For this week’s readings, I’m going to make my post of the audio variety, perhaps better expressing my true feelings on the subject matter. There is to be no script, just immediate reactions to what I’ve read and what I’ve seen recently.
This should be a lot more fun. Hope you enjoy!
Annotated Bibliography
Research Question: We feel advertisers are not effectively utilizing the full potential of in-game advertising. There is a large demographic engaged in on-line, networked video games to whom advertisers could reach with real time, streaming advertisement triggered at specific times, relevant to geography, space and time.
Lewis, Ben. “Measuring Player Perceptions of Advertising in Online Games” Masters Project. Mass Communication. Louisiana State University. December, 2006.
“An experiment with 100 participants aged 18-24 was conducted to measure the effects of advertising in an online role-playing computer game on perceived interactivity and other aspects of gameplay experience. Results from a post-test questionnaire revealed insight into players’attitudes toward advertising in video game environments, and reflected varying levels of advertising awareness and recall, message recognition, and factors in purchasing habits”
Research to be used as backbone for our suggestion to advertisers that they are missing out on future of advertising. Demonstrates desired effect of our suggestion.
Chambers, Jason. “The Sponsored Avatar: Examining the Present Reality and Future Possibilities of Advertising in Digital Games.” Paper presented at the DiGRA Conference-Changing Views-Words in Play; 2005.
“Given the similarity between videogames and movies this research synthesis incorporates analysis of advertising placement within those genres with limited processing theory to propose a placement model for digital games.”
Paper highlights current advantages of ad placement in movies and looks at the current practices employed by designers and game publishers, as well as the positive effect on end user consumers. A key idea we will be focusing on is “Moreover, built in internet access in next generation machines opens a wealth of possibilities from downloadable games and streaming advertising to tracking options that provide information about exactly how gamers interacted with brands
Vedrashko, Ilya. “Advertising in Computer Games” Masters Project. Comparative Media Studies. MIT. 2006.
The author here compares computer game advertising with other forms of advertising which allows us to demonstrate with hard facts and figures the benefits of one medium over another. Helpful in its historical review of in-game advertising trends so that it’s easy for our readers to track our thought process.
Chaney, Isabella; Lin, Ku-Ho; Chaney James. The Effect of Billboards within the Gaming Environment. Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 5, No. 1, (September, 2004), pp. 54-69
This article offers counter evidence to our argument of the effectiveness of in-game advertising, but speaks only to the placement of Billboards within games. Offers data that suggests that although gamers could not recall brand of product, they could recall product type. Examines a broader international audience and focuses on the realm of online gaming which is of major importance to global advertisers.
Bhattacharya, Subhankar; Scott, Edward; Arthur, Magan. The Phoenix Rises From the Ashes: Advertising and Content Monetization in a Digital World. Journal of Digital Asset Management, Vo1. 2, No. 6, (November, 2006), pp. 269-278
An examination of the future of the digital environment and a herald to unknown profits to be made in this new digital world. Argues for aggressive pursuit of calculated risks especially in the field of advertising in order to properly reap rewards. Helpful in its ability to answer those who might be timid and slow to react to the changes around them.
Kaikati, Andrew M; Kaikati, Jack G. Stealth Marketing: How to Reach Consumers Surreptitiously. California Management Review. Vo1. 46, No. 4, (Summer, 2004), pp. 6-22
Here the articles look at the importance of devising new and innovative ways to reach consumers who are slowly adopting commercial zapping technologies that allow consumers to bypass traditional advertisement. The authors also bring up an interesting point about the emerging discussion of the ethical and legal issues associated with stealth advertising and the bordering on false advertising.
Primarily to be used to help defend practice and as a guide for how advertisers can avoid questioning all together.
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In today’s world of low voter turnout, candidates often need a way to reach the young people. While politicking on MTV has already been done, sometimes a candidate can simply rely on word of mouth to get their names on the minds of that sought after generation. Although he has not officially endorsed Obama Girl, the popularity of the video (close to 4 million hits) as certainly gotten his name around better than any interview or talk show appearance ever could.
