The Daily Grind: Mainstream advertising

I dont think anyone who frequents this website would be swayed by a commercial, or even informed about a new game. We are the innovators or, at least, early adopters of MMOs. Commercials are for the late majority and laggards when it comes to MMOs.

Basically, if you haven't heard of a game until launch, you're already late to the diffusion party.

Night Elf Mohawk!

Advertising in general has little effect on whether or not I will play a game. Other factors, such as word of mouth and reviews by people with similar tastes to carry far more weight than advertisements. The large, lavish ad campaigns you see on TV and mainstream web sites, such as news sites, etc. aren't targeted at existing fans of MMO's; they are targeted at those who aren't fans. In effect, these ads serve to "mainstream" MMO's.

That said, "Flash ads offering 7/10/14 day trials", will often get me to look at games that I've passed over in the past. It's easier to talk a friend or two to try out a new game with me as well. Many, including myself, don't want to have to buy a game just to see if it is appealing.

Most large site use a 3rd party to control the ads on their pages. A lot of those ads you're seeing are probably being shown to you because you're often coming from an MMO site. I don't think executives who spend all day on wsj and nyt all day are seeing ads for Eve online.

You shouldn't be shocked when you see MMO ads on any site and don't read too much into it. Almost all sites use a paid service to serve up ads on their pages. The ads they serve up are chosen based on tracking data that is gathered while you browse the web via cookies and other trackers.

For that reason, I see ads for EVE-online and other MMOs all the time when I surf. Meanwhile, someone who frequents gardening and horitcultural websites might see banner ads for "Better Home & Gardens" or other related products, and will never see an ad for an MMO.

Banner ads are among the cheapest forms of advertising around, even on the big sites, and it's a natural forum for MMO advertising.

That said, it is rather like preaching to the choir. Banner ads have prompted me to check out some of the independent MMOs but they've never converted me to actually buy the product. I don't think that's a knock on advertising though, it's more reflective of the quality of the products out there.

I think it will be interesting to see what advertising strategies MMOs use in the future. Currently most banner ads are used to spread the word about special offers but they're not often used to simply spread the word that the game actually exists. Perhaps in the future we'll see more strategical advertising where it's less "offer based" and more evangelist in nature.

It depends what mode I'm in. There are times that I'm devoted 100% to an mmo, and there's nothing that could tear me from it. If I'm getting bored, or between games altogether, a banner ad could certainly be the catalyst for dabbling in a free trial. In fact, I think it was a banner ad that got me to play a few minutes of Turbotax in space.

Advertising now a days don't really convince people to buy anything anymore. They are more informational then anything. Which can be a good thing.

Take the WoW ads for example. No one is going to play WoW because of them, but they do make people who don't even know what WoW is know what WoW is and they might feel compelled to look into it further, especially with the "free" trial you can have.

It makes a huge advantage because everyone knows about this MMO but not any other MMOs that might be just as good, or appeal to a single person more then another.

So no, it doesn't sway your opinion on playing the game, but it lets masses know the game exists, and then some of those people might play the game.

When I saw the ads on tv, my reaction was "Right on!". I saw all of them, Shatner, Mr. T, Ozzy, and even the French version with JCVD. I saw them as a sign that this genre of gaming is finally coming to a fore.

What does it mean to me? Well, I don't play WOW, and have no interest in it. I'm a COH fanboy, dabbled in Guild Wars and Dungeon Runner, and look forward to CO, STO, SWTOR, and Fallen Earth. But WOW is big enough to get the public's attention to the genre, so more money will go into developping the games I like as well.

I disregard 99% of the ads I view. Among the exception; a TV ad for WOW offering a free trial in 2006 and now I have three accounts, each with a level 80. I saw an ad for an EVE trial last year, but didn't buy after the trial. I saw another ad for EVE Apocrypha and decided to give it another go, now I have two accounts. Also, since I have been playing EVE, their ads are everywhere. If I clear all my cookies they go away, until I visit another MMO related site.

I just get a big grin on my face knowing that our form of entertainment is working its way into the position of Post-Entertainment.

@ Kdolo - Interestingly, the highest conversion rates we see (in other words, the most efficient banner ads we run) are from these core MMO sites. Everything else pales in comparison (except search, which beats everything else hand's down.) There are lots of people who like MMOs who shop for new games on MMO sites.

@ Grok - you're exactly right. About half our banner ads are placed via user profile trafficking; we're reaching MMO prospects regardless of where they're browsing but we're not spamming people who aren't even MMO curious.

"But I wonder, constant readers"

Is someone a Stephen King fan? :-)

I think things like the WoW TV ads are more for raising awareness among mainstream folks who don't really know anything much about MMORPGs. They seem to be a "recruitment tool" to sway curious non-gamers.

As for the website Flash ads, I find them useful when they announce a 14-day Trial that I may not yet have heard of, but otherwise, they don't matter to me.

No amount of pretty Flash animation will make me play EVE Online or WoW again. :-)