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California considers electronic ads on license plates, we consider never moving there
Driving in California could get a little more annoying in the coming days. The Legislature of the state that brought you Brody Jenner and Spencer Pratt is now considering a bill which would allow the beginning of research into electronic license plates for vehicles. The new-fangled plates would look just like regular ones when a vehicle was in motion, but would flash awesome advertisements and other messages when stopped for more than four seconds. One San Francisco based startup, Smart Plate, is already hard at work on developing just such a device, but they're not in production yet. The measure is seen largely as a money making scheme for California, which -- like nearly everywhere else in the world -- is heavily in debt after several years of hard partying and irresponsible shopping trips. Parties interested in advertising on the plates would apparently contact the California DMV directly (then wait in line for 12 to 14 hours before submitting their preliminary application for ad space). If approved, the DMV will be required to submit its research and findings to the Legislature by January of 2013. Here's to the future!
Chris Davis of Gaia Online talks MMO marketing
The MMO industry is an ever-changing, totally unpredictable universe of online games, from hot, massive fully-realized worlds like World of Warcraft or EVE to fun casual games like Farmville or the Agency: Covert Ops. Gaia Online takes a bit of a different approach by mixing a casual gaming and social worlds. We caught up with Chris Davis, a marketer for Gaia who handles sponsorship accounts, at E3 to discuss his game. He has his own unique take on MMOs and brand marketing, and how companies should interact with their potential customers. Chris describes why he believes mixing marketing and gaming is good for both the user and the brand.
Foul Ball? MLB inserts ads into At Bat 2010 for iPad
As soon as I tapped my way into MLB At Bat for the Mariners game last night, I couldn't help but notice an ad on the splash page, and other ads on screen on the Game Day desktop. Until now this innovative iPad app had been ad free, and at U.S. $14.99 a year, that made sense. Major League Baseball isn't exactly going to the poor house, with 6.6 billion dollars in revenues last year. MLB has the right to insert ads in the app, but it seems like a small breach of faith to users.There's more. If you already had the MLB iPhone app, you pay again for the iPad version. And so it goes. A nickel here, a dime there. We've heard this song before. Premium apps that start ad-free, and then sneak in the ads once they build up a following. Another example is the CNN app, which is $1.99, and includes ads. Some people resent paying for the ads, others don't care. What's your take? Do the ads on At Bat bother you, or are they no big deal? Do you want the option to buy a premium app with no ads? [Thanks to Dave and other readers who noticed this]
Offer based incentives added to Nexon games
It's long been a known fact that most "free" services are supported largely by advertising. MMOs, by and large, have stayed away from the advertising model, instead opting for item shops and subscription fees to turn a profit. Nexon America, however, has decided to go in a different direction -- and you can probably guess what it is straight from the introduction. The company, producer of the popular games MapleStory and Mabinogi among others, will be adding offer-based advertising in exchange for item shop cash starting at an undisclosed time. The nature of the offers isn't stated, but it seems poised to run in a similar methodology to Facebook-based games, albeit hopefully without the sometimes rampant scams. No word on whether or not the ads will intrude on gameplay itself, but it seems unlikely -- and at least for now, they simply remain another option on the main site to earn item shop currency without money. Still, it's a notable change in model, and not something that's commonly seen outside of the realm of social gaming. Only time will tell how players will react.
Video: PS3 Slim's Japanese commercials likely to cause fear, distress, and confusion
The folks at Palm may think they've learned how to make some creepy commercials, but let's face it, they've got nothing on Sony. The Japanese company has a long history of discomforting, unexplainable advertising that rivals a David Lynch movie -- in fact, Lynch even directed his own television spot back in the PlayStation 2 days, itself reminiscent of UNKLE's "Rabbit in Your Headlights" music video from years before. This latest set of videos for the PS3 Slim in Japan is no exception. Turn off all the lights, raise the volume of your speakers, and bow down before the masters of unnerving gadget promotion just after the break -- we included the Lynch ad, too, in case you were interested.
