Giving Thanks wwwwY Style

It’s that time of year.
“Black Friday” ads are being “leaked” left and right, and every time I turn on the Food Network I see another new recipe for stuffing.  Boy do I love Thanksgiving.

I love everything about the holiday; I love the football, the food, the family, the trip home and the sales.  It’s my favorite holiday.

This year at wwwwY we’re going to do our own take on a Thanksgiving tradition.  The act of “giving thanks” is common, and Devin and I have decided to give thanks to that which we are thankful for this year.

Yes, I am thankful for my friends, thankful for my health and thankful for my wonderful family; but this isn’t that kind of “thanks”.  I want to give thanks wwwwY style.  Give thanks to those things that I as a member of Gen Y use and appreciate every day, that we may now take for granted.

So here it goes: I am thankful for…

Apple – When I custom ordered my Mac Book Pro two years ago it would be an understatement to say I was excited.  I couldn’t wait to ditch windows, its freezing, crashing and slowness.  I felt like my personal efficiency would be increased ten-fold.  I had no idea how right I would be.  My Mac is by far the best computer I have ever used.  To be able to have four programs open and not have to worry about the computer crashing, is nice piece of mind to have.  It’s sleek, it’s sexy, it’s productivity in a nutshell, it’s a Mac.  No wonder why half of all computer owning college students own Macs.

Mashable – I want to dub them the king of social media; the king of the internet; the king of technology… I’ll just call them the king of everything Gen Y.  Mashable is one of the most informative, entertaining, cutting edge sites out there.  Chances are, if you have any sort of interest in social media, you know and visit Mashable regularly.  If you don’t, you should probably crawl out from under your rock and go there now and catch up on what you have been missing.  Hats off to the staff at Mashable.  Way to be the best source of internet information on the internet.

Tivo/Netflix – I am thankful for my two main forms of consumption of media.  I have been a devoted Tivo’er for years.  I constantly see others with cable companys’ DVRs and it frankly they just don’t cut it.  Tivo is a far simpler and easier product.  It makes it so I can watch TV on my own time; and when you’re busy, it’s a great freedom to have.  Netflix is another great entertainment service which has become a major player in the entertainment game.  In the past couple of years they have really stepped up their service and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves TV and movies. 

No longer is Netflix just about the well run home delivery.  They have evolved into an instant form of entertainment.  With their highly reliable online streaming option you always have the opportunity to watch something good, and they’re always adding new content.  Within the last month Netflix has taken their “instant” capabilities to the next level by adding their service to the PS3 and making their other streaming compatible devices much more available.  Netflix has done a lot to not only improve their service, but their branding as well.  They have done a great job advertising over all sorts of different mediums and been entertaining while doing it. 

Commercials that Think Outside the Box – I’m so tired of the same old product based commercial formula: introduce the product, show the product, talk about it’s advantages, and sign off the product.  This formula, although effective at times, can be so boring.  We’ve seen it a hundred times.  I want commercials to SHOW ME SOMETHING.  I appreciate when commercials take a risk.  Call someone out like Carl’s Junior is calling out McDonalds or Droid called out the iPhone.  Make a bold claim like the new salad mix commercials with no dressing necessary, or push the envelope like Reebok.  Clutter and overstimulation are something that Gen Y has learned to overcome.  Push the envelope and pull us in, you’ll be rewarded.

GPS – I thought Mapquest was an amazing invention, but thats so 2004.  Since GPS is easily available and affordable (like on my cell phone), there is no excuse to be lost ever again.  With turn-by-turn live directions, I always know where I’m going.  This has saved me from more potential headaches than any other product.  I would recommend everyone, young and old, get a GPS system – you’ll never get lost and never need a map again.  This I am very thankful for

Texting (SMS) – The tried and true method of communication for Gen Y. Texting is the form of communication which became popular because of Gen Y and will stay popular because of Gen Y.  It’s our medium.  Sometimes I don’t need to have a full phone conversation.  Sometimes I need a quick question answered.  Sometimes I need to talk to someone when a phone call isn’t appropriate.  Text messaging solves all these problems.  Gotta love it.

