Yahoo Launching ‘Product Placement’ For iPad Users

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The successful launch of the iPad and the likely deluge of similar tablet-style computers has pushed advertisers to consider different methods for their mobile assets. Yahoo, for instance, has been inspired by game development and is preparing TV and movie like product placement like animation, video clips and mini-games.

“On mobile you have to oversimplify the advertising message,” says Sandeep Gupta, senior director of Yahoo applications. “The tablet may be bigger, but because it’s more entertaining, it’s less intrusive.”

“We know interactive ads work because last year we ran fun fantasy football ads that had a much higher click-through rate than straight banner ads,” he added.

Source: Media Post {link no longer active}

Google Hiring For Hundreds Of Jobs

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Google has clearly gotten over the recession as evidenced by their plans to hire over 500 new personnel. Among the positions are a development manager within the Google TV Advertising group and a display sales operations manager, media and platforms at Google s exchange AdX.

We’re investing heavily for the long term to maintain and increase the company’s pace of innovation, said a Google spokesperson. This means an investment, first, in people.

Source: Ad Week {link no longer active}

Video Ads And A Problem With Fraud

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Video advertisements are getting much more prevalent, and while their impact can be significant, the results can also be exaggerated. Jim Louderback recently penned an op-ed at Ad Age {link no longer active} talking about the very real problem confronting the Internet video marketing industry.

“Stream fraud takes a number of forms,” Louderback writes. “It starts when a publisher claims more views than were actually consumed. This is relatively easy to do, as the accepted industry standard today for a video view is a play-start, rather than some percentage of video view completion. It results in widely inflated view counts in almost every case: According to web video analytics company Tubemogul, more than a third of video viewers bail out by 30 seconds, and by two minutes, less than a quarter of starters have stuck around.”

“Here at Revision3 we don’t call it a view until we’ve delivered the entire video — admittedly conservative, but I think it’s absolutely the right thing to do. I’ve written a lot about this type of overcounting of video views, but it’s only a part of the problem. At least a play-start actually shows some sort of interest, or intent, on the part of the viewer,” he continued. “A bigger problem, in my book, is when video gets force-fed and autoplayed out of context and unasked for. Autoplay makes sense when it is in context and the user has an expectation that video will be played. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about an out-of-context video autoplaying on a page, without any user initiation, and about something completely apart from the content on the page or the links that led to it.”

Sony’s Marketing Mojo With Kevin Butler

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The PS3 had some marketing struggles early on, but now Sony is performing much better with its Kevin Butler ads. SCEA’s SVP of marketing and PlayStation Network Peter Dille spoke at MI6 about the highs (and lows) of the company’s PS3 marketing.

“The campaign is working to drive hardware sales,” said Dille. “PlayStation 3 sales are up 184 percent in the three months following the price drop, and while a lot of that has to do with price itself, we know from research that consumers are more educated as well. Purchase intent went from 19 percent prior to the price drop, to 36 percent after this campaign started. And we’ve also tracked our competitors and they’ve fallen during the same time.”

“We struggled with our messaging early on to clearly communicate the value proposition of the PlayStation 3. Now I’d like to think that the best, crispiest messaging in the world really wouldn’t have done a whole lot to sell a $600 game machine in a very horrendous economy, he continued. “With our campaign now, we kind of knocked off all those obstacles. The arrogance I think has gone away. We kind of gotten back to our mojo with the sense of humor that people came to know and love with early PlayStation advertising. I think it’s just a more likable connection to the consumer.”

Source: IndustryGamers {link no longer active}

EA Sports’ Peter Moore Backs Tiger Woods

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Tiger Woods is set to make his return at the Masters on Thursday after a four-month hiatus from golf. Despite the controversy surrounding the golfer’s personal life, publisher Electronic Arts has steadfastly remained by his side even while other sponsors have distanced themselves or pulled back completely. Now EA has released its Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online game, and EA Sports boss Peter Moore was featured in a CNBC interview to discuss his company’s support of Tiger, the business model for the online title and more. Check it out below.

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Bizarre Creations’ Action-Packed Blur Trailer

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As we said recently concerning Disney’s upcoming racer Split/Second, the racing genre can be a tough market to crack. There are some established franchises, and oftentimes a lot of the lesser known titles get lost in the exhaust fumes. It’s a good thing then that Activision Blizzard’s Blur is being developed by a studio with an all-star racing pedigree. Bizarre Creations is best known for the critically acclaimed Project Gotham Racing series on Xbox, and their success with that franchise is precisely why Activision acquired the studio. Now Activision has just released the previously exclusive to beta players multiplayer demo on Xbox Live, so all gold members can download it and check it out. Demos, as we all know, are often a great way to fuel marketing efforts too.

