advertising

My brother bought a PS3 about a week ago, and every game I’ve seen has been littered with ads… so why do the games cost more than ever? I don’t play as many video games as I used to (about 30 mins a day while I ride an excercise bike) so I’m not really an expert on the subject, but it seems to me that some of the cost should be coming out of the games.

I’m sure the answer is either: people pay so they charge OR OEMs are losing money on the systems and have to make it up on the games. But the ads are getting a little overboard for the lack of cost savings to the end user. Add to that, I’ve noticed some games have gotten rid of their celebrity announcers, which undoubtedly saves a good chunk of change - most notably the Madden Franchise no longer has Madden calling the games (sure he hasn’t said anything coherent in a few years, but the game is named after him). So tell me, why are the games still so expensive?

Way back, before I even had a wordpress blog, I blogged about the Pontiac ad that ends with Google Pontiac to find out more. I thought that it made sense, but…it doesn’t seem to work. Looking at Google trends, it doesn’t appear that the ad has made any impact on the search volume. The fluctuation in search volume seems to be consistent with all prior search data. So, what’s point??

It generated some buzz, but apparently not enough to change customer behavior. As I said in the earlier post, it seems to be more of a recognition of the new norm, rather than a really inspiring move. The problem as I see it, is the Pontiac site. If Googling pontiac took me to some really great site (not the same old car site that every brand has) then the campaign would be exciting. The campaign needs to hit all aspects of web presence, from the initial search to the eventual site interaction, and even interaction on other sites (youtube, myspace, etc) - otherwise don’t expect anything to change.

… unless the alternative is paying for a service. I checked out MyYearbook.com (a proclaimed MySpace killer) and discovered that the primary reason that people said that they preferred it, was because it did not have ads. With all of the negativity toward advertising online and on the web, it’s likely that the next business models will give the option of paying directly or viewing ads. Given that choice people always prefer ads. Without a business model all of these supposedly great services coming out won’t last - so why isn’t this happening in web 2.0?