I am a very thankful person, I am very grateful for all I have.  To my friends and family I love you all and you are the reason I am who I am today.  Thank you for being the most important part of my life.  To all the things I mentioned above, thank you for being innovative and making my life a little better and easier.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

As we thought: Modern Warfare 2 Destroys Records

 

MW2 had the biggest release ever

 

Just a followup on our Modern Warfare 2 extravaganza last week.  It was said that the pre orders broke every record for a video game.  Well the official numbers were just released.

In the first 24 hours of its release Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7 million copies.  A total of $310 million in the first 24 hours of sales.  Not bad for a release.

In the first week MW2 made over $550 million in sales.  This first week of sales topped the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the opening weekends for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and the opening of The Dark Night

So lets clarify this, not only was Modern Warfare 2 the biggest opening for a video game ever; BUT THE BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND EVER!

WOW.

This is due to a great product, a devoted fan-base and an amazing marketing and launch campaign.  Infinity Ward has been rewarded for a great campaign.

Now excuse me when I log on to go play on PSN.

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How wise is sponsorship?

So, with college hoops back in season, I’m back to watching at least an hour of games per night.

And it seems like these preseason tourneys are overloaded with product sponsors. Tonight, I’m watching Louisville and Arkansas, and the court has huge Bud Light logos on each end, and apparently the 3-second area is sponsored by Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Now, I’m not a purist, and I have no problem with corporate logos and sponsorship being a part of sports.

But I don’t understand what’s in it for the companies. It seems like an odd choice of spending your sponsorship dollars. I don’t know how much the Scotttrade Center in St. Louis charges to Reese’s logo in the paint, but wouldn’t you get more out of your investment by hiring a sampling team to hand out your latest innovation?

The same is true of TV. How much more does it cost a sponsor to have their name mentioned before the show, as opposed to just running a commercial? Last night, CBS Monday Night shows were brought to us by T-Mobile. Still don’t care, not buying T-Mobile. Although my opinion of the brand is aided more by Catherine Zeta Jones then it is by sponsoring Accidentally on Purpose.

I’ve always been a much bigger fan of product samplings and product placement. One of the brands that has done the best job with product placement in the past few months is Izze, the sparkling juice brand. Izze shows up in shows like Entourage, the Big Bang Theory, and Grey’s Anatomy. And people notice the clear glass bottle, think to themselves, “hey, I saw that at Starbucks, maybe I should try it.”

Notice that Izze didn’t sponsor any of those shows. And they didn’t pay to have their logo on an already crowded court.

The one type of sponsorship that I am in favor of is when you can grab exclusive commercial sponsor. Subway has done the best job of this. Check out any ESPN Podcast (like the Bill Simmon’s Podcasts, drawing almost 1 million listeners). And it’s sponsored by Subway. Subway gets a couple of chances to plug their sandwiches before and after the podcast, and the chain is mentioned constantly. It’s a great tie-in, and more than a few times I’ve left the podcast to grab a sandwich.

PS3 News, Notes and Reviews (11/13/09)

The last week has been a big week for Playstation 3 owners.  At the end of last week, Streaming Netflix came to the PS3.  On Tuesday, Modern Warfare 2 released.  Naturally, I have participated in both events and here are my thoughts:

• Netflix on the PS3 is just plain awesome.  Watched my first movie as soon as I received my disk in the mail and the picture quality was great.  It looked like I had a regular DVD playing.  You can also surf the movies available, rate movies and pretty much everything else Netflix owners know and love.  The Streaming Netflix on the PS3 has great functionality along with a great picture.  A must have for all Netflix and PS3 owners.
• Modern Warfare 2 launched at midnight Tuesday morning.  With what was the biggest pre-order for a game ever for Gamestop, there were lines out the doors.  With 4200 Gamestops opening their doors at midnight, that meant for big crowds all over the country.  I attended an opening in San Diego and there were at-least 200 people there waiting to pick up their copy.  This was a pretty big attendance considering how many stores within a 10 mile radius were having midnight openings.

