MORE ADVERTISEMENT!

[plopp]

The problem is in game and platform, not in ads

This is maybe why people leave the game. But it's not the reason people don't know about the game. I agree with you though, they should fix it and then advertise.

The thing is we are talking about one-two TV advertisements up to for 500 000$ of money. You really think there are enough people that will get interested and buy the game to cover up that expense?

So the thread is about TV ads? I didn't read it all the way through. But I think that advertising on the internet would be better and cheaper. The people that are interested in games are not watching TV as much as checking youtube videos and other stuff on the internet.

Sponsors want to see many players and want to see tournaments with many viewers first. It has to be publishers/developers investment first, it is the only way to get sponsors.

A game needs many players to get many viewers. I don't follow the logic. Exactly how would a tournament attract new players? Tournaments (if advertised) will bring hardcore gamers that wants to compete. Thing is the majority of players are more casual players. Therefore shootmania will need to attract the casual gamers and THEN make tournaments with the sponsors they gain.

The most efficient way to bring in players, IMO, is first organize tournaments, not one, but at leat two in a year, advertise them as budget allows.

I can't think of any game company that has made tournaments before advertisement. You need a player base to organize tournaments, you don't need one to advertise the game.

[PapyChampy]

I mainly agree with Plopp.

Players will come over time, this is only the beginning of Maniaplanet. And this may be sooner than you think.

@ Viper : of course you/some involved community members play more than us. That doesn't mean that team members are oblivious.

[Omnixor]

Players will come over time, this is only the beginning of Maniaplanet. And this may be sooner than you think.

nadeo is talking about it for 2 years already... no progress yet.

[nikooo26]

Maybe thanks to the Paris games week coming in 2 months!

[PapyChampy]

Players will come over time, this is only the beginning of Maniaplanet. And this may be sooner than you think.

nadeo is talking about it for 2 years already... no progress yet.

Well, progress has been made. (The Elite invitations being an example of this.)
As I said, more to come in the near future.

[viperozza]

Players will come over time, this is only the beginning of Maniaplanet. And this may be sooner than you think.
.

As you said, this may be the beginning. But if you are already loosing players at the beginning, something is wrong in your policy.

[djhubertus]

The Elite invitations being an example of this

Maybe i'm wrong but every player want OPEN free demo, not this closed demo "crap".

Also i think that You (Nadeo) after open beta don't do what is important to improve and add but to make as non-user friendly as possible. (Good example is also in options and some features in maniaplanet which is hidden in shortcuts or in interface).

[Alexey85]

[...]

The thing is we are talking about one-two TV advertisements up to for 500 000$ of money. You really think there are enough people that will get interested and buy the game to cover up that expense?

So the thread is about TV ads? I didn't read it all the way through. But I think that advertising on the internet would be better and cheaper. The people that are interested in games are not watching TV as much as checking youtube videos and other stuff on the internet.[...]

The thread is not only about TV ads, but OP suggested to run TV ads for the price of $100k - 500k per run. I argue that would be a waste and if to put those money into tournaments instead that would bring in more new players, more tournament viewers and attract sponsors for next tournaments.
If to consider just the internet ads, that are a lot cheaper than to organize a tournament, I support that. Placing banners here and there, some video on youtube is not a big deal anyway, there is nothing to discuss.

[...]

Sponsors want to see many players and want to see tournaments with many viewers first. It has to be publishers/developers investment first, it is the only way to get sponsors.

A game needs many players to get many viewers. I don't follow the logic. Exactly how would a tournament attract new players? Tournaments (if advertised) will bring hardcore gamers that wants to compete. Thing is the majority of players are more casual players. Therefore shootmania will need to attract the casual gamers and THEN make tournaments with the sponsors they gain.[...]

If we are talking about sponsors for tournaments, really sponsors care about how much stream viewers and live attendees they will get. If they see there are many players play the game, they might take a risk and sponsor a tournament. Otherwise they want to see past tournaments that had many viewers. But SM doesn't have such tournaments, so publisher has to invest in two - four tournaments first, that will bring in more viewers, rise the hype and increase the popularity of the game, then sponsors will be coming for the next tournaments. As for how tournaments bring in new players. Don't underestimate interest of casuals to watch a big well produced tournament. I, for one, stopped playing SC2 quite a while ago, but I watch major tournaments, and many others do the same way. Of course you have to advertise it somehow, order news articles at major gaming sites, etc. Also, people tend to share about such things themselves, they post on forums, reddit. If you can't attract a casual simply to check out a well produced tournament stream for free, how are you going to attract him to pay for the game, which is a mere skillbased comptetitive FPS without even compelling singleplayer campain? Look at the thread about Insomnia event, how people well received Shootmania there and there were 2000 viewers. I doubt all of them had competitive mindset, huge part of them were casuals, if not most of them. And this wasn't even a major event for ShootMania. Tournaments do the best job at promoting a skillbased competitive game. It would be a waste to invest a big budget into ads only, instead of tournaments + cheap internet ads and articles about the tournaments.

