Posts from — January 2008

You always hear that marketing is the art of making something seem better than it actually is. This theory could not be any truer than the case of Cloverfield, one of the worst movies I think I have ever seen.

The trailer makes the film look like an utter masterpiece. Suspense, shock, mysterious monster! It’s all there. And then I fork over my $10 and get punched in the face by 84 minutes of stupidity.  It’s almost as if the film’s producers came up with an awesome idea for a marketing campaign; sure enough, they realized at some point that they would have to actually make a movie, as well. And that’s where it just went bad.

But hey, I think it says a lot for the power of marketing…

So, save your money and read the entire movie summary on my web site to rescue yourself from sheer stupidity. Donate that $10 to AMA.

This is a list I’ve been building for awhile of must read books pertaining to business, marketing, and other important things. Most of them were recommended to me by others, whether it be professors, colleagues, or co-workers. A few I added to the list myself. So read…it makes you smarter. That is all. [Read more →]

So we finished the fight. The Prophet of Truth got pwned (sic). Master Chief is dead (supposedly). The message at the end of the game made most of us cry. Millions of games are still played over Xbox Live every single day. And in the middle of everything lies one of the most valuable intellectual properties that the entertainment industry has ever seen. So in the wake of the third and final installment of the Halo trilogy, what’s next?

Obviously, the marketing aspects surrounding the Halo IP have always been of great interest, dating back to the famous “I Love Bees” campaign for Halo 2. But directly after the third installment’s release, things really got interesting. Microsoft, who purchased Bungie Studios after the first Halo title achieved success, decided to part ties with the Kirkland developer. Obviously, this was a sort of favor, allowing Bungie to pursue their own projects with total control and greater revenue-earning potential. But alas, Microsoft retained full ownership of the Halo IP. What does this mean? Bungie can not make another title based on the Halo universe without it being licensed by Microsoft. Microsoft owns Master Chief’s future. And the decisions that it makes with the IP revolves greatly around marketing theory.

Let’s take a look at Microsoft’s options:

1. Partner with another developer to create the next effort featuring the Halo universe. Bad idea. This runs the serious risk of alienating all those Bungie fan boys who treat the developer as if it were a non-profit organization. After three titles that managed to revolutionize games in their own way, it’s difficult to entrust the IP to somebody else. This is a billion-dollar customer loyalty issue; but does more of the loyalty lie with the IP or the developer?
2. Sit on Halo 3 for a while, enjoy its assured continued success throughout the next three years (which they most likely will) and eventually partner with Bungie to bring the IP back in a big way. But Bungie’s future plans as of now are not clear; will they be tied up in another project? But after all, nobody can do Halo like Bungie (obviously). Fans know it. Microsoft knows it.
3. Change the format. Halo is one of the most revered first-person shooter franchises in the history of the interactive entertainment industry. But what if it was transformed into a third-person action/adventure game? Sure, MS could capture more third-person fans, but would most likely alienate far more FPS fanatics that made Halo into the behemoth it is today. Capture or alienate? A note: Microsoft has already commissioned a Real Time Strategy title, Halo Wars, developed by Ensemble Studios (i.e. not Bungie), soon due for release.

Now, it is unknown if any provisions or pre-determined agreements were outlined in Microsoft and Bungie’s divorce; Microsoft does retain a minority interest in the company. But Microsoft’s decisions in the near future are paramount to the future of one of the entertainment industry’s most profitable properties. Microsoft has time; Halo 2 remained the most-played Xbox game over Live for over 2 years (into the transition into the 360 platform!).

So let’s not be hasty; Microsoft is far from stupid (ask Apple). It’s an impossibility that they will let Bungie go make other games and be forced to entrust the Halo universe to another developer like Ubisoft. But make no mistake about it - the Gates Empire will find itself in a top spot within the next few years, notably from a marketing standpoint. Halo is ultimately a brand that will need some guidance. One thing is for sure, though - you won’t see any Bungie properties make their way to the Playstation platform…

It says on YouTube that this was added on March 8, 2006 and it has just started surfacing on television. Did McDonald’s just buy it off of these two brilliant youngsters? I hope so. The best commercial for anything ever made.

Being a personal evangelist for the Microsoft family of products (the entire AMA web presence was built and is maintained on a Windows machine…), I just wanted to introduce everyone to Microsoft Popfly (if Apple made it, everyone would have heard about it by now, I’m sure). Popfly is the fun and easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, and Web pages. It’s made up of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups and a social network where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.

So what can you do with this? If you’re interested in building your own web page or creating some really nifty mashups (web app that combines the functionality of two or more web sites…i.e. Facebook and MySpace), you can do it all without writing a single line of code. You can throw all of your Facebook friend info on the same page of all your Halo 3 stats. Then click and drag to connect all your friends and their Halo 3 gamer stats. You use “blocks” that you click-and-drag onto your web page; you can then send data between the blocks and so on. You can also add your own HTML code if desired. Spend a few hours with it and you’ll be amazed at all the creations you can put together. All of this is done through a browser-based Silverlight application (you will need to download Microsoft Silverlight - it’s just like Flash!!!), so you don’t need any new software programs.

Why am I telling you this? Marketers are creative by nature, so you should enjoy this. Also, whenever something new pops up (no pun intended), marketing departments feel the need to use it…even if it doesn’t make any real sense. I expect Popfly to have such an effect, although I think this could make a lot of sense. Enjoy.

A special thanks to Bill Gates and all the wonderful people at Microsoft for actually innovating technology, unlike a certain aforementioned company. Go Microsoft!!!

http://www.popfly.ms/Home.aspx