Obama girl also keeps a blog that is more about self promotion than political endorsement but the fact remains her blogs title is Obama Girl. In today’s apathetic world, a scantily glad woman chanting a candidates name may be all it takes to get the voter to make a decision.
What you have just watched (if you haven’t played it yet, please do. It is quite entertaining and also relevant to the rest of this post) is a great example of how relevant blogs have become in our society and how great their impact is. This was a segment on Sportscenter one evening. I say was because I have yet to see it again and hopefully never will. Granted it was of the experimental nature, but unlike before, when experiments often hobbled on in existence, waiting for the end to come, the end came quick for this Old Yeller. Within hours of its initial broadcast, bloggers crucified the segment and the ESPN execs who green-lit it. Whether or not executives read all of these posts is unknown but somehow the message got through loud and clear: THIS SUCKS!
Keep an Ear to the Ground
People know exactly what they want. They know what entertains them and what makes them angry. The task before any company is to somehow figure out how to deliver that product, or, convince people they do in fact want THEIR product. Standard operating procedure for businesses in the past has been to spend millions of dollars on advertising methods in order to attract just a small section of their target audience. As one executive told the authors of Naked Conversations, “To hell with the 98%” (Scoble & Israel 2006). This of course is referring to the fact that only about 2% of people bombarded with advertisements, be it DirectMail or Telemarketing, respond positively. And what does it cost to find out that people aren’t interested? A lot.
This segment could have dragged on for a few more weeks, or, god forbid, a few months had blogs not been of the popularity they are now. No where is it more palpable than the blogasphere to get a good indication of where you stand with your audience. However, it is becoming more and more evident that companies should create and maintain blogs in which they engage consumers on a regular basis. In this case, ESPN could have responded with the reasoning behind Poetry Jam and asked for a few suggestions on how to make it better and what were the main reasons for its poor reception? Something as simple as human conversation will often let consumers know they are being heard and will often keep them interested in the product of the company. Such a method seems to be working well for Microsoft to help shed their “Evil Empire” image. Why not extend the same privilege to a dedicated TV audience who has already shown a penchant for opinionated discussion?
Blogging will not only improve a company’s relation with consumers, it can also be expanded upon internally to capture a more accurate picture of internal feelings as well as capitalize on the thousands of suggestions that go unheard of everyday. As a personal example, I have no blog in which to communicate my ideas. There is a committee I can reach out to in order to share any cost-saving methods I might have but there is no forum for open discussion on a random idea that has suddenly been conceived. Instead, I am forced to try and track down an appropriate contact and then hope that my suggestion doesn’t get lost or overlooked in the multitude of e-mail menagerie. Sometimes, I just hold onto the idea until it slowly fades from existence and is forgotten like so many state capitals. I’m sure I am not the only employee who experiences this feeling of defeat and I can’t help but wonder how many great opportunities are lost out on simply because there is no avenue for their release. An internal blog could change all of that.
No Sleep for the Determined
What makes an even stronger case for a company blog is the fact that it can be responded to from anywhere in the word. Instead of putting a customer through the pains of a call to customer service, a call that often circumnavigates the globe in futility, a company can have their staff available on the blog site to answer questions and respond to comments , sometimes being able to answer the same question for multiple people at once, and in a more personable manner than a FAQ link on the company homepage. We live in an environment of instant gratification so why not provide it?
Larger companies have the manpower to monitor their blog on a 24 hour basis. Not only does this help in consumer relations, but it can also be used to respond to unfavorable news by providing a more human touch than a standard Memo from the company. Earlier this year, a few hosts from a TV network were accused of sexual improprieties. The story was front page news. However, the public was not able to get a feel for the company’s position on the matter because there was NO feeling in the standard reacitonary statement issued in response. Even after the initial news break, sites like deadspin.com kept the story in the public sphere much longer than traditional media outlets and again, this company had no way to respond to the story in a manner that actually reached people. It seems asinine in today’s world to have the resources at your disposal yet improperly use them. What better way to effectively launch damage control than by getting public opinion in your favor?