As a side note. I think it was a mistake to spend entire limited budget on that single launch event. After the event I think a lot more people got interested at least to check out the next one, because of articles, discussions on the internet, and viewers telling about it to their friends. They should have split the prize and budget in two and organize two tournaments, or better throw in some more money and do three in one year. The second tournament would get a lot more attention then.

[hiro]

To everyone who is new to marketing and advertising and wants to take part in this conversation! Please watch the video below before posting random assumptions about how things work. This beginner guide explains one of the most simple aspects of marketing and is a good, fun way to gather some basic knowledge.

↓↓↓ What is Viral Marketing? (VIDEO) ↓↓↓


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fXEgO2iL7Y
Video is only 2min 40sec long, you can do it!


This thread is about the lack of ads for SM, not about the game's design or whatever. Stay focused and try to think of a constructive way to sell the product and make it popular. WITH ACTUAL SOLUTIONS.


Remind yourself that this discussion is about business standpoints not personal wishful thinking. Marketing is nothing but calculating a profitable way to manipulate the masses in the most subtle way to increase interest in your product.


And grumping over NADEOs ways of doing things doesn't help this discussion either. Yes, they have made bad decisions in the past. That's how things work and it's unavoidable in the long term. But they also made promising decisions that many of you overlook. Check out more marketing videos & articles to get a better knowledge of how things actually work in the business world. It's really interesting.




BTW: The friend invite system (for non-players) is actually a good way to make a game more popular. NADEOs system is just too strict (limited modes access) due to the fear of not making enough profit. Make Elite free for all, that's a reasonable thing to do.

[plopp]

If we are talking about sponsors for tournaments, really sponsors care about how much stream viewers and live attendees they will get. If they see there are many players play the game, they might take a risk and sponsor a tournament. Otherwise they want to see past tournaments that had many viewers. But SM doesn't have such tournaments, so publisher has to invest in two - four tournaments first, that will bring in more viewers, rise the hype and increase the popularity of the game, then sponsors will be coming for the next tournaments.

The thing is, as you said, sponsors needs stream viewers and people that watches the game generally. But tournaments are the second step imo. First advertisement to make people interested in the game. With more players comes more viewers. Then they can make tournaments with all these players either playing or watching. This makes the sponsors interested.

As for how tournaments bring in new players. Don't underestimate interest of casuals to watch a big well produced tournament. I, for one, stopped playing SC2 quite a while ago, but I watch major tournaments, and many others do the same way. Of course you have to advertise it somehow, order news articles at major gaming sites, etc.

You keep watching tournaments, yeah. But did you start playing by watching a torunament? Also SC2 was big even before it was released because Blizzard is such a big company. And Blizzard games already had a huge community before the release.

Look at the thread about Insomnia event, how people well received Shootmania there and there were 2000 viewers. I doubt all of them had competitive mindset, huge part of them were casuals, if not most of them. And this wasn't even a major event for ShootMania. Tournaments do the best job at promoting a skillbased competitive game. It would be a waste to invest a big budget into ads only, instead of tournaments + cheap internet ads and articles about the tournaments.

While there were over 2000 people on the stream, there were merely about 10 people chatting. These people were mostly from the shootmania community. Those who weren't were only there to bash the game or to ask when sc2 or LoL started. Most of the viewers probably had the stream open to hear when the next game were on (unfortunately).

With that said, those who were there live probably was there to watch the game which is fantastic. But it was not enough people to make the game popular.

As a side note. I think it was a mistake to spend entire limited budget on that single launch event. After the event I think a lot more people got interested at least to check out the next one, because of articles, discussions on the internet, and viewers telling about it to their friends. They should have split the prize and budget in two and organize two tournaments, or better throw in some more money and do three in one year. The second tournament would get a lot more attention then.

(These are only speculations and not necessarily the truth)
The plan with this was to get some advertisement for the game since it originally was planned for IPL. But when IPL didn't happen they couldn't just take all back. So they probably hoped the people who got interested from reading about it for IPL would watch it anyways.

But the big mistake they did were to not advertise enough. People probably didn't know when it took place. Even I, who was a really active player, didn't know when it was.