at ludicrously low cost.
The explosion in community managers at games companies is fabulous proof of this. Games companies, sensibly, want to build, maintain and nurture their own communities and audiences. They do so via forums, email and social media outlets like Twitter. They do so via their websites and they do so via that most effective social media marketing tool, the humble blog.
A games company's blog is not the same as its website. One informs and sells in a traditional fashion (company address and video previews etc.). The other entertains and communicates as a friend might. In fact, the blog is more like a magazine than a corporate website. It is a trusted pal. We all know that its ultimate aim is to sell games. But that's okay, because it's on the level. It gives the reader a privileged insight into the company's activities and its culture. Most important, it tells stories.
And, like a magazine, it builds audience - loyal audience that keeps coming back. Unlike a magazine, the blog is 100% dedicated to the games company, and it's owned by the games company. This is a fabulous opportunity for marketers to build something that sells games AND that the audience genuinely loves. Bungie's done it. Capcom's done it.
But most blogs are half-hearted and do not even come close to hitting their potential.
Most game company blogs are improvable. They don't tell compelling stories. They don't communicate in a friendly, warm way. They don't update enough. They aren't relevant. (Next week I'm going to talk about how games company blogs can be improved, and what can be gained from a great blog.)
At E3, I launched a new company, Intent Social Media, dedicated to building great blogs for games companies. We just launched our first for Cryptic and Atari (www.championsonlinedailynews,com), and the results have been startling. (We'll be releasing stats in the autumn, but the site's traffic, after one week, is in the thousands.)
Have a look at the reader comments. They are overwhelmingly welcoming and positive. This is marketing. They know it's marketing. They love it. The monthly cost to a games company is less than a glossy, ephemeral page of advertising. And the audience? It belongs to the game-maker. Why wouldn't you?
Colin Campbell is head of Intent Social Media, a subsidiary of Intent Media. More at www.intentsocialmedia.com
Comments
Why is this guy getting collumns?
Why does MCV allow Mr Campbell to continually whore out his own commercial agenda through these blog entries?
A blog receiving "thousands of hits" isn't quite the same as a digital campaign that reaches millions in a matter of weeks. For all of this squawking about a digital revolution it's just naive and misleading.
Reply to Jake
Jake should take a closer look at how these blogs are performing. Capcom-Unity's and Bungie's CPM, for example, is outstanding in comparison to the offers available on the market, not to mention metrics like outside media hits. If you're going to be fixated on numbers, you should take a look at how these sites are performing in real terms. Games publishers are clearly making their decision based on what's working for them, regardless of the highly debatable merits of a "digital campaign that reaches millions".
God, just leave it...
Oh, are we never going to hear the last of Campbell's willful euthanising of print media - just because Future turned off the magical money tap? Christ Colin, the hand of magazines fed you pretty well for a long time. And now, just because no magazine will give you a decent job, they're suddenly the devil incarnate.
In case you hadn't noticed - while you're spinning your web of self-deceit in The Matrix - a lot of people are still gainfully employed by the print publishing industry. So, unless you suddenly desire hundreds of hard working writers and designers to lose their jobs overnight (surely even you aren't that heartless), why don't you give it a fucking rest?
And yes, Intent, you should know better. Shame on you for allowing this self-aggrandizing claptrap.
Reply to 'Weezer'
Hi 'Weezer',
Perhaps this idea that print media is suffering, that the media in general is changing, is a figment of my own tortured ego. Or maybe it's a reality that's worth talking about. Perhaps, 'Weezer', you'd be happier if we just pretended it isn't happening.
BTW, I work for a company that produces magazines.
Yes, of course it's happening. But schadenfreude isn't terribly becoming.
This is about the game industry
Can I just clear something up here? I'm interested in how the media revolution impacts game publishers and how it changes the standing marketing model. This issue is something that many MCV readers are addressing right now. How games publishers address this stuff is a central challenge for our industry.
It's true that for magazine and newspaper publishers the effect of these unstoppable changes is contraction. It is happening ever day as companies shed people. Re-reading my article above, I don't see how anyone could draw the ugly conclusion that I might take any pleasure in this, or in the prospect of good people losing their jobs. I'm sorry (and baffled) that anyone has drawn this conclusion.
Most likely, talented people will find a way to use their abilities in new ways. The demand for great communicators is going to rise, not diminish. In any case, this is process that will play out over a number of years.
The value of advertising
Social marketing is a great catchall term and the idea of having a conversation with your audience is admirable. But for every quote by proponents of new media there will be one from the "other side". Those pushing the importance of blogs do so because they have a vested interest in them. That's fine and understandable of course but let's at least not confuse visitor traffic with adding value to a marketing campaign. It could well be that a high percentage of visitors to a blog will convert into consumers of the product - but not necessarily. YouTube shows that converting online visitors into a revenue stream isn't as straightforward as visitor numbers.
My vested interest is in producing advertising ideas that work wherever will be the most effective. Be that in print, banners, blogs, twitter, the moon. But research printed by AdAge recently, highlighted that TV and Print retained its effectiveness and that word-of-mouth about brands is still driven mostly by paid advertising. I love blogging, I really do, but it does seem disingenuous to raise a finger at print and banner advertising when even Champions Online is using them on this site - presumably to drive traffic.
Blogs: Games Marketing's Great Opportunity
Come on guys....... As someone who's moved from a strong history in games print media. Given such and the fact my business (Ice Games) and house were built upon such, I have a say in this! It is sad to see that the Specialist Games Press no longer shoots into the mainstream lifestyle press; because that's what it did so successfully for about 8 years through this and the last decade. The difference now is that 90% of the magazine has returned to the Specialist Arena, by the considerable of sales! This arena is a very important Arena for our industry IMO, one that talks with authority and one that carries an originality that many websites labour to find!!! The word found in specialist press can only be found in print, because you just can't reproduce certain characteristics of a magazine on-line, fact! So I always ensure part of my advertising campaign is landed in that wholesome direction!!! Social media is surely something that's up and coming, but not at the sake of specialist games press, that's another story altogether!
Leave a Comment
BROWSE BY CATEGORY
BROWSE BY MONTH
November 2009 (4)
October 2009 (4)
September 2009 (8)
August 2009 (7)
July 2009 (8)
June 2009 (6)
May 2009 (6)
April 2009 (8)
March 2009 (4)
February 2009 (4)
January 2009 (4)
December 2008 (3)
MCV STAFF BLOGS
Michael French (36)
Stuart Dinsey (23)
Tim Ingham (13)
Lisa Foster (9)
Christopher Dring (8)
Ben Parfitt (3)
Owain Bennallack (2)
Dave Roberts (1)
MOST COMMENTED
ABOUT US
MCV is the leading trade news and community site for all professionals working within the UK and international video games market. It reaches everyone from store manager to CEO, covering the entire industry. MCV is published by Intent Media, which specialises in entertainment, leisure and technology markets