Game-Software Marketers Seek lies That Might Bind to Broader Demos - wider audience sought by electronic game market

Brandweek, June 8, 1998 by Tobi Elkin

While gun-toting mega-warriors, buxom blondes and other-worldly creatures will continue to be fixtures in the $5.6 billion interactive entertainment software industry, marketers are going beyond these mainstays of the hardcore gaming set to capture a broader consumer demographic by leveraging content through highly branded, licensed entertainment and sports properties.

The targets: kids of all ages, women and casual Gen X gamers. The strategy was reflected in the diverse associations apparent at the massive Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Atlanta: Broderbund's Rugrats license, Electronic Arts' Tiger Woods Golf, Madden NFL and its new entry into boxing titles, Simon & Schuster Interactive's forthcoming Sabrina, The Teenage Witch and Star Trek titles, and Panasonic Interactive's deal with Elmer's Glue. These relationships and others will help drive sales of PC and videogames to $8 billion by 2000, per IDC/Link forecasts. Licensed properties and the characters and merchandise they spawn are a way of "branding and extending product life beyond the typical three-month buying window on any given title release," said Jeff Tschiltsch, GameWeek magazine's executive editor. DreamWorks Interactive will link its two Small Soldiers game titles to the release of the movie by the same name, via studio DreamWorks SKG, with as-yet-undetermined consumer promos, retail and ad tie-ins with the film. Lego Group's fledgling new media division, Lego Media, will be key to its Danish parent's ambitious goal of becoming the most powerful brand in the World among families with kids by 2005. The unit, with several, mostly PC-based CD-ROM titles that feature the popular toy, plans to launch a children's TV production in fall '99, books and Internet gaming. Panasonic Interactive's new Panakids line leverages a tie with Elmer's on Elmer's Cut & Build 3D, a CD-ROM for kids ages 6-12 that enables them to build castles and dream homes. The educational/craft positioning should get the titles into craft chains and toy stores. The glues needed to complete the projects will be bundled with the CD-ROM. The firm will further its educational positioning with new titles in the science and geography categories. Besides Rugrats, Broderbund will leverage its Dr. Seuss franchise by bowing two new CD-ROM titles in August that bundle flash cards, stencils and other items. AGirls adventure game marketer Purple Moon follows a toy marketing model by bundling titles in its Rockett series with premiums such as Purple Moon-branded watches from Fossil and dolls based on game characters. Gift with purchase offers with Bonne Bell's Smacker's and Day Runner organizers are also planned. Purple Moon president Nancy Deyo hopes to launch a TV series and publishing deal based on the Rockett characters, targeted at girls ages 8-12. Nintendo's betting at least $15 million that its new handheld Pokemon game this fall will prove the successor to the Tamagotchi virtual pet craze. Plans for the new Game Boy property, already soaring in Japan (Brandweek , May 25), include a Pokemon animated kids' cartoon series launching Sept. 7, followed by the game's launch Sept. 28 and plush toys and action figures based on Pikachu, the virtual pet of the series' main character. Hasbro, Pokemon licensee, will bow the plush pets just in time for Christmas. Teaser ads, via Leo Burnett, Chicago, with the tag "Catch 'em if you can," break in August, along with TV promos for the series, ads in Nintendo Power and Disney Adventures magazines, a 32-page comic book insert in Nintendo Power, in-market event and radio promos, plus watch-and-win ads with a sweepstakes offer. Nintendo is talking with Toys 'R' Us and other retailers about setting up Pokemon boutiques by November. Console-based gaming continues to have a strong impact, especially Sony's $149 PlayStation, which sold 2 million consoles between Thanksgiving and Christmas of last year. For this year, Sony will focus more on the under-12 gamer with edgy ads and a $140 million budget (up from $100 million), said Andrew House, vp-marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America. Sega's mismarketed Saturn system will all but disappear from retail shelves in coming months as it huddles with developers and plans the $100 million launch of its Dreamcast system, due in North America in the fall of 1999 (Brandweek, Feb. 16). Saturn lacked developer support, was overpriced at $399, and its launch mistimed. Even developers instructions "were delivered in Japanese," said vp-communications Lee McEnany Caraher. Dreamcast poses a different marketing challenge due to the long pre-launch ramp-up. "How do we make sure we don't overexpose a product before it gets here?" Caraher said. That, and devising a simple brand message, will be the job of Sega's next svp-marketing, currently being sought. Bernie Stolar, Sega's president/COO, put it more bluntly: "Sega's business plan mandates 'kick-ass marketing."' Foote, Cone & Belding, S.F., Alcone Marketing, L.A., Howard Marlboro Group and Catalyst Group, Burbank, Calif., all are involved in kick-starting, so to speak, that marketing blitz.