If You Blog it, They Will Come
As noted earlier, blogs are NOW. They are the future of business and those that wish to remain successful and on the cutting edge will adapt immediately. While blogs created by larger corporations may have an easier time getting their message out there, anyone can use a blog to thei advantage, they just have to be creative. If you want people to respond, MAKE them want to respond by seeking them out. In the case of ESPN, they very easily could invite selected members of the blogging community to respond to pilot episodes or segments and react to them in real time with the producers. This way, a better product is delivered and is better received because the user has a personal attachment to it. While it remains impossible to satisfy everyone, you can avoid disappointing them.
The terrible 2005 movie based on the Ray Bradbury short story of the same title has until now served no purpose in my life and at times I wish I could in time travel back to a week ago and, like Edward Burns’ character in the movie, warn myself of the impending disaster. However, all that cursing and swearing at the Necromancer I refer to as HBO may have been in vein for it actually relates to a REAL topic of discussion: The Experience Economy.
You Had to be There
I, as I’m sure many of you have and continue to be, am fascinated by the idea of time travel. Who among you would not give their left (insert anatomy part here) to see some of the very events you have read about at one point or another in your lifetime? How about hunting a dinosaur? In A Sound of Thunder, that is precisely the experience that the fictional company, Time Safari, provides. For an absurd about of money, the company will send you back 65 million years to hunt a dinosaur (who actually perished 145 million years ago but who’s counting) and give you the experience of a lifetime. And, in the end, isn’t that what makes anything “worth it”? I’m not sure we’re able to put a price tag on our experiences or memories. The true value of something might be determined by how fondly we are able to recall or remember an event and the degree to which we are able to capture the attention of others on the auditory receiving end. As Pine and Gilmore allude to in their writing when they relate the story of a married couple sipping coffee in Venice at $15 a pop, “experiences are a forth economic offering, as distinct from services as services are from goods (Pine & Gilmore 1999). Although the company Time Safari doesn’t really exist, other companies, such as Walt Disney World and Blizzard, have developed ways to enhance their users or guest’s experience in such a way that they WANT to come back again and again. Disney was the first to create a themepark as opposed to simply an amusement park, where guests could fully submerse themselves in an environment not available in everyday life and affect the very senses of the human body. Blizzard developed World of Warcraft that offers an online experience that allows a user to create a character of their choice and engage in epic quests that not only enhance their character’s wealth and strength, but also allow the user to interact with other users within the environment and increase or decrease their popularity.
Pay to Play
World of Warcraft is another prime example of people willing to pay for an experience. What WoW also does is provide yet another arena for us to “play” in, to step away from the seriousness of life and simply let loose. Although Huizinga probably didn’t anticipate a virtual world like Wow, he most certainly could understand it’s concept and how it relates to play, for he notes “The secrecy of play [is] most vividly expressed in ‘dressing’ up. Here the ‘extra-ordinary’ nature of play reaches perfection. The disguised or masked individual ‘plays’ another part, another being. He is another being” (Huizinga 1950). And that is exactly what one does when logging into WoW: dresses up. We become someone else, whether it be a convex or concave reflection of ourselves. We are who we want others to think we are and we are able to act outside the normal boundaries of human interaction. These “masks” allow us to experience things we otherwise would not be able to and for that, we are willing to pay.
The New Watering Hole
Because the experience we are afforded by such an arena is so pleasant and appealing (there are millions of online gamers), it has become the new “third place”, a place unlike home or work that “is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood” (as quoted in the Hintonarticle). It has even become for some the new golf, where people meet and interact virtually in order to build stronger real life (RL) relationships. Places like Myspace and Facebook, though almost explicitly social networks, provide an even greater experience for those wishing to express themselves in a manner not possible outside of the arena (and these sites are free!). The point is, these companies are providing an experience that people really want and perhaps, even need. We crave human interaction in ways that are different from the everyday. Creating a mash-up or donning a elvish demeanor make all of this possible.