This was only a third of the line

• So by guestimation 200 people per store, and 4200 stores means roughly 840,000 people picked up a copy of their game at midnight.  This seems relatively accurate as almost 700,000 people were playing online on the Playstation Network at 1am pacific time.
• As for the game, it is one of the best games ever.  I’ve only played the campaign for a few minutes but the first two missions were intense and a lot of fun.  The multiplayer is somehow better than in the original Modern Warfare (which is an impressive feat)
• On a more disappointing note, on Wednesday the PS3 dedicated servers went down for a few hours (thus why I played campaign), they got them back up relatively quickly.
• The party system sucks in MW2.  You can’t meet up with friends.  This is supposed to be fixed with a patch on Friday.  I have to say the two previous problems (server being down and no partying) is quite annoying.  But, I give Activision a lot of credit for their quick response.  This is the kind of attention Gen Y wants (needs).  Way to know your target audience.
• There was another announcement this week saying that Twitter, and Facebook are coming to XBox360 and the PS3.  The two systems are clearly really trying to diversify.

So that’s about it for the PS3 update.  For all you out there who aren’t into the gaming systems remember one thing:  The days of “gaming systems” are over.  Now they are “entertainment systems”.  Marketers need to take note of the functionality of these devices and potentially how they can help them with their marketing in the future.

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Boston Celtics tickets, now the price of your internet connection

One of the biggest complaints from sports fans in the past 5-10 years is that they’ve been priced out. The price tag on professional games has skyrocketed in the 90s and 00’s (still need a better nickname for that one…)

But, the Boston Celtics think they might have found the answer.

The defending NBA Champs have launched a massive effort to engage with fans online. You can catch locker room exclusives on the team’s youtube channel, and using Twitter to offer seat upgrades during games.

This is a huge shift in the last few months. As early as the start of college football season, the SEC was trying to ban tweeting from the stands during college football games. Now? Teams, leagues and sports that embrace social networking will be helping their popularity, those that don’t will be damaging it.

So what does a Twitter and Facebook presence do for the Celtics?

Well, when they’re winning, like they are right now, it’s not going to drive a ton of revenue. But, teams go through losing streaks. And imagine being able to reach 40,000 of your die-hard fans with an offer like: “5,000 tickets still available for tonight against the Cavs. See Lebron and the C’s for just $10. Call now.”

It’s instant billboarding, instant advertising, etc. It makes life easier for your ticket sales department, since they don’t need to have projected tickets sold out weeks in advance. Unsold tickets can be promoted much faster, as can team events, etc.

And the other department it helps out is the sponsorship department. If you’re using Twitter to drive people to your home-page for exclusive footage, your traffic’s going to rocket up. And that makes it much easier to sell sponsorships. So instead of your home page featuring banner ads for Bob’s windows or a local restaurant chain, you might get Vitamin Water or Geico to buy in.

I’m interested to know if there are other sports franchises out there doing the same thing. If your team is doing this, leave us the link in the comments…

 

Modern Warfare 2: Launch is Here!

MW2 releases 11.10.09

11.10.09

This is a very exciting date for gamers.  The new Modern Warfare 2 releases for PS3, XBox 360 and PC.  The internet has been ablaze with constant updates on the game since the NBA Playoffs when Infinity Ward showed their first teaser trailer.

Modern Warfare 2 is the perfect example of a great IMC campaign, especially for a video game release.  It was a perfect storm: a highly anticipated product, marketed extremely well to the correct target market (Gen Y).

Important to point out: The game had legs to begin with.  The original Modern Warfare was touted as one of the best first person shooters ever made.  The sequel has been anticipated ever since the first one launched.

