Competitive Marketing Warfare

In a recent article posted on LinkedIn by a marketing firm, the author makes an argument that businesses should be waging a marketing war on their competition. They should be studying and attacking their competition. They should be prepping a consistent offensive and trying to draw their competition into the battle.

Upon first reading this article, my fragile millennial mind revolted. Shouldn't we all play nice? Can't we all have a piece of the market? Even if we have to take share from eachother we can at least do it with civility and not go to war with other companies. I actually might not even like a company that goes to war with other companies. Or would i?

I think I've actually already enjoyed and even respected some companies marketing war offensives. 

One that comes to mind immediately it Lemonade's battle with State farm. I don't know if State farm really meant to call Lemonade to the battle field but the add below kinda made it look like they were. 

After seeing this ad Lemonade's CEO had an interesting strategic insight and went to battle quickly. 

Not only did they respond, they actually spent ad dollars to boost the ad from State farm!

Maybe this offensive marketing warfare thing can be kinda compelling.

Search is Changing

Upon reading a recent Moz blog and examining how a business I founded ranks in Google search I found that search is changing in some very interesting ways.

Being number one in search used to be all the rage. All the content you were producing served to get you the coveted number one spot. Maybe even just get you on that first page of Google. If you could achieve that, your phone would never stop ringing. Not anymore.

Now the number one rank is battling with the local three pack or the local highlight on the right side of the screen or snippets or videos. Being number is not what it used to be. Being number two is even worse. In some cases the number two spot is being pushed almost 3000px down the page!

Fortunately, there is still plenty of good coming from content marketing and google picking the right ad to display. See below for results on our company's organic results. Unfortunately, nobody really searches for landlord insurance Buffalo NY but if they did we'd be crushing it ;)

Content is King

In 2020, it seems like everyone’s in the video content business. Media companies are spending millions of dollars to acquire content that they predict will capture subscriber loyalty as the streaming wars shift from a ‘distribution is king’ competitive landscape to a ‘content is king’ competitive landscape – and brands seem to be following suit.

And why wouldn’t they, when digital video viewers are predicted to continue increasing in the coming years?

“KEY STAT: The number of digital video viewers in the US will top 235 million in 2019, which represents 71.2% of the country’s population.”

Video content is behind the success of many brands; one more amusing example is White Claw, which took off after a viral video from comedian Trevor Wallace took the internet by storm. From viral videos come viral internet memes and other consumer-made content that you can’t help but share with friends. Before you know it, a brand becomes popular. But how can brands and companies better control their branded video content? And more importantly, is produced, branded content impactful?

One biometric study from 2018 featured in AdAge points to ‘yes.’ Specifically, the study found that “Viewers of branded content were 62 percent more likely to show a positive reaction compared with those who watched 30-second ads,” and that “…those who viewed branded content were 17 percent more likely to say that they were ‘very likely’ to buy the brand being advertised.”

So, everywhere you look, it appears that content truly is king. Storytelling has always been at the core of marketing, and as we move into the 2020s, it seems that a keen understanding of effective storytelling through video will be critical for success.

Considering Mobile Ad Blockers

Mobile usage has skyrocketed over the years. Data collected over time suggest that “global mobile data traffic is projected to increase nearly sevenfold between 2017 and 2022,” and “As of February 2019, mobile devices accounted for 48 percent of web page views worldwide, with mobile-first markets such as Asia and Africa leading the pack” (source).

With this much growth, advertisers are, of course, working to optimize and leverage mobile-first ads. But where advertisers flock, so do those eager to live an ad-free online existence: According to a report from PageFair, recently highlighted in Adage, “…more than 527 million people globally are blocking ads on mobile, up 64 percent since 2016.” While using mobile adblockers had previously been a choice made mostly by the most tech savvy, this spike in mobile ad blockers suggests it may be a bigger trend for the general public – and therefore a cause for concern.

In the US specifically, Adage reports that mobile represents nearly 70 percent of all digital ad spend, and mobile adblocking has increased modestly, by 1%, since 2016. But that 1% isn’t harmless, suggests Marty Kratzy-Katz, co-founder and CEO at Blockthrough, when you realize that “…users running blockers on mobile represent about 4 percent of all U.S. traffic, as they consume more media than people who don't use ad blockers” (Adage).

So, how to proceed? Some publishers have responded by locking content for users that are running adblockers. Others are doing nothing at all about it. The solution may lie in the ongoing efforts of marketers to make ads that feel personal: Katz suggests that there are different segments of mobile users that leverage an ad blocker, and that “…there are those who are OK with ad experiences, as long as they are done right” (Adage).