TiVo update brings pause menu ads to Series3 & TiVo HD owners
TiVo heard you liked ads, so it's putting ads in your pause menu so you can watch ads while you skip ads. Already rolled out on older Series2 hardware last December, Dave Zatz posts that the 11.0c software update for Series3 / TiVo HD hardware brings the new "feature" of ads popping up while viewers are time shifting. That can show up as a "More information" prompt for some shows, as seen above, but will hold advertisements on certain programs. The prompt will only show up once per recording, but if this new form of advertising bugs you, TiVo Community user bfdtv instructs that permanently hiding the progress bar can be achieved by pressing pause, press down to hide the popup, press play again, then enter SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-PAUSE-SELECT, which can also be reversed by using the code again while watching a recording. Still, we doubt the ad skipping arms race will end here.Read - TiVo's Pause Menu Spam Hits S3/HD Units Read - TivoHD Overview, Q&A, Setup, Tips
Some thoughts on the new Microsoft ads
Well, the new ad blitz from Microsoft has begun. Advertising agency Crispin Porter + Boguksy is back at it with a new web video and click through banners that tell the story of Lauren, a Los Angeles woman (and member of the Screen Actors Guild) who was recruited from Craigslist. She supposedly didn't know she was in a Microsoft ad, but instead thought she was in a laptop marketing test.She was given a thousand dollars after saying she wanted a 17-inch laptop with a good keyboard. She tried an Apple Store, but couldn't find anything at the price she wanted. She wound up with an HP Pavilion (here are the specs) running Windows Home Premium and a pretty slow AMD processor. She has minimal screen resolution and about 2 1/2 hours of battery life if she's lucky. All in all, not a bad machine, but certainly not a 17" Mac which would have been a lot more money.Of course the laptops were not comparably equipped, so the cards were stacked in Microsoft's favor. That's what commercials do. Microsoft has been pummeled for more than 3 years by the extremely popular Mac vs. PC guys. Microsoft responded last summer with the Mojave ads, where people were tricked into believing they were seeing a brand new OS from MS, when in fact they were just seeing Vista. They were told about the features, and loved them. What they weren't allowed to do, however, was actually use Vista, or try to install it on their own PCs. Those were telling omissions.Microsoft followed up with the Jerry Seinfeld-Bill Gates ads. They were fun to watch, but had no discernible message. Interestingly, Vista was never mentioned.Now we come to the new ads, which doubtless will be followed by more shopping trips. In the first ad, Vista is never mentioned, just like in the Seinfeld commercials. Interesting. MS does not make computer hardware. Instead, their main product is an OS which is currently Vista. Yet in 2 out of 3 'expensive' ads, not a word about the flagship operating system.
'American Idol' is most timeshifted show of 2008
Well, would you let your brain simmer on this a bit. American Idol, the famed singing competition that airs live numerous times per week when it's in full swing, was found to be the most timeshifted program in the USA in 2008. Granted, it's also the most watched show in the nation, but we digress. The significance here is that this tidbit, which was dug up by The Nielsen Company, goes to show that live competitions and so-called "topical" programming aren't as immune to DVRs as networks would love to believe. The data found that "an extra four million viewers watched Fox's American Idol in the seven days following the initial episodes." To us, the only true DVR-resistant programming is live sports -- the genuineness of the event just seems to fade when you're not watching in real time, but we can't say we've ever felt the same when watching Simon & Co. a few days after the fact.
