Square Enix Scores PS3 Advertising In Europe

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IndustryGamers reports that Square Enix in Europe has landed a deal with Future plc to help market Final Fantasy XIII and Just Cause 2. The games will be promoted on FirstPlay, an interactive show coming to PS3 on April 8. The PS3 show will offer fans reviews, previews and DLC. FirstPlay kicks off initially in the U.K., with other European territories to follow.

FirstPlay offers an innovative way of communicating directly with committed PS3 gamers, and we are excited to be a launch partner, said Jon Brooke, U.K. Marketing Director of Square Enix Europe. FirstPlay allows us to showcase our new releases in their natural environment in high definition and it s really easy for gamers to download a playable demo of Just Cause 2, or find out more about Final Fantasy XIII. We look forward to seeing the service develop.

Future added that its “new on-console service offers advertisers the impact of TV along with the transparency of the web. FirstPlay delivers total user views and other key data, including click throughs and number of links back to the PlayStation Network Store.”

IPad Getting Flash Ads From Greystripe

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While the iPad will not support Flash, Greystripe (which has a variety of free, ad-supported iPhone games) is developing a workaround so that Flash ads can still be served on the device. Using their iFlash Ad Units product, advertisers can deliver Flash content to Apple’s wunderdevice.

Greystripe claims that the ads can be better sized for the iPad’s native resolution of 1024×768. Partnering with Adobe, they’re helping developers adapt their content for the iPhone and iPad and monetizing it using the Greystripe platform, potentially saving time and money.

Find out more at Mashable.com.

Verizon IPhones Could Be Manufactured This September

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The iPhone market is booming, but it could potentially be even greater if the folks at AT&T didn’t have the exclusive rights to the popular mobile phone. Making the iPhone available through additional carriers would widen the market and would (hopefully) lower pricing on plans thanks to competition. There’s been a rumor going around for a long time now that Verizon will be getting the iPhone in the near future, and now a Wall Street Journal report suggests that a new model with CDMA capability, the cellular technology used by Verizon, is slated to be manufactured this September.

It’s not clear, however, when Apple might actually launch the CDMA version. AT&T naturally played down the speculation. “There has been lots of incorrect speculation on CDMA iPhones for a long time. We haven’t seen one yet and only Apple knows when that might occur,” said an AT&T spokesman.

The report also indicated that the next iteration of the standard AT&T iPhone is being prepared for launch this July. In the meantime, analysts remain skeptical about Verizon seeing any iPhone product this year. “A launch of a CDMA-based phone with Verizon this year is unlikely,” UBS analyst Maynard Um wrote in a research note, according to TheStreet.com. Um added that he believes “a CDMA phone could be launched with other operators later in the year.” Those other telcos include China Telecom and Japan’s KDDI.

RBC analyst Mike Abramsky added that Verizon and Apple will also first need to address potential hurdles before they strike a deal. “The two parties may still need to resolve contentious issues such as subsidies, branding, revenue share, data plans, etc.,” he said. “And Verizon just launched its own App store last week, which it may require some or all smartphones to offer.”

Social Network Ads Examined

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Social networks are sucking up huge amounts of time from users, so the ad content on there is pretty key. As it turns out, a study by Psychster showed that sponsored content pages were among the most engaging but least produced sort of ad content.

The study showed that social-networking sites where users could fan or add a logo to their own page produced greater purchase intent, while “give and get” widgets were more engaging than banner ads but no more effective in driving up purchase intent.

“From banner ads, to widgets and branded profiles, ad types differ in the cognitive, social, and motivational foundations that make them a success, as well as the time and cost to bring them to market,” said David Evans Ph.D., CEO of Psychster to MediaPost.

The study distinguished itself by looking at consumer attitudes towards ads and the brands they promoted, rather than performance metrics. “No ad type was so engaging that it overcame the advantage found by matching the brand to the Web site,” added Evans. “It is widely believed that ads are at an advantage when the brand relates to the site on which it appears . . . Our findings replicated this effect, such that the soup brand performed better on Allrecipes than it did on Facebook.”

The study also found that consumers properly identified all the ads as marketing sponsored pages were seen as less direct marketing than banners and newsletters, but the latter two were better at purchase intent.

Hulu Mulling Paid Content

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Hulu is one of the most popular video sites on the Internet, second only to YouTube. Still, the site has difficultly maintaining itself and generating money for its important TV network partners, so the debate rages right now whether to charge for some of its content.

“[Hulu] does have to move to a premium model,” said one network exec to Ad Age. “If you look at the business, it’s just not economically feasible to give away programming at low rates.”

Currently, Hulu has banners in the $40 CPM range, of which half are sold out and 70 percent is paid back to networks, giving Hulu just enough money to serve videos. Of course, they also receive 30 percent of inventory sold directly by networks, along with other deals with individual networks.