After announcing the sequel, Infinity Ward used an amazing marketing strategy to keep the hype up for months.  The MW2 team applied a slow leak formula to their communications.  Slowly giving information about the story, game changes, multiplayer, and new Special Ops mode over the matter of 8 months.  They had the internet ablaze with anticipation.

MW2 also had great relationships with video game sites (like IGN), where they would release new info, videos, trailers, and information periodically.  These sites then did a great job marketing their coverage, as it was a big draw for traffic.

MW2 also did a good job co-branding with Monster Energy Drink.  They ran a MW2 promotion of 4 packs of cans where you could win games, free map pack downloads and a viewing of a exclusive MW2 strategy webcase.  That webcast was Tuesday: (here is the link to the videos: STRATEGY).

Many independent blogs devoted to the new game started during the process, giving gamers a “best of” on MW2 news.  These blogs also distributed lots of information that the MW2 team didn’t want releasing.  A premature release of a couple copies of the games happened last week and lots of extra footage was released to the internet; creating more buzz than there was originally.  Infinity Ward might actually want to thank that French Guy that first put his gameplay videos on Justin.tv.

Gamestop also teamed with MW2 to release their Pre-Order contest Surprise Attack.  Usually, gamespot gives away something for pre-ordering a game like a: demo, extra download or perk etc.  This time they teamed with MW2 to launch Surprise Attack, their sister contest site which customers would enter their pre order code to enter in bi-daily raffles for 1000s of prizes.  Prizes ranged anywhere from dog tags or shirts to a snowmobile or hummer.  They did a great job promoting this contest with their co-branded Gamestop MW2 commercial for the pre order:

The proof of the success of the  launch campaign for MW2 is in the industry and market reactions.  Industry wise, most major games decided to push back their releases until 2010.  Other games just couldn’t keep up with the hype, expectations and what will be sales of MW2.  An industry writer wrote something months back saying something like, “It’s not a matter of what game will be game of the year, it a matter of what games could possibly challeneg MW2 for the title.”  How can the industry battle a juggernaut like that?  Well in this case, most couldn’t.

Market wise, Gamestop just reported that Modern Warfare 2 broke every record they had for pre-orders of a game.  More copies have been pre ordered than any game before it.  This means HUGE profits for Gamestop.  Yes, most stores did pre-orders but Gamestop received most of them.  This guarantees them $60 x [However many millions of pre-orders they took].  Not a bad profit that will come 11.10.09.

This massive industry and market wise success is because of the careful planning and strategy that was used for MW2.  It was a marketing campaign on a scale that no video game had ever seen.  Boy did it pay off.  It will be interesting to see if other big release games can try and emulate the success of this campaign in the future?

In case you were wondering, yes I did pre-order it and yes I’ll be picking it up at midnight.  And no I’m not a nerd, I only do it for Madden and COD.

Now I’m wondering; who preordered? Who didn’t? and who’s not going to buy the game

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

Netflix Streaming to PS3 this Friday

Just a quick update:

Just received an email saying that they started shipping the first batch of Netflix PS3 disks and that users will receive them this coming Friday.  I was lucky enough to receive an email so I have a busy weekend ahead of me.  I’ll be posting my review of the new service next week.

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Secret Girlfriend holds secret to marketing

After a few short weeks, it seems Comedy Central may have found a show to follow South Park.

Perfectly targeted to Gen Y males, Secret Girlfriend (Wed’s at 10:30 on Comedy Central) is a perfect vehicle for the kind of advertising that Viacom (the network’s parent) wants to bring in.

The show is filmed as if you are a character, giving you a point-of-view style shoot as you drink, party and sleep with girls. And honestly, it’s a little addicting.

But, even more than the fact that Comedy Central now has yet another vehicle to market Xbox games and slasher flicks, I’m left wondering what the impact of this “first-person shooting” style is for marketing…

1) Why haven’t any companies tried this first person style in a commercial? It seems like a perfect fit for apparel or other lifestyle brands. Imagine a commercial where it’s not Kobe or Lebron soaring to the basket, but you. Or it’s not Adrian Peterson gliding past defenders, it’s you. It’s not Alex Rodriguez smashing a deep drive to… You get the point.