Ads coming soon to a paused TiVo menu near you
This should make a lot of people unhappy. According to a press release issued today, TiVo will now offer ad space on its pause menu. Designed to outsmart those who fast-forward through the ads (we assume that's almost everyone at this point, right?) buyers will be able to target viewers of a specific show, or they can opt to "cast a wider net" and advertise within genres or keywords of program descriptions. Even if this means we'll be seeing ads for Shrute Farms beets during The Office, we're still going to hold out hope for the TiVo version of Adblock.[Via Zatz Not Funny]
Microsoft's new ads: Seinfeld and Gates out, Hodgman lookalike in
According to a report from in the New York Times, the next phase of Microsoft's latest ad campaign is set to begin -- sans Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Apparently, the new ads do away with the unusual (and somewhat ill-received) banter and "real life" experiences of the two celebrities, and trade them for an earnest embrace of... Apple's "PC" character. Apparently, one of the new ads even begins with a John Hodgman lookalike stating, "Hello, I'm a PC, and I've been made into a stereotype." Beyond the flip on a rival's depiction of its brand, the campaign will feature cameos from Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra, Pharrell Williams, and even Gates -- though Seinfeld doesn't make the cut. While we're curious to see what the company cooks up in the new ads, it does strike us as somewhat odd that the supposed narrative Microsoft was establishing with Gates and Seinfeld has abruptly been abandoned in favor of these new spots. Is this a decision which was made long ago, or did the largely negative / confused reaction to the last set of ads force the company's hand? We only have its official statement to go on: "We will be executing the second phase of our advertising campaign tomorrow, as planned from the start."[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
DS Daily: Favorite gaming ad?
The Mega64 ad from yesterday got cogs in our mind turning. There have been a lot of good ones over the years, some of which have been featured here on DS Fanboy through Promotional Consideration. Like, this one. And this one. And this one we made ourselves. And ... well, you get the idea. So what have been some of your favorite gaming advertisements? A random billboard? Some commercial you saw on TV? An ad you flipped past in a magazine? Out with it!
Death is in the air for gold sellers
What smells like dead Orcs and flies? Goldseller spam in Orgrimmar. In the last few weeks it has been dead Gnomes in Ironforge. The dead bodies spell out the name of a gold selling website. This tactic has returned from about a year or so ago, but this is the first time I've heard of it in Orgrimmar. The body advertisements look sharper than the old versions. All in all it seems like an awful lot of work to get around spam filters. Gold sellers have used several means to get their message out to the public, and Blizzard has found ways to combat it. I remember back in the day when we used to get spammed with whispers. Blizzard introduced the report spam feature for users to flag this content, the whispers nearly completely ceased overnight. I have to hand it to them, the gold sellers come up with innovative ways to market their product. Sure it violates the terms of use, but gold-selling by its nature is a violation. What's one more script here and there for them?
Loud commercials actually not that loud, just startling
Whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Is this report really saying that those obnoxiously loud used car commercials aren't any louder than the programs they accompany? In fact, yes. Tom Feran has taken the time to actually explain how loudness works in television here in the US, and the resulting report is pretty fascinating. In essence, a typical drama will have moments of loudness and moments of quiet, and commercials that follow the show have to respect the same maximum as the show. However, unlike the program, commercials can simply max out the volume from start to finish, causing a "perceived" or "inconsistent" loudness that's just barely lawful. As you well know, British regulators are stepping in to make sure no ad is "excessively noisy or strident," but the situation in America could get worse post-2009. You see, digital broadcasts have a wider dynamic range (or loudness spectrum), leaving more room for annoying salespeople to totally invade your eardrum. Nevertheless, the article linked below is a must-read for anyone who has ever been enraged by a "ridiculously loud commercial."[Image courtesy of Derrick Logan]
Poll: What's the most annoying form of advertising?
