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Video Game Launch Marketing You Can Learn From – Call of Duty

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Play video games? Maybe you think they are just for kids and there is no money to be made. Think again.

Did you know the two biggest entertainment launches in history were NOT The Dark Knight or Avatar but two games from the Call Of Duty video game series?

$360,000,000 on the FIRST day of release is not too shabby, eh? Especially when your only competition is from the year’s prior launch of the previous title that sold 4.7 Million units in ONE day (2 in a row…and counting).

To put that in some perspective, games retail at $60, about 3 times more than CDs from major artists. So someone like Beyonce, Taylor Swift, or even Michael Jackson would have to go just over 14 TIMES PLATINUM in 24 hours to compete with those sales figures. The Dark Knight would have had to more than DOUBLE it’s opening WEEKEND to get those same figures. And that’s just to beat last years launch that they already blew away.

So how did they do it and what can you learn from it?

Take Pre-Orders

  • COD: An estimated 2.5 Million of the units were pre-sales. Retailer took as little as $5.00 down to secure the game on the day of release.
  • YOU: Get a small financial commitment from your leads first.

Midnight Launch

  • COD: Over 12,000 retailers participated in the midnight launch keeping doors open to make sure hungry fans got their copies right at 12:01 AM.
  • YOU: Recruit affiliates and target potential joint venture partners and strictly enforce launch timing.

Offer Special Editions

  • COD: Offered “in-game” bonus for pre-orders, offered special edition game console branded COD.
  • YOU: Do you have an “upgraded” edition to pre-sell? Do you even have an upsell?

Integrated Jeep Campaign

  • COD: Jeep spent millions on TV ads promoting the video game. COD had created a virtual “in-game” version of a special edition Black Ops Jeep.
  • YOU: Can you “co-op” with another powerful brand congruent with your offer?

Leveraged Online Video

  • COD: Produced and distributed teaser videos online through blogs and their own channels. There are millions upon millions of views for each of the videos in the search result on YouTube
  • YOU: Video is easier to create and distribute than ever. When did you last update your YouTube account?

Page Load Speed Matters More Than You Think

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Every millisecond counts. You may not notice, but your visitors do.

MindValleyLabs got a new server that made page load a few milliseconds faster. Revenue was boosted 20%.

Akamai and JupiterResearch find 4 seconds to be slowest your page can load. They found page load times the 2nd most important factor in it’s site ranking next to prices. Wow.

Marrisa Mayer of Google knows how important speed is. Google tested serving more search results that slowed down the page by about half of a second. This dramatically hurt traffic and revenue.

BOTTOM LINE: Be mindful of your page load time. If your site is taking longer thatn 4 seconds to load pause your PPC campaigns. I do it all the time, and it’s worth it.

Do You Know How To Make An Idea Stick?

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Guy K. posted his review and interview of the new book "Make It Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath. The book discusses what makes ideas stick in the publics mind. Read reviews here. Along with the interview, Guy has posted a Stickiness Aptitude Test that will help you take measure of how sticky YOUR new idea might really be.

BOTTOM LINE: I plan on reading this book. One theme I see from the posts, Amazon, and the SAT is that simplicity is a big part of stickiness, especially in the pitch. For instance…

  • (about the birth of Southwest Airlines in a bar) "… the original core idea fit on a cocktail napkin."
  • (about how ALIEN was pitched, one sentence analogy) "JAWS on a spaceship."

LINKS:

  • YouBlog– Cocktail napkin presentations, how to
  • MUST READ! WhoHasTimeForThis?– Practicing The Art of Pitchcraft, elevator pitching

RANDOM GREAT IDEA: I think I should start a site (pitch-on-a-napkin.com?) where people can submit their great ideas. Your idea can be big, crazy, and even require tons of dough…but it still has to be simple to communicate. So the catch is that you have to be able to pitch the idea in only 3 sentences (or some small character limit) and a picture on the back of a napkin that you upload. People can post comments on other ideas with their own napkins, seeing who can make the most simple napkin pitch from the same idea.