Finding relevant gaming applications in the marketing/advertising arena is not all fun and games. It is serious business indeed, underscored in the film commission sector with the Georgia Film, Video and Music Office’s recent hiring of gaming expert Asante Bradford as digital entertainment liaison. His focus will be on business development and identifying opportunities to encourage the continued growth of the video game industry in Georgia.
The state is home to more than 50 video game developers including Turner GameTap, Kaneva Inc., Hi-Rez Studios, Blue Heat Games and StudioCom. In 2006, some 290 productions including movies, TV series, commercials, music videos and video game projects accounted for an economic impact of $448.3 million in Georgia.
Furthermore, new gaming talent is being groomed in Georgia where more than 2,000 college students are taking game development classes or are involved in full video game development curriculums. Headquartered in California, Electronic Arts recently partnered with the Savannah College of Art & Design to set up an R&D operation in Savannah, Ga.
Attracting game development and facilitating shooting for game content are high on the Georgia Film, Video and Music Office agenda, reflecting the still largely untapped potential of the gaming industry. Traditionally a magnet for the coveted young male demographic, gaming has seen a surge in female and adult players, with advertisers taking major notice of the massive numbers being delivered. Georgia and recently Texas, among other states, have film incentives with applications specifically covering gaming activity.
And just like the film commission community, the advertising industry is looking to intelligently capitalize on the phenomenon. More ad/marketing pros have become proactively involved while others–from clients to agencies to production and post houses–are grappling with the best way in which to participate in the medium.
BK Jeff Benjamin, VP/interactive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, observed, “Gaming is just as important as the Internet for advertisers and marketers. And in the future, gaming’s importance will continue to grow. There are a lot of people in the marketplace who have grown up playing video games–not watching television. Now that they’re older, they come home from work and play video games, communicate with their friends through Xbox Live and the capabilities of Wii and PlayStation. Gaming isn’t just their TV, it’s also their Internet.”
Benjamin noted that CP+B and Burger King decided to go ahead with a video game initiative to reach this market that “virtually nobody was communicating to with their brands.” From this sprung three video games, which were sold at Burger King restaurants, at a price point of $3.99. “We’ve thus far sold 3.2 million of these games, they’re even still being sold at stores in their used game departments. Plus gaming is typically a social activity. You play with friends, you can play the BK games through Xbox Live. For Burger King, the video games were a homerun.”
Those 3.2 million games were sold in the space of two months, besting Xbox favorite Gears of War for the coveted title of best selling video game of the holiday season. According to a CP+B stat, the BK games have been played more than 20 million times, translating into about 1,302 years worth of game play/time with The King.
Burger King, said Benjamin, had the decided advantage of built-in distribution through its network of restaurants. “But now companies like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are making distribution more readily available in that they recognize the opportunity for advertising,” related Benjamin. “That’s why you see things like the Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Store [online] which are set up to distribute games…And you have accountability in the gaming space. You can track the minutes being played on Xbox Live for example.”
Benjamin notes that CP+B is trying to build up its in-house capability for creating games given the aggressive timeline in advertising. That’s one of the major challenges for agencies and clients looking to get into the gaming space, he noted, adding that the three BK games were created in six months.
Another prime challenge is that a number of people may be predisposed to reject games from advertisers. However, said Benjamin, “If the game is good, the players are out there.”
Webby winner KFC’s Chooseyoursauce.com was a choice project in a couple of respects. Conceived by DraftFCB, Chicago, the interactive Internet game turned out to be the choice of industry judges who recently bestowed upon it a Gold Webby Award. And the game itself is centered on the choices we make. Game players, along with a small cast of office characters, get into unexpected situations and mischief. Each scene ends with the player making one of three choices which in turn leads to another scene with three more choices and so on. The scenarios connect to the KFC Flavor Station promotion which offers customers a choice of three dipping sauces for their boneless wings. Players could also enter a sweepstakes entitling them to free KFC food for a year.
“We wanted to go after a younger audience with Flavor Station,” related David T. Jones, senior VP/group creative director at DraftFCB, Chicago. “The metaphor of different types of sauces for the choices we make in life and being empowered to make those choices proved appealing to that youth audience. KFC was interested in new platforms, and this game was the ideal choice to do justice to the concept. You couldn’t easily express choice taking you in different directions in a traditional broadcast commercial or even conventionally online. So we created a microsite that had an online video experience that changed based on your choices.”
Jones affirmed, “I believe in advergaming. What excites me is you can fully dimensionalize an idea–small moments, big moments, funny moments. The script for this project was like a crazy family tree branching off into different directions. We printed it out on giant paper and the script was 17 feet long. The depth of the creative is incredible. For a 30-second spot, you shoot hours of footage and cut it down. For this we shot days of film and cut it down into hours. People can spend time with the gaming experience and get something different from it every time. It’s engineered so that the more time you spend, the more fun you have, with so many dimensions–fighting ninjas, winning the girl, losing the girl, being discovered for your interpretative dance talent.