One thing can be assumed: Where digital marketers find a roadblock, they’re sure to find new ways to overcome it. This could be an exciting challenge for the digital marketing industry that leads to even more customized, less intrusive advertising in the future.

Sponsor Disclosure and Adolescents

Businesses have turned to online content creators to augment advertising for their products and services. These online content creators include individuals who post videos (Vloggers) to user-shared video websites, such as YouTube (YouTubers), and/or post content to social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. These “influencers” have garnered millions of viewers that can include children and adolescents. Yet, these young viewers may not be aware that advertising has been embedded in the on-line content, and thus is sponsored. 

In their recently published research article, Van Reijmersdal et al. (2020) evaluated the impact of the timing of sponsorship disclosure on the attitude of children, ages 10-13 years old, concerning the commercial content of videos posted to social media. These researchers monitored visual attention with eye tracking software by measuring the eye fixation time on an area of interest created around the disclosure. If shown before a video began, the disclosure captured the attention of these adolescents twice as long than if the disclosure was simultaneous displayed with the video. Most likely, a disclosure that is shown at the same time as the start of a video loses its messaging impact because of the competing audiovisuals of the video. Thus, embedded advertising decreases sponsorship transparency and individuals may not be able to differentiate informational from commercial content if the disclosure is not present before the start of the video.  

Adolescents who recognized that the videos were commercial, whether the disclosure was before or during the video, developed a more critical attitude concerning the brand. These findings may inform future federal trade commission policies concerning truth-in-advertisings with special regard to advertising to children and adolescents on social media.

Baby Yoda

When Disney entered the streaming space, it needed a way to entice viewers to add yet another streaming service to the long -- and growing -- list of streaming services. What they came up with was a baby. Baby Yoda to be exact. What about Baby Yoda is so captivating? Personally, I don’t see it. He’s cute, but not the reason I tuned into the show (I was hoping to see the character development of the Mandelorian -- key word is "hoping."). Baby Yoda’s backstory is mysterious which adds to the intrigue. He has limited movement (head tilts, ears moving up and down, eyebrows furrow and unforrows) which decreases the chance of him doing something annoying. And he has limited vocabulary. He also has a streak of mischief and has saved the Mandelorian and his friends more than once. And if you want to see what cute thing he’s going to do next, you have to tune into Disney+. Disney made a smart move hitching their debut onto a baby alien. What next though? Brooding teenager Yoda? Acne face Yoda? I guess I’ll have to continue my Disney+ subscription to find out.

CCPA

The California Consumer Privacy Act took effect on Jan 1, 2020. The CCPA grants California consumers the right to know what personal information is collected, used, shared or sold; the right to delete personal information held by businesses and their respective service providers; the right to opt-out of the sale of personal information; and the right to non-discrimination when a consumer exercises a privacy right under CCPA. But what does this mean for marketers? The last many years we’ve seen data used in extremely target ways. They are effective, contextual, and for the most part, secretive. The average consumer doesn’t know how much of their data is being collected or sold. Now that California’s state law gives some of that power back to the consumer, how will marketers cope? Will we see a trend back to anonymity? I don’t think we can be as naive as to think that the old “spray and pray” method of marketing will make a resurgence. Nor, do some people want that. But I do hope that those who are creeped out that a brand is following their every move to get them to purchase XYZ product will get to breath a sigh of relief knowing that they are not being as followed -- or rather, they have a choice in how much they are being followed. The group that I think will be most affected by this change are not my peers, but the very young and very elderly. And hopefully, this is just the beginning. With new constraints, innovation can be born. I’m interested to see what new trend of marketing will come out of these new rules. Maybe contextual content will not go away (it won’t), but at least there will be a new level of transparency. Perhaps, that will lead to a more authentic relationship between brand and consumer. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what all good marketers want to achieve: relevant content to for the right audience to foster lifelong brand loyalty?

Twitter reacts to Bloomberg's social strategy

Twitter recently suspended over 70 accounts because they found that the accounts were posting identical ads in support of presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.  Twitter reported that the accounts were "violating our rules against platform manipulation and spam."  This comes days after Bloomberg's Instagram marketing push caused Facebook to adjust its political social media standards. 

These tactics from Bloomberg show how critical social media advertising can be for a political campaign.  He is using social networks to reach a specific audience and finding creative ways to get around the current rules set in place.  

Best Times To Send Emails

As we learned in class, email marketing is a powerful channel for engaging with customers and driving sales. It is part science and part art, requiring both creatives that resonate as well as data-driven optimization.