“There’s room for an ad-supported model for TV online,” said Curt Hecht, president of Publicis innovations unit Vivaki. “Hulu is a great environment with great programming; the onus is on us to help figure out the business model.”

With networks fighting for compensation from cable networks, Hulu is by itself in the purely ad supported TV category. Still, the company could run more ads-per-hour and get active feedback on what consumers want for their ads. “It definitely gets you closer to the answer than just throwing up more ads with no targeting involved,” said Tracey Sheppach, innovations director at Vivaki.

Google Goes Mobile For AdWords

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With modern business required to be fast and convenient enough to happen everywhere, more and more applications are going mobile. As such, AdWeek reports that Google is adding mobile support for their AdWords program. Supporting phones like iPhone and Android, users will have access to key functions like changing bid prices, ending campaigns and deleting keywords.

“It’s simply the real-time nature of the channel,” said Matt Strain, principal at search shop Trademark Interactive, who has tested the mobile version. “It allows us to see and adjust any fluctuations outside of the norm.”

Currently, Microsoft does not offer a mobile version of its ad system. “Microsoft, as a software company, needs to embrace, or flat out create, the kinds of tools and technology to empower the search marketer,” he said. “If they want to have any stake in this game, they need to focus as much on the process of search marketing as they do indexing results for the engine. If they build great tools, more advertisers will be attracted to what the combined Yahoo/Bing can provide.”

Games Influencing Marketing, Or Funware

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Game design is starting to leak into all aspects of the way things are done, even in traditional work. In a book by Gabe Zichermann, CEO of beamME, he writes about incentivizing people to do things they wouldn’t normally do.

It’s a basic idea: taking something tedious and making it into a game. It has also attracted the attention of luminaries like Bing Gordon of Kleiner Perkins who thinks that Funware can change advertising because of how sticky games can be.

Zichermann notes that traditional ads are becoming less effective and certain old-school marketers are having difficultly adapting. With fewer people paying attention to 30-second spots and fewer young people watching television at all, new approaches are important. As an example of how game elements enhance a product, the Orkut social network rewards high usage users with a leaderboard, making it the number one social network in Brazil over Facebook.

Game makers traditionally have focused on hardcore tastes while marketers have thought about brands during commercial breaks, but  Zichermann writes that the brand can be the game, such as the NBC trivia game iCue, which uses old clips from shows.

Merit badges handed out to Boy Scouts for their activities is another interesting example, while one that gamers will be familiar with is Trophies and Achievement Points, which cost nothing but incentivize players to put more time into their games.

Source: VentureBeat

Sam Fisher’s ‘Gonna Cut You Down’

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The hype is building for Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell Conviction and this latest trailer should definitely get fans excited. Featuring the music of Johnny Cash’s “God Gonna Cut You Down,” the video showcases protagonist Sam Fisher’s variety of stealth/action moves and it does a great job of setting the tone of Sam’s being on a quest for revenge. Ubisoft is looking to redefine Splinter Cell with this fifth iteration which ships on April 13. Check out the trailer below.

 

Twilight Prepares For Eclipse

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Those of you reading this might believe that vampire franchise Twilight “sucks” (horrible pun intended), but there’s no denying the huge brand power of the IP and the massive revenues generated both at the box office and from DVD. The just released New Moon has already sold over 926,000 DVD and Blu-ray copies (more than double the sales of the first movie’s DVD debut). The teen and “tween” girls market should scream with joy for this new teaser trailer for Eclipse, the next movie in the series, which Summit is releasing this Summer.

Mario Creator Talks Big Influences

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Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto recently talked with CVG about maintaining excitement for the same game characters that have been around for decades and he also shared some of his personal influences. As it turns out, not only is the creator of Mario and Zelda a huge fan of The Beatles, but he also cites Peter Fonda as a big influence.

“Yes, I loved The Beatles – but when it comes to music, my particular taste is the American bluegrass music. I think bluegrass music was a great influence upon myself. When it comes to the pop culture in general, the movie Easy Rider was kind of a bible for our generation. I also saw the Stanley Kubrick Space Odyssey movie which was great also,” he said. “A writer or director like Peter Fonda, who made Easy Rider, must have had a great influence upon myself when I was young. I was living in Kyoto, which belongs to the Kansai region. In Japan – and in Kansai region particularly – when we were young there was tendency to love certain types of entertainment called Rakugo, which is one storyteller telling you sometimes a sad story, and sometimes one that would make you laugh very much.”

Miyamoto added, “I would also watch the Manzai – which is a comic duo or trio on the stage trying to make you laugh. Those kind of things, as well as Japanese cartoon culture must have something greatly influenced me, so much so that I really wanted to become a professional cartoonist when I was in Junior High. If we’re talking about the United Kingdom, I really like the Irish music like Chieftains and I like [UK folk band] Pentangle.”