In the end, we want to be satisfied. People today have more expendable income than ever before and are eager and willing to part with it. But, in a way different from generations past. Sure, we still enjoy the service at a restaurant but we are willing to pay a bit more if the experience is nice. Look at Hooters restaurant chain. Their food is almost widely agreed to be terrible, but the experience one gets when there is what justifies the over priced mediocrity. The same can be said for sky diving or bungee jumping. The average person has determined that tempting death is well worth the hundreds of dollars it costs in order to claim that right. Perhaps the movie was terrible, but you can bet that should the technology ever be developed, people will pay whatever they ask for the experience.
We love to play.
I was all set to sign up for a Second Life membership when I noticed a little box about halfway down the page that advertised Teen Second Life. I thought about it for a moment, and then decided that it would be way more fun to pretend I’m someone else. My goal is to see if I can identify any other posers out there who are also pretending to be under 18. Now, I am no intentions of applying the same manner of speaking one might adopt in a Barely Legal Chat room, nor do I intend to ever meet with or suggest a face to face meeting as I’ve seen that show “To catch a Predator” as well as the South Park spoof and neither seem to end well.
Anyways, as for my character, I’m a a 5-3 Asian kid named Tomohiko (my Japanese roommate’s name in college) and basically, all I’ve been able to do is walk around (slowly as my computer is not quite up to the task). I tried sitting at the local coffee spot to talk about how much parents just don’t understand and how I got into one little fight and my mom got scared so now I had to move in with my Auntie and Uncle in Bel-Air. They didn’t get the reference (well, I don’t think they did as I got no “response”) so I just walked around some more. I may try and get into some more mischief soon but for the 1st visit, I just wanted to be kind of low key.
I hope I can make some new best friends!
Could there be better news? Even if it’s just one state, it will sure make things interesting.
Today, you should have seen me and Trevor today, on-line today.
Trevor and myself are going to be tackling the issue of advertising in on-line games. Will this medium support it? What are the current trends? How is this different from advertising in video games as we currently experience it. Will all users be required to have the most modern form of technology in order to be reached? What are the problems? Most importantly, though, we will be exploring the benefits of this new advertising campaign and hope to convince others that it is the direction advertising is headed.
Man, I can’t believe the professor makes us work a lot and not smoke.
Almost everyone can attest that at some point, they had a sandwich on white bread. Nothing fancy. Just plain, Little Debbie (or some variation) sliced white bread. It is over time that one discovered other breads: Wheat, 12 grain, Rye, Pumpernickel, etc. And so variety was added to life. We learned more about the different ways to enjoy life, mostly from a victuals standpoint but still, there was choice. And each bread added something to our experience. However, there are and were still others who decided that white bread was it for them. They had gotten what they wanted and there was no need to experiment with anything else. There was no guesswork involved, only certain satisfaction. For all of eternity, it’s white bread…when given the choice.
Bread As it Relates to the Internet
Just like bread selection, we often find ourselves in similar aisles when browsing for news stories. We know what we want and we know how to get it. We also know that if we visit other people, they too will have what we’ve had and are more than willing to share what they have. The Internet now makes it so easy to obtain what we want that we can cut ourselves off from even seeing or reading about other items that lack the same appeal as our loaf of white bread. While some, like author Cass Sunstein might argue that the effect of group polarization could be a negative one of a truly free society, I question whether or not the effects would be as severe as cautioned? Sure, like minded people going to the extremes for a viewpoint are at one end of the spectrum, but what about all those capable of rational discourse who happen to know and understand what makes them tick? Before the advent of the Internet, one joined clubs or societies in order to surround themselves with like minded viewpoints. This did not lead to less public discussion, but rather, I argue, to more informed debate when two opposing sides happened to meet. The same happens now. Why not be most knowledgeable on a few particular topics than somewhat aware of nothing in particular? The Internet provides this avenue of enlightenment.