Blur is set to launch on May 25, and you can now watch a brand-new trailer on the game’s official Facebook page (there was no embed code, so please click through to watch) {link no longer active}.

Namco Debuts Clash Of The Titans Game Trailer

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While Clash of the Titans has been tops at the box office, that hardly guarantees that a video game based on the property will fare just as well. Namco Bandai will publish the video game version later this summer, and we question the timing of this release. Had the company been able to release the title within the first few weeks of the movie’s debut, we’d be more optimistic. As it stands now, by the time the game ships, the buzz around the movie will have died down, and critics will simply make statements about how this mythological action game pales in comparison to God of War III.  Hopefully, some creative marketing efforts can help out the game’s chances. Here’s the first trailer, courtesy of GameTrailers.

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HP’s iPad Challenger Emerges

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The entire web/tech/electronics industry is completely consumed with Apple’s shiny new iPad right now, but other computer manufacturers aren’t going to just stand by and let Apple take the tablet market all by itself. HP is probably the biggest threat, and new details of its Slate device have just leaked out. According to Engadget, as reported by Mashable:

“The base version of the HP Slate will retail for $549, which includes 32 GB storage, 1 GB RAM, a 1.6 GHz Atom processor and an 8.9-inch multitouch screen at 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. A 64 GB configuration will be available for $599.This pricing scheme puts HP s tablet device at a higher starting point than the iPad s $499 base configuration, but you d be shelling out that extra $50 for twice the storage (32 GB vs. 16) and arguably some other valuable features. Both versions will also include an SDHC card slot, USB port, two cameras (one external 3-megapixel and one front-facing VGA for videoconferencing usage), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, support for 1080p video playback, a dock connector for power, audio and HDMI out to your TV, and a SIM card slot for optional 3G connectivity. Both devices will also run Windows 7 Home Premium with a custom HP touch-optimized user interface. Battery life is reportedly five hours a cause for concern given that the iPad s battery lasts 10 hours.”

Speculation points to a June release date. In the meantime, check out the newest promotional video:

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Game Marketers ‘Scrambling To Keep Up,’ Says Ubisoft

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The video game industry has changed enormously over the last 20-25 years, and with the emergence of digital platforms, smartphones, social networks and more, marketing for today’s games have evolved as well. In a new interview with VentureBeat, Tony Key, senior vp of sales and marketing for Ubisoft, discussed the challenges game marketers face today.

“The theme is that there is a transition occurring. Everybody feels it. We are all scrambling to keep up,” he said. “I can’t remember in my career ever having to look at so many different types of initiatives and campaign ideas and technology to try and get our message out. Not all of them are going to pan out as excellent vehicles. But some of them will.”

He contined, “…people are connecting now in different ways and getting their information in different ways. You used to get information from TV. Now it’s the Internet. We ve always heard that word of mouth was the strongest. That is nothing new. It is the strongest sales tool. But now word-of-mouth happens 100 times faster than before. You can really spread your message quickly with the right strategy. That is where social media comes in. You are plugging into that and trying to get them to talk about your products.”

Read the full interview here {link no longer active}.

Star Wars Getting Comedy Series

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The cartoon TV show Star Wars: The Clone Wars has turned out to be a hit so another series is being announced… but it might not be what you think. Robot Chicken veterans Seth Green and Matt Senreich will be creative consultants on what is being described as a Star Wars sitcom.

“Let us assure you this isn’t going to suck as much as you think it is, said Green to Variety. We can’t guarantee its excellence, but we’re swinging by the fences.”

“We’re trying to get ahead of it and say what it’s not,” added Senreich.

What it isn’t is a spoof or a sketch comedy show, like Robot Chicken. The show will be a character driven comedy show, including crossovers with movie characters, though no Star Wars: The Clone Wars crossovers are planned. Show length, network, animation studio and start date have yet to be determined. Back at the Barnyard‘s Todd Grimes will direct, while The Daily Show veteran Brendan Hay will be the head writer.

The idea of mixing Star Wars and humor might make some fans uneasy the attempts at humor in the prequel trilogy (see Jar-Jar Binks) often rubbed people the wrong way, though Star Wars spoofs done by Family Guy and Robot Chicken were much better received. However, Senreich said, “We’re on the same page as the fans, because we are fans.”

“We’re not talking about Jar-Jar electrocuting his tongue, concurred Green. It’s not that kind of humor. If George (Lucas) would have wanted to make that version of ‘Star Wars,’ he would have hired other people to do it.”

Star Wars, to this day, is still one of the strongest brands on the planet and it remains very marketable, so we’ll be curious to see how this turns out.