Posts Tagged ‘product placement’

Gaming Product Placement Gone Wrong

Monday, May 18th, 2009

I’m starting to feel a little guilty for bashing Gatorade again on this blog. After twice firing at its “Got G?” campaign, it could look like some kind of personal vendetta. But I actually love the Gatorade brand and it is my choice for both after-hoops hydration and a drink to go with lunch at the deli. Maybe it’s because I love the brand so much that it kills me to see its marketing perform so poorly. I was actually hopeful last week when I saw the title of an article in Advertising Age about Gatorade winning an advertising award for its integration in the NBA 2K9 video game. Alas, I found the in-game placement anything but meaningful.

The product placement in question is a new addition for the annual NBA 2kX game franchise. For years, this popular NBA game with real players and teams has included advertising integration. Most of the in-game advertising mimics the real world. There are ads on and around the court, sponsored breaks in the action, and real branded clothing worn by the virtual players. I believe players accept and actually like these kinds of ads because they make the game seem more real. That said, they are pretty low on the meaning scale and likely become more wallpaper than anything.

This year the game did something new for Gatorade (at a special price, of course). It added something special, as best described in the brand’s application for a Cream award:

The Gatorade Thirst Meter [was] integrated seamlessly with the game’s artificial intelligence to recognize when a player was becoming dehydrated and losing energy. The “Gatorade Recommended Substitution” took over to designate which players should hit the bench for a quick Gatorade refill in real time. Once the player was sufficiently hydrated and his energy levels restored, he went back into the action. Dehydrated players who were not subbed out, began to show sluggish performance, indicated by a green Gatorade cup.

Marketers absolutely love this idea. Advertising Age wrote it up nicely, and it won the People’s Choice  Cream Award (those people being marketing folks) for Best Use of Gaming and Game Platforms. What’s not for a marketer to love? The brand being forced into the game play itself—that’s a high score!

Here’s where it gets interesting: Most game reviewers disliked the Gatorade integration. I searched beyond the marketers’ fawning and found some well-known reviewers who specifically pointed out Gatorade’s brand overload in both the Thirst Meter and its many other sign placements. For example:

  • “The biggest eyesore is the realistic overload of product placement. From the T-Mobile halftime report to Team Jordan player of the game to the Gatorade Thirst Meter, it gets exhausting.” —Planet Xbox 360
  • “Two things that do affect game play, however, are the Gatorade logos at the beginning of the half and the play-calling menus. Both obscure a large portion of the screen, often making it impossible to see the ball handler. This is inexcusable. —CNet Reviews
  • “NBA 2K9 features a mix of useful, interesting, and somewhat silly features. In the silly department is the Gatorade “thirst meter” icons that appear if a player is getting tired. Previous games already had fatigue meters, so this is apparently a creative way to get some extra ad revenue.” —Game Trailers.com
  • “The in-game presentation is rather well done as far as the graphical displays go, with the score and stats being easily viewed. Some advertisements, particularly the Gatorade one, block a portion of the screen.” —Total PlayStation.com

I think the big issue here is that the Gatorade Thirst Meter crosses the line because it has little to do with real-world game play. Players want realism; they want to try and feel what it is like to play in the real game. Real games do not feature the issue of hydration. Yes, players get tired and need to hit the bench for a bit. Yes, they might grab a cup of Gatorade (or whatever brand has paid millions to be the official drink of the NBA). But coaches, players, and announcers do not focus on a cup of whatever as a key part of the game.

Most gamers might tolerate this, but, as the reviews suggest, the makers of NBA 2K9 had better be very careful. Games for consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation sell for $40 to $60 a pop, while the company makes considerably less than $1 per unit from advertising integration ($1 would be a CPM of $1,000, by the way). So, just a handful of pissed-off game players could destroy the economics of these games.

There are many, many other great opportunities for brand integration into games that actually can help sell more games. My favorite examples are the bands that are providing free songs for Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and I love how the movie Tropic Thunder provided an add-on scavenger hunt level for the game Rainbox 6: Vegas 2.

At the end of the day, game marketing must be completely focused on adding value to the gaming experience. Gatorade might have won over the marketing gurus, but I doubt the players came away smiling.

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Posted in Marketing Without Meaning | 3 Comments »

Product Placement on the News?

Friday, July 25th, 2008

Studies show that we see 3,000 ads per day – and growing. Some companies are discovering how meaningful marketing can be a break from the pressure to interrupt, and I enjoy telling their stories here. But others are determined to find new ways to break into our brains with novel interruptions. McDonald’s has followed the latter path again, this time by paying for drink placement on the morning news of a Fox affiliate in Las Vegas (KVVU).

In analyzing this move, let’s first get the meaning question out of the way. I see no way in which McDonald’s sponsorship of the show can be considered a value-add to KVVU’s viewers. The same program appears, the same number of commercials are run, but one more unavoidable ad is layered on top of the news broadcast. You could even call it an unavoidable “pop up” ad. It’s just another (very clever) interruption.

Not only is this sponsorship lacking in meaning, but I think it crosses a line. Those of us who have spent any time in the news business (The Duke Chronicle for me) know that there is a fairly clear separation between “church and state.” Now, I admit that the local morning news – especially the Fox variant – is not exactly considered the temple of journalism. But it isn’t Coke on American Idol – it’s still the news. And it’s unfair for the news anchors, who are basically giving a personal endorsement to an iced tea in order to keep their jobs – thus further weakening their self-respect as journalists.

I find it interesting that the Meredith Corporation owns this and several other local networks that allow product placement on their news programs. Interestingly, Meredith has built a network of advertising agencies and does some in-house creative work for advertisers in its magazines. Perhaps that’s part of why the line is blurrier there.

The New York Times also reports that the cups of McDonald’s will be taken down in the event that the news team has to report something negative about the McDonald’s Corporation:

If there were a story going up, let’s say, God forbid, about a McDonald’s food illness outbreak or something negative about McDonald’s, I would expect that the station would absolutely give us the opportunity to pull our product off set,” said Brent Williams, account supervisor at Karsh/Hagan, the advertising agency that arranged the deal between McDonald’s and KVVU.”

I can see how cool business logic could allow for smart people to invest in product placement on a TV morning show. It makes a ton of sense to plant the seed of McDonald’s breakfast items just as people are hitting the road and consciously or unconsciously thinking about breakfast. Heck, it might even be a huge ROI for the company. But my gut is that today’s viewers will be just as likely to start a boycott against McDonald’s as they are to start a new iced coffee habit. Is it surprising that the FCC is beginning a move to regulate product placement run amok?

McDonald’s should have learned its lesson from the negative PR and late night television jokes about its advertising on report cards in Florida elementary schools. I think there are many other ways that McDonald’s can use its marketing to add value to consumers’ lives. This would include anything from a coupon newsletter to furthering its terrific Ronald McDonald House program. Such interruption tactics weaken the brand image in our minds and do nothing for long-term equity or loyalty.  Not to mention the fact that they don’t help the cause when cities such as L.A. want to ban your restaurant completely.

While McDonald’s might enjoy a tiny boost in its multibillion-dollar bottom line as a result of this program, I think it’s another way that our industry is killing itself and, frankly, weakening society. As Auburn marketing professor, Herbert Jack Rotfeld says, “In the end, they just make the audiences even more skeptical of everything.”

(thanks to Umair Haque for the find)

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Posted in Marketing Without Meaning | 1 Comment »