[MUD-Dev] Advertising Thread

[Damion Schubert]

>From Marc Bowden
> --On Thursday, August 22, 2002 11:53 AM -0500 Damion Schubert 
> <damion at ninjaneering.com> wrote:
 
>> EverQuest did, however, have -HUGE- buzz, which is to say that
>> the people who played early on said enough good things about the
>> game to help the game hit critical mass quickly.  However, buzz
>> should not be confused with advertising.
 
> Technically, no. However, it achieved the same ends in the case of
> EQ - it raised the awareness level. Good *or* bad publicity
> (whether it's true or not) will get people who wouldn't have
> otherwise done so to poke their head into a game. Look at the
> backfired attempt to run out Grand Theft Auto III as an example.

Buzz is not publicity is not advertising is not marketing.  All four
are related, but they are not the same.  Advertising is paid-for
messages, usually in traditional media.  Buzz is one possible result
of that advertising.  The significant difference between buzz and
the others is that it is almost impossible to predict, and often
feels to ad executives like it is completely out of their control.

In the case of EverQuest, they spent surprisingly little on
advertising and marketing for the game (compared to other games with
similar sales figures), but earned remarkable buzz anyway.  My
conversations with members of that team at the time suggested that
they (not to mention the people above them that control the
marketing bucks) were surprised by the success of the game.

I always knew that advertising degree would come in handy someday.

--d

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