And Today's Gatorade G-Series Performer Of the Game Is...

I can feel it.  The roar of the crowd is pulsing through my veins.  I can barely hear the clacking of my teammates Nike football cleats in the tunnel.  My center grabs and fistful of my Reebok jersey and yells through my face mask "ARE YOU READY?"  Before I can respond, he slams his Riddell helmet against mine giving it the first blemish of the season.  Gus Johnson and Cris Collinsworth are no doubt giving the viewers the Gatorade Prime starting line-up.  If this were last season, my Old Spice Swagger stat would undoubtedly be 45.  I'm only a rookie, but I lead my team out of the tunnel.  The barking of the crowd is deafening. I look at the scoreboard only to see myself on the Jumbotron.  My live image is surrounded by billboards for AirWest and StarkTec?  I've never heard of those companies.  That doesn't matter.  JasonAtTheDisco's trash talking in my ear piece snaps me out of my daze.  I have a head-to-head match in Madden 12 to win.


I grew up playing video games.  I love them.  It's an escape for me and a way to "hang out" with my friends that don't live nearby.  Here's a problem for marketers and advertisers: how do you reach someone who is saving the world from the evil clutches of EvilBadGuy?  How do you reach someone who isn't reading a magazine or newspaper but instead they're punting gnomes in Azeroth?  Well, you go to where they are.  And you punt some gnomes because it's fun.


Madden 12 lends itself to product placement and advertising very well.  The game emulates a television broadcast of the game while you play it.  Gatorade G2 Series sponsors the starting line-up (Prime), impact player (Perform), and Performer of the Game (Recover).  Reebok and Riddell provide the NFL with equipment so they also provide Electronic Arts with equipment, and in return, get product placement.  Every player in the game wears Nike shoes.  During breaks in the game, water boys go out on the field and re-hydrate the team with Gatorade squeeze bottles.  Gus and Chris even call for a commercial break after each quarter and during the 2 minute warnings.  The only thing missing are actual commercials and real companies on the billboards of the scoreboard.


The key to advertising in video games boils down to one key factor: is the game more realistic with your product in there without being overloaded?  With a game like Madden you expect to see the players drinking Gatorade and wearing Nike cleats.  In racing games like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo you expect to be driving Mitsubishi, Acura, and BMW cars.  In Rock Band you expect to see the band playing Gibson guitars. The product has to represent the lifestyle being portrayed in the game.  If Nvidia had an advertisement in Half-Life 2 for its GeForce series of graphics cards, it would make sense.  You would need a graphics card in your computer to play such a game.  However, it doesn't add to the realism of the game.  If anything it would take away from the experience because of the setting.


Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take Nathan Drake to Subway.

When Does An Ad Campaign Grow Stale?

Too much of a good thing can be bad.  It doesn't matter whether it's good for you or not.  Too much sun can lead to skin damage.  Too much water can wash nutrients through your body.  Once in a while, we just need something different to offset the monotony of the over-done.  People need a change of pace.  If we're presented with too much of the same, we get bored.

The case can be made for advertisements, particularly television commercials.  We can skip over print ads in magazines and newspapers.  We've learned to tune out ads on websites unless it gets splashed on our screens before we can reach the content we want.  But we generally have to sit through TV ads (unless we can fast forward on DVR).  We're force fed 30-60 seconds of filler so that the actors/news anchors/reality "stars" can get paid.  

Once in a while, a campaign will stick with the public.  Two campaigns that people are talking about are Dos Equis' "The Most Interesting Man In the World" by Euro RSCG and Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" by Wieden + Kennedy.  These two campaigns are focusing on one thing that makes a man: experience.  With experience comes the know-how when put into certain situations that men may not normally be comfortable in.  Before we go any further, let's look at what the point of advertising is.

Are companies trying to increase sales or increase brand awareness?  Just because a consumer is aware of your brand doesn't mean that consumer will purchase it.  I'm aware of Tampax Tampons but as a single male, I have no reason to purchase that product (until I get married).  The reason why I'm aware of Tampax Tampons is because of advertising.  My mom watched a lot of Oprah as I was growing up.  Anyway, since the campaign, Dos Equis has seen an increase in sales this year.  Old Spice has seen sales increase by 27% over 6 months.

So when does a campaign grow stale?  When copycats try to mimic the campaign? When consumers start dressing up as your spokesperson at Comic-Con?  When sales finally start to flatten out or (gasp!) DECREASE?  Wieden + Kennedy has done a great job by switching up the spokesperson for Old Spice over the years getting B-movie cult icon Bruce Campbell, Neil Patrick Harris fresh off of reprising his role as Neil Patrick Harris on Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, NFL linebacker Ray Lewis, former NFL player-turned-actor Terry Crews, and most recently, Fabio (?).  Dos Equis has been backed into a corner.  Where do you go from The Most Interesting Man in the World?  How can you effectively plan a campaign without knowing when consumers will grow tired of it and switch to competitors?

These are just two examples of campaigns that have increased sales for their products, yet are getting tiresome.  Old Spice was able to keep it fresh, but adding Fabio to the stable was confusing to me.  The man is 52 years old and was the cover boy to trashy romance novels read by bored housewives sitting in the stands of their 11 year old's baseball game.  Wieden + Kennedy has done an excellent job in re-positioning Old Spice so far to target not just men ages 18-25 (incredibly difficult to reach due to media usage habits), but also women.  That's not to say Euro RSCG hasn't been effective with Dos Equis.  I'm just ready to see if they can outdo themselves.  What's interesting to me right now is how Kenny Powers will fare as the MFCEO of K-Swiss, and how long it'll be before I get bored with that.