We spotted something this week that really got our heads spinning: a fairly fail proof method to keep ad skipping (at least partially) at bay. During a re-run of Family Guy on TBS, Bill Engvall casually walked onto the bottom of the screen, paused Family Guy and proceeded to pimp his own show for a solid 15 seconds. Yeah, TBS is known for self-promotion, but this just feels downright slimy. It prompted us to fire up this poll, however, which beckons you readers to cast your vote for the most annoying form of advertisement. Feel free to chime in below with specific experiences if you feel led, and make sure to use the heck out of that DVR while you still can -- clearly, these guys are all too ready to institute workarounds to hinder ad skipping. The Bill Engvall violation video is waiting after the break. %Poll-15224%
A Brief History of Game Ads
As the technology and approach of gaming evolves one thing has stayed the same, advertisements suck. Sure ads aren't as ... uh ... flashy as they once were, but they still take up the pages our favorite magazines and disturb our search for news on our favorite websites.Next-Gen.biz has taken a look at the evolution of game ads from the last three decades, including: the simplistic approach of the 80s, the radical colors of the 90s and the boring screenshot montages of the current generation.While not Xbox specific, the feature teaches us a little about the evolution of marketing for games and how the new generation is breaking the mold wit Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) while still phoning in traditional advertisements. A worthy read for those looking for some gaming business knowledge.
This is Advertising? The 10 worst PlayStation ads
We've reported on a few of Sony's marketing quirks throughout the years (we still remember the goat). Our friends at PSP and PS3 Fanboy have compiled the ten most interesting ads (some would say "worst," but their existence just makes us too happy). If the recent ad (shown above, click here to see the Full Monty – NSFW) is any indication, Sony's marketing still has the occasional fumble. Check out the other highlights.
Chicago Transit Authority caves to minimal pressure, pulls Grand Theft Auto IV ads
According to a report on Monday from GamePolitics, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has caved to minimal pressure from FOX News regarding the use of advertisements promoting the latest installment of Grand Theft Auto IV on public transportation throughout the city. The local Chicago affiliate of the controversial news desk questioned the city's use of the ads, stating, "With so much focus on kids and violence these days, we wondered why ads for a violent video game have begun popping up again on CTA buses and train stations." Days later the ads were pulled.This isn't the first time public Grand Theft Auto ads have been pulled, previously similar instances have occurred in Portland, Denver and Boston, the latter of which saw Massachusetts transit chief justify the decision by issuing a policy which equated M-rated games to pornographic films.While the title is known for liberal helpings of violence the ads themselves have never depicted the content of the game (as seen above). We're used to certain politicians, lawyers and family groups blaming our industry for every violent incident that happens, but when an entire city sides with the issue we can't help but feel a little shafted.[via Joystiq]
Google study finds online spots to be as effective as TV ads
While we can't argue that HD spots are entirely more enjoyable to view than their SD counterparts, a new survey commissioned by Google takes a look at the viability of advertising in online programming. Given that content on the 'net is growing substantially and more and more users are turning to the web browser to get their TV fix, Google found that online video advertisements compared "very favorably with traditional TV commercials." The research honed in on 30-second spots shown on traditional TV, YouTube and embedded within an online viewer, and according to Marianne Foley, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Harris Interactive (who collected the data), the end result is that "nothing is lost and much can be gained" by running commercials online. Of course, online ads have the advantage of being forced upon viewers, whereas DVR owners can skip around if they're okay with viewing timeshifted material. Peep the results in full in the read link below.[Via NewTeeVee]
Sony Europe releases new PSP ad, head scratching ensues
All right, we admit, Sony Europe has the most insane and off-the-wall ideas when it comes to advertising. This latest advertisement for our lovely PSP shows a man and woman pulling, stretching, snapping, and popping each other's faces while talking about ... well, we weren't really paying attention because this is just ridiculous. We imagine it had to do with the features of the PSP, all with sexy British accents![via DCemu]
A nice collection of Apple print ads
Here's a great collection of Apple print ads from the past twenty years.What I've found interesting is that trademark aspects of today's Apple machines can be found in these old designs, like fan-free heat dissipation, the tendency to shrink things and ads that show disembodied hands holding their hardware.While you're there, check out this great 39-page advertisement for the Macintosh. Talk about hype.My favorite campaign is the Think Different series of TV spots and posters. What's yours?[Via Coudal Partners]