“For clients, I’m a believer in advergaming,” continued Jones, “based on its power to connect with people in meaningful ways. For the client, the value is to experiment in emerging platforms, to reach consumers you might be missing with just broadcast, to engage that consumer in a lean-forward rather than a lean-back experience.”
Chooseyoursauce.com was directed by Kohl Norville of Z Group Films, Chicago, and edited by Phillip Marinari of Red Car, Chicago. The project entailed the deployment of Second City improvisational comedy performers, including T.J. Miller who just had his primetime series pilot picked up by ABC.
The DraftFCB creative team included Jones, writer Jonathan Richman, art director Alex Zamiar, exec producer Ivo Knesevic and producer Zoe Garcia.
Red Car’s Marinari noted that the KFC job represented a different way to approach editorial. “I got directly involved with the project as early as the pre-pro. We had a giant flowchart that organized all the scenes, which had to have a sense of continuity without being dependent on a linear story since the player is the one who ultimately writes it. This chart took up two whole walls in my edit suite and was continually evolving throughout the entire job. Pre-pro revealed how massive the project really was.”
GRAW2
Darin Swan is a gamer, which comes in handy in that he serves as gaming account supervisor at BBDO Detroit. Among the agency’s recent endeavors is a 360-degree program linking the Dodge Avenger with Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW2). The vehicle is seen in the game, parked on streets along with generic automobiles that players can get behind as a shield. The Avenger is also advertised on select billboards as part of the cityscape.
Beyond integration into the game, the 360-degree program–that had BBDO working with DoubleFusion and Ubisoft–entailed other ways in which the Avenger and GRAW2 are linked. Dodge Avenger had an in-store presence/promotion (as well as inclusion in retail circulars) at Best Buy, Avenger presence in the Prima Official Tournament Guide (which gamers refer to for shortcuts and help in playing the game) and on GamesRadar.com, a PR campaign and an online GRAW2 tournament with the grand prize being an ’08 Dodge Avenger.
“It’s a multimedia approach which puts the Avenger in sync with the gamer audience,” said Swan, noting that another component was a minute-and-a-half commercial in which Ubisoft and Avenger were partnered. The spot, which featured GRAW2 and the Avenger sweepstakes prize, played during UFC Fight Night on Spike TV.
“From a program management perspective, you want to get the right exposure for your client,” related Swan. “But that has to be balanced with a gamer’s perspective. I play video games religiously and I don’t want to have a product put before me in a forced manner. The branding has to be more holistic, feel like it belongs. That’s the biggest challenge for an advertiser/marketer.”
And it’s a challenge that’s fast becoming a necessity to take on. “People are migrating away from TV and radio, consuming media in a much different way,” said Swan. “Gamers are young but there are also PC gamers now in the mid-40s. They are all immersed in their own personal entertainment. This is a group that wants to be in a TV show instead of just watching a show. And our industry needs to leverage that, to tap into that..”
Meet Larry Saltzman, The Musician Who Taught Timothรฉe Chalamet To Play Guitar Like Bob Dylan For “A Complete Unknown”
He's not a movie buff, so New York musician Larry Saltzman doesn't always watch the Oscars. This year, however, he's got a rooting interest.
Saltzman taught actor Timothรฉe Chalamet how to play guitar for the role of Bob Dylan in "A Complete Unknown." In turn, Chalamet earned a best actor nomination and the film is also up for best picture at the Academy Awards on Sunday.
A guitarist who's performed with Simon & Garfunkel, Bette Midler and David Johansen, as well as in the pit at Broadway productions "Hairspray" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," Saltzman has developed a specialty in teaching actors how to play music for their roles. Besides Chalamet, recent pupils have included Adam Driver and Sadie Sink of "Stranger Things."
On a fellow musician's recommendation, Saltzman first got a call from a movie studio about a decade ago. He admits to being cranky as discussions dragged on. "I almost did everything to talk them out of hiring me," he said.
Not until the fifth phone call did the studio identify the client: Meryl Streep.
She needed to learn the electric guitar for her starring role in the 2015 film "Ricki and the Flash," where she portrayed an aging rocker trying to keep her career and life together in the wake of a series of disappointments.
Working with Streep is a little like a political consultant's first client being elected president. If she likes you and word gets around, other students will follow. Teaching actors now represents about 40% of his business, the 69-year-old said.
"My time spent with her was excellent," he said of Streep. "She's smart. She knows how to learn things. There was a steady progress over three or four months. She did very well."
Faking it just won't do for serious actors... Read More