Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Getting Uniqlo T-Shirts

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Konami Digital Entertainment announced that it is working with Uniqlo to produce a collection of limited edition t-shirts based on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. This will be part of the Uniqlo USA’s UT project that allows artists, designers, photographers and musicians to create special t-shirt designs.

“Our partnership with Uniqlo Co., Ltd. to create a limited edition t-shirt line for the highly anticipated release of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will give fans and fashionistas the opportunity to showcase their adoration of the iconic Metal Gear franchise,” said Shinji Hirano, President of Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. “As a follow up to the 2008 limited edition t-shirt collaboration for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, we suspect the 2010 limited edition line will be a coveted and celebrated style, which is another reason we are so thrilled to partner with them.”

The 10 exclusive t-shirt designs will be available June 11, 2010 and will come with a code to unlock the same t-shirt design in the game in addition to a custom soldier. Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima will be on hand at Uniqlo USA’s Global Flagship store in New York City on June 11, 2010 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM, where prizes will be given out, like a PSP entertainment pack bundle, collector’s edition software, copies of the Artbook, and coversheets of the game.

This marketing program is a good way to generate support for the game from the hardcore community. Also, it ties well into the Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker‘s other promotional considerations, where product placement on t-shirts and elsewhere is fairly extensive.

Facebook Communities: What Are They Worth?

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While Facebook marketing is considered valuable, how much it is actually worth is an open question. A company called Vitrue, however, is trying to put a quantitative number on how much these pages are worth.

Starbucks boasts 7 million-plus ‘likes’ (Facebook recently retired the ‘fan’ nomenclature for brands). When calculating based on an earned media CPM value of $5, that number yields a $20.7 million annual page value, writes Brian Morrissey. Coke, with its 5.5 million likes, has an annual page value of $4.6 million, based on this system. Skittles, which has 4.4 million likes, is worth $7.7 million, per Vitrue.

Vitrue’s Social Page Evaluator looks at number of posts and interactions, and not just number of brand connections. This means that smaller fan bases could actually have more valuable communities with more posts.

While the default was set to $5, the number is flexible, depending on what marketers think comparable impressions would cost in paid media. “We went with a conservative number of $5,” said Michael Strutton, chief product officer at Vitrue. “[But] we wanted to give a marketer the ability to change that.”

Vitrue believes that most companies are not using their Facebook pages well enough.  The firm suggested posting roughly twice a day as a good best practice, but Vitrue noted that many fail to post photos and videos and end up not using Facebook social tools like the “share” button.

Recently, Vitrue put the value of individual Facebook connections at $3.60 per year, depending on how often it would be featured in a news feed based upon standard media impression rates. “The bigger picture we’ve been saying for a while is Facebook is becoming the operating system of the Internet,” said Reggie Bradford, Vitrue’s CEO.

Source: AdWeek

IPhone 4G Prototype Surfaces In Vietnam

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While the case of the iPhone 4G examined by Gizomodo still simmers, another prototype has apparently gotten out. A Vietnamese forum has posted images and even a teardown of a device that looks very similar to Apple’s.

A video of the device shows it not running the iPhone OS, instead having testing software called Inferno. The phone features micro-SIM cards like the iPad, has a new chip, and apparently has 16GB of storage space.

Source: PC World

Google, Verizon Target IPad With New Tablet

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Verizon will be working with Google on a new tablet computer to compete with Apple’s iPad. The largest wireless carrier in the U.S. has already worked extensively with Google on their Android mobile OS and therefore it would be a natural partnership to combat Apple’s tablet computer, which has a 3G networked to rival AT&T.

What do we think is the next big wave of opportunities said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. We’re working on tablets together, for example. We’re looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience.

AT&T is the carrier for both Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad, which has put Verizon back on its heels. Google, meanwhile, wants to get its software, and consequently, its advertising programs onto as many devices as possible.

They were able to get out of the box faster, McAdam noted of AT&T, saying that Verizon has been handicapped by its CDMA network technology, which is less common than AT&T’s GSM.

Verizon is looking to have its new network up in 25 to 30 cities by the end of the year. They’re looking to have high speeds of video transference and will likely lead to programs where carriers will offer programs for multiple devices that target a certain number of megabytes and shift away from unlimited-use pricing plans. The old model of one price plan per device is going to fall away, said McAdam.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

LittleBigPlanet 2 Comes Into Orbit!

