Marketing Madness

Electronic Gaming Business, July 2, 2003

Timed wisely to extend hype for the Hulk brand a week after the film's release and two weeks after the game hit stores, Vivendi Universal Games revealed in late June that a code planted in an early scene of The Hulk film could be used in the multi-platform game to change the Hulk game character from green to gray. It's a cagey cross-marketing ploy, to be sure. Not only does it encourage a return visit to the film, but it may give the game a second life when the movie's DVD releases in six months. This sort of movie/game tie-in is smart in theory but suffers a lack of ambition. Reserving a secret area or special level in a game just for careful viewers of the film would be even more noteworthy and the logical next step. Of course, we would have appreciated a code that would have unlocked more interesting gameplay for this rather tepid title.

Web traffic bean counters comScore Media Metrix reports that the "Charlie's Angels" film sequel drew massive traffic in advance of its premiere. Of the 636,000 unique users visiting the Sony Pictures site, 18% hit the CA home page. When there, they were met by a modest but entertaining Charlie's Angels game that users could preview online, download as a demo or just buy for $19.95. The game is no great shakes, but it demonstrates a smart alternative to issuing movie tie-in games with high licensing overheads and disappointing gameplay. This game amounts to a small tchotchke, an impulse buy at $19.95 for some and a nice brand-extender for the movie for those who want to play it for a few minutes online. For many films, this would be a more sensible way to use games as a marketing tool, and for game companies a more reasonable way to get incremental revenue.

Not-So-Happy-Meals? From the days of Cracker Jack "prizes" no selfrespecting kid ever believed that a packaged goods freebie would be anything more than disposable crap, but we have to wonder about the wisdom of Sega's marketing partnership with McDonald's to put one of six handheld Sonic or Monkey Ball games in the current run of Happy Meals. Compared to previous pack-ins, these battery-powered, LED-equipped toys seem ambitious, but in fact the devices are the most rudimentary video games imaginable with terrible responsiveness - so much so we wonder if the marketing plan will leave a bad taste in kids' mouths. With such a qualitative gulf between these throwaways and what the kids are used to playing at home and on their GBAs, we wonder if it was worth the effort and expense for Sega. Worse, the games themselves are so poor, they do nothing to brand the game characters. Wouldn't it have been wiser for Sega to stop leaning on a Sonic character that never established any depth and pretty much peaked on the Genesis system?

Better than the Sega's Happy Meal promo, Atari partners with General Foods to pack into cereal boxes CD-ROMs with PC versions of classic board games, including Monopoly, Scrabble, Candy Land and Operation. The plan also targets older demographics with signage and mail-in coupons for additional Atari titles like Yahtzee and Scattergories. RollerCoaster Tycoon is also in the mix. This is something that publishers need to do with their back list of titles that no longer sell: turn them into promotional freebies. Publishers have a tendency to hang onto old code as if someone out there really is going to buy it anymore, when these titles could have a promotional value much greater than any cash they might bring in. And unlike the Sega/McDonald's plan, this costs the publisher little and delivers a valuable, truly playable gift to the consumer that promises to bring them into the brand further.

[Copyright 2003 PBI Media, LLC. All rights reserved.]