One important aspect of optimization is figuring out the best days and times to send out emails. Being able to communicate with your customers at the right time makes a big difference in open rates, click-through rates, and ultimately revenue.

According to studies done by various marketing companies, the general consensus is that Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days of the week for sending promotional e-commerce emails, such as sales emails and newsletters. According to data from CampaignMonitor, weekly email open rates peak at 18.6% on Thursdays, while click-through rates peak at 2.73% on Tuesdays.

In terms of the best time of day to send emails, sources like Omnisend have found that open rates generally peak at 8am (customer's time) while click-through rates peak around 5pm. This when people get off work. These times roughly correspond to when people check their emails right before and after work.

Despite what these studies say, the ideal email send times can vary a lot depending on the type of business and the characteristics of the customers. The benchmarks above can serve as a good starting point to test other times against in order to find your optimal send times.

Loneliness is a serious public health problem

A 2018 survey from the Economist concluded that more than 20% of adults in both the United States and the United Kingdom say they "always or often feel lonely, lack companionship, or feel left out or isolated." While it might be expected that loneliness has mental health implications such as anxiety and depression, yet, the extent of the damage can reach much further. In 2015 UCLA researchers discovered that social isolation can lead to chronic inflammation and ultimately heart disease, stroke, alzheimer's and metastatic cancer. 

When peeling back the statistics on loneliness it becomes clear that younger people are increasingly more lonely than their adult counterparts. A key reason for this is the time teens and adolescents are spending on social media. Text messages are taking preference over phone calls. FaceTime is taking preference to in-person interactions. People are spending more and more time as incognito "viewers" from behind screens as opposed to in-person participants, and the results are starting to show. 

Regulating alcohol ads on social media

Government regulators around the world have been cracking down on billboard and print advertising by alcohol brands.  However, social media advertising has largely gone unchecked, and given the outsized presence of underage audiences online versus older adults, there is concern that booze companies are targeting youth on social media advertising campaigns.

According to an article by the Wall Street Journal, “The al­co­hol in­dus­try has em­braced so­cial me­dia as a way to tar­get young adults. Pernod Ri­card SA, the maker of Chivas Re­gal whisky, spends about one-third of its me­dia bud­get on digi­tal ef­forts and has an in-house stu­dio to quickly cre­ate con­tent to cap­i­tal­ize on trends. Smirnoff owner Di­a­geo PLC has cred­ited so­cial-me­dia in­flu­encers, who are paid to en­dorse prod­ucts in on­line posts, for the suc­cess of re­cent prod­uct launches.”

Global digital ad spend — particularly social media — as a percentage of total marketing budget is only increasing, and alcohol companies are no different.  And although alcohol makers say they follow strict guidelines to ensure their social media marketing efforts remain off the screens of underage drinkers, the lack of government oversight means that these brands are largely self-regulating.  Do we trust these big alcohol companies to police themselves?  Or should we be demanding government regulators to more closely monitor industry advertising practices to ensure targeted booze ads stay away from children’s social media accounts?


https://www.wsj.com/articles/booze-ads-on-social-media-stir-controversy-11580659200?emailToken=85714ea2bd867619d30f0b839df5fe4cbDgf7M1nBnuFgFhGqU3f8dXctGwZwacAX1JO8nTNH6M9cOcgCdDqrhwscypygrVeJ0u/kmrh6+WOIGrej/ZI1umyMDZIf+oBoivjvkyY5RU%3D&reflink=article_copyURL_share

Future of retargeting and where did all the cookies go?

After email marketing class discussion, I got interested in what is the current place of cookies for ads targeting.  Cookie, in regards to advertising, is a small piece of code called a pixel that is placed on a website to store information on a user’s computer and later retrieve it. The old method of targeting which has successfully existed since 90th, cookies, started to be less efficient with people switching between devices and increasingly using mobile phones for their search and online shopping (users spend only 8% of their time on browsers and 92% of the time in apps). 

In addition to that, cookies are now often blocked: Mozilla has blocked all third-party cookies from October 2018, Google is planning to eliminate them by 2022.

Due to this, other methods have gained popularity in recent years which target identity instead of the device and one of these methods is an email.

https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/ppc/cookie-based-retargeting/
https://digiday.com/marketing/cookies-way-advertisers-turn-old-school-measurement-methods/
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2019/10/firefox-nudges-advertisers-toward-cookie-alternative

A $50,000 Dollar OREO??? WHAT??