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LittleBigPlanet is among the most charming titles you’ll ever see, so there was widespread celebration when a sequel was announced. The debut trailer for the game not only demonstrates all the new options the game is bringing to the table, but it also has one of the most toe-tapping tunes you’ll ever hear (Passion Pit provided their song “Sleepyhead”). Sometimes people forget that a catchy melody or tune can be every bit as important as visuals in marketing.

Iron Man 2 Demonstrates LG Ally

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The cross promotional blitz for Iron Man 2 is currently in full effect, with companies like Audi and Burger King not-so-subtlety tying themselves to the blockbuster movie. Now its LG’s turn, with this amusing spot that manages to blend one of the movie’s most spectacular action sequences with a demonstration of the Ally’s abilities.

Marvel Movie Veteran To Announce ‘Newest Pac-Man Project’

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Avi Arad, who has worked on Marvel movie properties like Spider-Man, Blade and X-Men, might be taking a similar role for one of gaming’s most enduring icons. The Namco Bandai adviser will be at E3 to make an announcement about the worldwide premiere of his newest Pac-Man project.

While a movie announcement isn’t official, Arad’s involvement with television and movie properties in the past (and current work in bringing game properties Uncharted and inFamous to the big screen) suggests something more than a gaming announcement. With Pac-Man celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, new versions of the game on all major platforms are likely and E3 would be the right time to announce what other plans Namco Bandai has for their company mascot.

Source: Variety

Online Game Marketing Audit Advice

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Online marketing is key for most companies these days, but especially so with video games. In order to advertise to your clients, however, you first must determine where your clients are and how they’re engaging with media.

While social networks might be a big part of your media plans,it’s best to establish your media objectives beforehand. Four objectives can be split into marketing of the company’s brand, advertising a new product/service, customer services and research & development.

Once you’ve established some objectives, you need to start looking at how you are going to measure those objectives in six to 12 months. Setting goals isn’t complicated, but they do need to be done. Goals are going to vary across each organization but I try to get clients to setup S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) goals when we talk about getting into the online and digital space, writes Duane Brown. The reason you want to have measurable goals is to prove that your efforts in online marketing and the digital space are having a tangible effect on your business in a positive way. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across organizations and people who want to get into online marketing and have not done any objective or goal setting.

Engaging in this sort of of an online audit poses further questions. For instance, how do others view your company, where are your clients online and what are they saying about your products and what are your competitors doing right now

When looking at the three Cs, I try and look for opportunities in the data that I’m pulling. Because as you start to assemble all this data on your consumers, company and competitors you may start to have a little déjà vu, writes Brown. For one client I had in a niche business, there were a high number of consumers asking for the same product and information over and over again. This was a great opportunity for my client to go after a new market, as well as take market share away from the competition. Plus they had a cool new article to write to help educate their community. This gave them genuine reasons to reach out to new potential customers and help educate them.

Those who are making a large investment in online marketing would do well to use leading monitoring tools like Radian6, Sysomos, or Nielsen’s BuzzMetrics. However, there are free options available as well, such as knowEm that lets you check to see what user names are taken across websites and Social Mention, a free monitoring tool that lets you see what consumers and customers are saying about a company and the competition.

Several steps can be undertaken for the audit. Important parts of the process include determining how far back in time you want to look, examining where your competitors might be online and seeing how long they’ve been using those profiles, seeing what consumers are saying, marking down both positive and negative comments, and then summarizing it by each company separately.

Depending on the size of your game firm and products and how active your consumers are will determine how much data you are going to have to search through. However, doing this work up front will help you sell online marketing to your organization as you show management what is going on with your competitors and consumers. There is something powerful in this day and age about what your consumers think. Take advantage of it, concludes Brown.

Source: Gamasutra

Playboy Going 3D

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Playboy is going to be offering a new twist on their centerfold model. The magazine’s June issue will feature Playmate of the Year Hope Dworaczyk in a 3D image.

“What would people most like to see in 3-D ” asked Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. “Probably a naked lady.”

The magazine (which has seen its publication numbers halve since 2006) is looking to create an event around the 3D images, with 3D glasses included that are sponsored by the HBO show True Blood. Interestingly, Hefner was considering 3D images when he first launched the magazine in the ’50s

“I actually signed a photographer to shoot two nude women in 3-D in Chicago,” he said, adding that he nixed the idea when he found out how expensive it would be to include the glasses.

This shows how heavily 3D is trending right now in all mediums, and also gives a good demonstration of how a unique sponsorship can mitigate cost and drum up extra attention.

Source: Associated Press