YouTube game videos become channel for game marketers
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In June this year, Electronic Arts launched Spore Creature Creator, a $10 version of its Spore game. Then, from within the application, players could share videos of their creations by clicking a button and uploading to YouTube. The idea was to get buzz going about the game before its September launch. To date, more than 160,000 videos of Spore creatures have been uploaded. The most popular of these videos has been viewed 194,000 times. EA ran a contest on YouTube, including a link to buy the game online on the contest site. This is the latest way, YouTube helps monetise your videos directly. In November, YouTube, the popular online video sharing site owned by Google, said that it will roll out a new sponsored videos format, the latest step in its drive to grow revenues through advertising. The sponsored videos programme is designed to enable video creators, from everyday users to major advertisers, to reach the broadest range of consumers with relevant videos. You can expect this viral marketing to grow as the economy takes a toll on marketing budgets and more publishers discover how to take advantage of the enthusiasm of YouTube fans. A prime example is the Tiger Woods “walk on water” video posted by Electronic Arts in response to a user pointing out a bug in the game. The user posted a video that showed how Woods could walk on water in the game and hit a ball. EA’s marketing department turned it around, launching a video that specifically addressed the flaw. In the video, the real Tiger Woods walks on water into a pond and hits a ball from the top of a lily pad. The video has had more than 2.5 million views, and YouTube shares the ad revenue with EA. This is smart thinking. It can’t possibly be ‘pots’ of money, for sure. But it comes at a time when the costs of marketing on TV and other places is climbing — contributing to the budget headaches at game publishers who spend $25 million or more on developing and marketing a single game on a regular basis. Microsoft too tapped into the viral craze when it created a television commercial for the game Gears of War in 2006. The searing video images from the game were set to the haunting Donnie Darko version of the song Mad World. The video aired on YouTube at the same time the commercial launched. To date, the YouTube video has been viewed more than 5 million times. And now, YouTube has also built syndication tools that made it easier for game publishers to incorporate YouTube into their actual products. YouTube claims there will be a lot more collaborations coming in 2009 between game publishers and the site. On top of that, we can safely anticipate that users will start creating their own games based on videos. Game on, fellas. |
(9 votes, average: 4.11 out of 5)
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January 9th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I don’t know if it is relevant here, but would like to share some recent experience about game marketing in India. Recently have got to know about leading game company - FXLabs. though never heard of till now.. Have released a 3D PC game based on the recently hit movie GHAJINI. They have released game trailers to spread the news about the game and it got really picked up by many forums. And to my surprise have seen a game trailer on BIG screen at PVR cinema while watching Ghajini movie….. These days marketers are trying innovative stuff to reach out to end consumers. This is the main reason i had to buy a copy of this game… Check out these videos of the game here: http://ghajini.fxlabs.com/
January 5th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
i think you are right about you tube….
January 1st, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I agreed YouTube has also launched several ad formats, business techniques, e-commerce initiatives, full length television and movie pacts and debut live event web casting. Although Google does not break out the numbers floating around tell us that the site will bring in $200 million to $250 million this year, compared with the parent’s approximately $20 billion annual revenue.
It will be worthy to see how this opportunity is seized by Indian marketers, game developers and ofcourse the users.
We can finally say new era begins with technology business..!!!!!
December 31st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
i am sure several other blogs must have spoken about the topic…I have merely expressed the timeline of the this development…Venturebeat, i am confident, has traced the same events
December 31st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
isn’t it the same article as which appeared on venturebeat
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:44 pm
YouTube also has contests where users can create their own advertisement using licensed content. For example, users can download a tool that enables them to create a movie trailer for upcoming feature film releases. Wonder why this has not been used in India, considering we have a great bollywood following
December 22nd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I think YouTube has also launched several ad formats in the last month as well as e-commerce initiatives, full length television and movie pacts and debut live event web casting. Although Google does not break out the numbers floating around tell us that the site will bring in $200 million to $250 million this year, compared with the parent’s approximately $20 billion annual revenue.
It will be worthy to see how this opportunity is seized by Indian marketers, game developers and ofcourse the users.