Some Excellent Advertising

This post will be dedicated to one, particularly excellent example of EXACTLY how do web can be made use of to advertise and build up hype for a product. It is also an amazing example of public relations, customer service, attention to the community, and crisis management. Overall a superb and impressively inexpensive method of advertising to the entire world. So what is this site? It is the Smash Dojo, a site designed to promote the Nintendo game Super Smash Brothers Brawl.


A brief history. Super Smash brothers is a Nintendo game franchise in which the player plays as one of Nintendo's beloved game characters (Mario, Link, etc.) and attempts to beat the holy living crap out of the other players who are, similarly, also controlling Nintendo characters. There have been two previous incarnations, Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Brothers Melee. Both games have been ridiculously successful and have enormous longevity, so with the release of the Wii there has been much anticipation for the next installment.

Here is where problems begin. Originally supposed to be a launch title, Brawl has been pushed back repeatedly (now resting at a release date of February 10th, 2008) for little publicized reason. Fans of the game were beginning to get annoyed about the delays, so Nintendo had to act. Unlike Microsoft, however which would probably have rushed the game and damaged the final product, the project leader, Sakurai, started this site.

Offering daily updates without fail in six different languages (seven if you count British) the Dojo has completely solved their anticipation problem. However it does not stop there, each post is written by Sakurai himself (and translated by someone else) and has a very personal and dedicated feel. He also keeps high regard of the community and uses the site to post about other Nintendo events and possible information.

This is the sort of promotion made possible only by the internet. There is no other medium that can deliver video, text, and audio updates all over the world everyday for such a simple cheap price. The site costs almost nothing, all they need is the webspace and a few skilled translators and they have kept thousands of eager fans completely placated. It gives me hope that other companies will catch on and realize that there are better ways to manage your community and at the same time cross promote contless other products, while at no point becoming intrusive.

Untill then I will just have to keep closing those pop-ups.

Norbit Trailer

You'll love the first fives seconds of this song!

This is something of a follow up to my last post where I analyzed in-video advertising. You could think of it as a part 2, if you will. Now I will address in video ads extremely close relative, and frequent partner, embedded video. If not then I have included one for you to inspect.

Now if you have ever been on any MySpace account page, ever, then there is at least a 90% chance that you have encountered an embedded video file. If not there then you have probably come across one on someones blog, or maybe through a file sharing service, regardless I can safely say that almost all of the embedded videos are of music videos, or humor clips.

While this is all fine and dandy it seems to me like a severe lack of judgment on the part of advertising companies. Here we have thousands of myspace pages, each with a very specific audiance of readers. An audiance that can actually be traced by their account to find out their exact interests. So it seems to me like this would be the perfect opportunity for advertisers to make their products known to exactly the right market, for almost no cost at all.

Regardless, this seems like a tool that remains untapped, as more companies seem to be leaning toward in-video advertising instead. Not that it is bad, but I simply find it foolish to let such a perfect targeting opportunity go untapped. But, maybe that is just me.

P.S. I found an excellent video detailing Google's new in-video ads. You should check it out, they are much less intrusive then the conventional ones.

In-Video

Have you ever gone to a site, say maybe CNN.com or maybe heavy.com, there you were offered an interesting video link. Something like Chocolate Rain perhaps, however, to your horror, upon clicking said link you are forwarded, not to a singing black guy, but to a silly car commercial. If this has ever happened to you (and if you have ever spent more than five minutes on the internet it probably has) then you have fallen victim to an in-video advertisement.

Now don't get me wrong on this. I'm not saying that in-video ads are bad, no in fact there are many that I quite enjoy, however, like every other form of advertising it must be used intelligently. I cannot remember how many times I was forced to watch the 30 second TV spot for Norbit. To give you some idea of what it was like click the link on Norbit and watch the video...33 times...in a row. Now if you survived that experience you may have some idea of how awful it can be.

That being said there are plenty of intelligent applications and interesting. For one, it is extremely cost effective. For only a fraction of the cost of television advertising, you can tell exactly how many people saw your ad, when they saw it, heck you can even tell what else they were doing at the time. Additionally, if you do your research well, you can make sure that your video only plays for your audience.

Already both Google and Youtube are working on integrating in-video advertisments. How will this affect online video? we will have to wait and see.

Everybody's Space

Just about everyone who doesn't live under a HUGE ROCK has heard of MySpace. Many people see it as a way to express themselves, with music, freedom of speech, and anonymity. Or a means to connect with friends and share photos of how drunk they were at last nights party. Even employers have begun to use myspace and other such sights to look into employees backgrounds. Over all, it is one of the biggest internet crazes.

Now, like all other sights of this nature; Facebook, Yahoo Groups, and lets not forget all the blogs, MySpace is free. It costs nothing to make an account and begin to post about how much you suffer. So myspace has to get its money from elsewhere. Naturally it turned to advertising. Most myspace pages have at least a few links to sponsors or a little bit of spyware here and there, but all in all it is much better than some other, more money whoring, sites. Or is it?

Companies have found a new and interesting way to advertise with myspace, completely free. Branded myspace accounts. One of the most famous brands to do this was X-men 3, with it's cunningly constructed and well designed page. It has an extensive gallery of pictures, videos, and posts, all of which garner a click through rate vastly higher than most pop-up ads or links. In fact, it is so effective as a means of advertising and promotion that most movies, games, and tv shows have made an account. (Die Hard, Resident Evil, Heroes).

Max Kalehoff posted in more detail about how companies go about making these accounts, and what benefits they gain. Needless to say a myspace account is not necessarily the best fit for any company, I personally would find myself disinclined to trust, say, a bank, that used myspace to present itself. However, considering that, compared to other forms of advertising, myspace advertising is effectively free, it can't really hurt.