Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

The Milky Bars are on me!

cliffski

I suspect that there are two types of ads:

1) Ads that draw your attention to stuff, and maybe sell it

2) Ads that act as background noise to constantly remind you of a companies or products existence, so you recall it at a much later purchase time.

My ads (and likely ANY indie game ads) fall into 1). We hope you see the ad, read the ad copy, click it, and try the demo, then buy the game. Ha! we hope…

But look at TV ads. Pay attention to the next group of TV ads you see, and count what percentage of them are ads for products you haven’t heard of, or companies you don’t know about. I bet its zero percent. These ads are either shown 10 times a day or not at all, because they are all type 2) ads. They don’t work on their own.

The best examples (and the most annoying) here in the UK are car insurance comparison websites. How many can you name? Try it (if you are a brit )

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I bet you named gocompare and comparethemarket.com. And when was the last time you needed to get a  competitive car insurance quote? On average 6 months ago, if at all. These ads work like  the ads for directory enquiries numbers here in the UK. You will notice that there is little or no actual information in them at all. I’ve seen 100+ adverts for mazumamobile.com, and have no idea what they said. They only really need to say a single thing:

mazumamobile.com

And that will eventually stick in your head.  The majority of  TV ads are semi-ignored, absorbed in our peripheral vision, or maybe just overheard from another room. Ad designers know this. That is why TV ads are so annoying and seem to be targeted at idiots. The content is, sadly, irrelevant. All that matters is the name. That name can stay in your head for decades. If the name sucks, you need a tagline. If you are 30+ in the UK, do you remember these?

“I’m a secret lemonade drinker”

“Made to make your mouth water”

“Helps you work rest and play”

If you EVER saw these ads, I bet you know the products, now, even fifteen-twenty years later. Scary isn’t it?

One of the small number of companies I own shares in is Marks And Spencers.  One of the reasons I own them is they have a flipping superb ad agency working for them. One that we will remember years later,

Remember, this wasn’t just a blog post. This was a Marks and Spencers Blog post :D

I wish my ads were that good…

5 thoughts on The Milky Bars are on me!

  3. they have done plenty of times before

    i don’t watch tv at all, so I feel like some parts of this blog post went over my head, but I agree from what I remember about psychology. People trust familiarity, even when it’s a ‘devil you know’ situation. It’s what the McDonalds franchise was based on; mediocre food, but for the first time, you could travel from one end of the USA to the other and know exactly what you were getting.

    If you are interested in pursuing your number 2, it’d be worth splashing ‘Positech Games’ all over the ad as well, perhaps on the animated gif ads or the youtube ads (do you still do those, I only saw one?) splash a large ‘from Positech Games’ as though you believe they should know who you are.

    You’ll see no immediate benefit, but come your next original game, there should be something in the back of their heads giving them a nudge of familiarity with the company.

  4. Noemie Lenoir is pretty much gods gift to males. (I approve of the M&S adverts wholeheartedly.. )

    However, I’ve not seen an advert in years now, thanks to lovely lovely Sky+

    (it’s the future you know,)

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