There’s definitely some interesting psychology involved, and I’m excited to see whether this new style is going to be used, or if it will remain a niche…

Hot Girls and Marketing: Now with 101% More Video (Courtesy of Reebok)

So we’ve touched on the old phrase “Sex Sells” a few times here on wwwwY.  A company who you wouldn’t think of as sexy employed this technique in a new commercial this weekend.  Reebok came out with a new commercial for their new Easy Tone Shoes.  These shoes are supposed to tone your lower body more than regular shoes.  They employed a attractive, in-shape, young female with some “interpretive” camerawork to get their message across.

Now this commercial doesn’t garner a full mY Ad Report Card but lets point out something after watching this.  Who is this commercial targeting?  By targeting, I mean; who can’t take their eyes off the TV and are drooling for 30 seconds straight while watching this commercial?

A: Men

But, what is the commercial selling

A: Women’s shoes

Any interesting messaging strategy used by Reebok.  There are 3 ways how you could rationalize this strategy:

1. They made it for men to buy the shoes for the women in their lives
2. They made it for women in an “aspirational” tone
3. They just wanted to raise general awareness and decided pushing the envelope to start discussion.

Not quite sure which one they actually used, but my guess it’s a combo of lots of #3 and a little of #1.  They probably hope that the waves that the commercial will make will boost sales (plus if they used #2, Reebook would probably be burned to the ground).

Post in the comments what you thought of the commerical, and what you think their strategy was.

Excuse me when I go buy some shoes.

http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

You Know What Really Grinds My Gears (11/3 Edition)

I’m going to take a line from the great Peter Griffin and start having some sort of a regular Grinds My Gears post.  Because frankly, a few things grind my (and many Gen Yers) gears.  Today we will touch on technology (not surprising) and politics (very surprising), but of course both are from the Gen Y point of view and relate to challenges many Gen Yers are facing today.

So here it goes:

You know what really grinds my gears?…  The new Facebook homepage update.  I get what they’re trying to do; separate out the constant updates from the one that are getting the most action (‘likes’, comments, etc). That makes sense.  What I don’t like is how there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to which shows up when you first log on.  Sometimes I’ll log on and see something that catches my eye and realize it took place 20 hours ago.  Other times I’ll log on and have up to the second updates.  Where is the consistency Facebook?  When I click “view live feed” I assume that you are putting a cookie on my computer which saves that setting to my default.  You know everything else about every aspect of my life, so why not pay attention to my Homepage Feed prefrence?

You know what else really grinds my gears?… Budget cuts.  I figured going back to Graduate School to get my MBA was a smart choice in the floundering economy (which in the long run I think it was).  Last semester was a blast with no real surprises.  The summer passed; I paid tuition and registered for classes.  No surprises there.  About a week before classes started I got an email saying that our tuition was being raised and we would be notified later in the semester.  On the first day of classes I then found out that all of our professors were REQUIRED to take furlough days; aka not teach certain days of class.  Then they said we were still responsible for the information they WOULD HAVE taught.  Then last but not least yesterday was I had to pay a nice $3,000 for my additional tuition charges; two-thirds of the way through the semester!  So, State of California, and Budget Cuts, you are grinding the hell out of my gears right now.  I get to pay thousands of dollars more for substantially less product.  This makes perfect sense?

This economic slump is hurting Gen Y as much as anyone.  I know countless people who have degrees from reputable schools who can’t find a decent job.  It will take us decades to recover the lost wages from taking jobs during this recession.  When we try and go back to school, we are charged an arm and a leg more for less product.  Let’s just hope that this economy picks up… Soon.

Ah, now that felt good; and you got a nice glimpse into the rants of a Gen Yer.  A win-win situation if I have ever heard one.

This would be a good place for a poll:

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