Home Delivery
Life is about figuring out what you like and what you want. How are you going to be most happy? Where do you want to live? What team will you root for? And so on. Figuring out these likes/dislikes isn’t always easy but once we figure out some of the things we like or dislike, why not be able to set up a filter to get exactly what we want? The Daily Me is an excellent example of how electronic news has given us the greatest pursuit of personal interests. “How individuals believe they learn about the world around the,, or become known by that world, helps to determine many of their goals and ambitions” (Bender 2002). While we can set our filters to the highest levels of selectivity, new ideas always slip past (see your spam filter on your e-mail account) and we are thus exposed to something new, something we might not have considered in the past. For the most part, the filters do their job and we’re exposed to what we want and it shapes who we become. Consider an animal activist who is connected to the PETA RSS feed almost at an epidermal level. They are exposed to what they want and nothing more and because of this, can begin their own crusades, armed with all the knowledge they’ve obtained from their like minded sources.
My Pet Wiki
Such passion for something could inevitably lead to a posting in an on-line news forum. Perhaps this user is an avid blogger and wants to get his/her message out to the world? The benefits of using on-line soap boxes are you can almost be assured you are reaching your intended audience. For instance, I know who is reading this entry. I know, not only because I can track you through wordpress but because the subject of my blog is well laid out and only people with similar interest would continue to read my posts. Sure, some of us write for the sake of writing but it’s in our nature to want an audience. On-line forums provide just that.
Wikinews, an on-line interactive news site provides another arena from which one can obtain like-minded stories. And, with the user-edit ability, anyone has the abilty to edit any piece to remove any bias evident in other mainstream news sources (in fact, as Axel Burns quotes in the article Wikinews…All of the stories posted on the site are overviews of news coverage published elsewhere in mainstream media…stripped of the editorial bias (Burns 2006)) The animal activist mentioned above has the ability to read news articles and edit them to insert any omitted “facts”. Where else can you be assured that your knowledge of a subject will be considered when a final news article is printed?
Plain is Not Boring
White bread can be enough for some. They’ve discovered what they like and are only interested in other forms of white bread. And, it’s not as bad as one might think, because if you ever want to try white bread again, you know where and who to ask. They’ll be happy to talk to you.
You’d think with a blog titled whatsyourfantasy and an entry with the headline “Soft Core” I’d finally be getting around to the forum section of the blog. But, my good readers, you are not in luck…yet. I will deliver on the fantasy aspect at a later point in time but for now, the real subject of this post: Soft News.
Soft News is the most popular form of news, whether it be on TV, in a newspaper, or on-line. The point of soft news is to tug at the heartstrings of the viewer/reader and make them FEEL something. In is this effect that, in my opinion, makes on-line news the most interactive. It gives people a voice. They are able to post a note about an article and reply to other comments made by other users. In some cases, news sources like Wikinews can be continuoulsy edited and updated by other users. While Wikinews strives to take the NPOV approach towards its construction, other sources written by professional journalists are subject to personal points of view. But this personal POV is what brings someone back to a source or can promote discussion on a blog web thread. People want to FEEL a story and then talk about it. It is why on-line is the most interactive.
Personally, I use the Internet to obtain most of my daily news. I scan the headlines when I log onto AOL or into my Hotmail account and click on anything that interests me. The most interactive form I engage in is a newsletter that arrives 3 times a day giving me all the current information pertaining to the sports world. I have it set to include not only player and team news, but business news and financial transactions. It also takes a look at the collection of newspaper headlines from around the country and links to them. It is a very simple layout but quite engaging; I must spend up to 30 mins a day reading each of the three daily reports.
On-line just makes it easier to track the events in the world. It also allows you to have an opinion and discuss the current issues with people you otherwise wouldn’t come into contact with. It also lends to the perception that you are hard at work when in fact, your simply talking. See, all forms of soft core provide an escape…just in different ways.
 | Trevor on The Whitepaper |
 | thereal.chino on The Whitepaper |
 | exploringinteractive… on The Whitepaper |
| exploringinteractive… on BCS BS |
 | Alex H. on BCS BS |
