[MUD-Dev] Advertising Thread

[Richard Aihoshi aka Jonric]

At 01:24 PM 21/08/02 -0400, "Dave Rickey"
<daver at mythicentertainment.com> wrote:
> From: "Brad McQuaid" <bmcquaid at cox.net>
>> Russ Whiteman said:

>>> Again, I'd call anything and everything that is designed to get
>>> the product into the public eye, marketing.  It doesn't
>>> -require- magazine ads, TV commercials, or launch
>>> parties...although those -do- tend to be the result of hiring
>>> professionals to run the show. Non-professionals, especially
>>> -passionate- non-professionals -can- do an effective job with
>>> the lower cost alternatives...I think your case proves that.

>> Actually, that was exactly the point I was trying to make :) I
>> think we're in agreement: EQ showed that one doesn't necessarily
>> need higher-cost 'professional' marketing to get the word out and
>> sell MMOGs.  Or at least one didn't in 1997-1998, when most of the
>> 'grass roots' PR was occurring.  Perhaps one could argue
>> effectively now that times/conditions have changed...?

> Not as of last year.  We *really* didn't do enough traditional
> advertising or get enough ink for Camelot to account for our
> sales, most of it had to have come from word of mouth.  For that
> matter, has SWG had enough advertising to account for 139,000 beta
> signups?

This does not take into account that all potential customers are not
created equal.  Prior to launch, DAoC, partly through the efforts of
some guy named Dave Rickey working on some site called Camelot
Vault, reached a very high proportion of those gamers who were most
likely to buy the product at or near launch (aka early adopters);
i.e. if there had been no traditional advertising at all, almost all
the prime target market would have been exposed to the game anyway,
just a bit less.  And reaching the core target audience is far more
important than reaching gazillions of people who are either not
likely to buy at all or who wait and see rather than buying
immediately.

Cheers.
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