I have seen how marketing can create massive demand behind exclusivity. You see major retail brands create small capsules of product that they classify as "limited edition", which results in extremely profitable margins. This method has become increasingly popular with social media because you are able to target more efficiently and create a much larger demand for these products. However, a new high has been reached with this RIDICULOUS branded Oreo. SUPREME and Orea have collaborated in a limited edition cookie that costs $8/cookie but demand has been so astronomical that they are selling on EBay for $50k a piece!!! What has this world come to? Who in the right mind would pay $50k dollars for something that likely tasts the same as a regular Oreo and would be gone in ONE BITE!!

We are living very interesting times in marketing, collaborations, and customer demand.

AMAZON, I don't want your damn earmuffs!

A few weeks ago I went onto Amazon to find "180" fleece ear warmers. I selected the desired style and color and then decided I didn't really need them. Amazon decided otherwise. Over the course of the next few days they kept insisting I did. In a "personalized" email, they gave a friendly reminder that I left the product in my shopping cart, a large image of said product, the updated price, and pretended to not salivate for my sale by providing a large yellow button that said, "View Cart" instead of "Click to Purchase." The MIND GAMES! We all know that Amazon's dying for every dime, aggressively pursues every customer who has given even the slightest glance to a product, and yet on paper, their thirst is subtle...even passive. Beside this call to action, the only other detail on the email is a reminder that returns are "Free & Easy."

Three days later I was approached again. This time the email was akin to an annoying salesperson from Sears, coyly asking if I was looking for something in their "mens earmuff department" after they've noticeably stood across the room and watched my every move. If I was still my wise-ass, 23 year-old self I might say, "No. I was looking at earmuffs in the earmuff department because I'm interested in purchasing organic Barilla pasta and Christmas ornaments. This seemed like the best place to start that search." Just like an overzealous retail salesperson, Amazon goes on to make recommendations of other styles, as if I had no clue what I liked, an inability to look at options already clearly on display, and their earmuff expertise was the only way I could truly fulfill my earmuff desires. Still, the email presentation of muff options is clean and, admittedly, there are 180's in colors and materials I had not seen before. The gray tweed 180's were actually quite handsome.... for earmuffs. Once again, Amazon has the NERVE to not openly ask for what they so strongly desire. I KNOW they want it but they smugly refuse to ask. They've even removed the big yellow button that links to my shopping cart and instead hyperlink every image that covers the page. I'm certain they don't hope I slip and accidentally click one.

A day later I get another email, this time resembling the format of the first. Instead of "kindly" reminding me that I "forgot" something in my cart, they reframe their feigned hospitality. This time they've "found something" I might "like." Clearly they've been tirelessly looking through their stock, trying to find the perfect fit for me so they meet their mission of being as customer-centric as possible. However, we all know there is no heart behind the earmuffs they propose. Their mission is to make it as easy as possible for me to spend my money, whether on earmuffs, barilla, ornaments, or any number of items on their extensive platform. They do it with a smile, yes (CLEARLY! It's in their LOGO! It's on the boxes they send! How could they not genuinely care about me and my perfect earmuff match?), but I'm not so sure they care about anything but my data or sale.

For their grand finale, two days later they had the nerve to confirm my order. My ears are warm once again. Damn you Amazon and your aggressively passive, brilliant email strategy! You got me again.

Why do we pay consultants for no-brainer answers?

Why do we pay consultants for no-brainer answers?

As I flipped through my news aggregation app this week, a single headline struck a nerve: "Human Connection to Shape Marketing in 2020, according to Deloitte."

Wow.. thanks Deloitte. My first thought was frustration at the headline for its sheer lack of value. It seems plainly obvious to me that marketing, for at least a few decades if not longer, has been about communication the value to others and forming emotional connections to brands. However, the headline was frustrating enough that I just had to click through and read more.

After diving in, I realized Deloitte's proposition was more nuanced than I had initially presumed. Putting aside the obvious call to "listen to our consumers," the consulting firm proposed that in the age of rapidly evolving digital marketing tools and aggregation of data, firms should rethink their overall process and philosophy around marketing. Namely, firms should evolve from the inside-out after understanding the drive to change from the outside-in.

One example made this change more real for me: Building trust around data privacy. As discussed in class, marketers need data to segment and deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time. However, this messaging can become creepy or uncomfortable, especially if the consumer is unaware of the data they have provided or the data you have. Marketers can take responsibility to communicate how and when personal data is being collected and used, and potentially even how that data can be used to improve the consumers experience. 

Moving from a frustrating headline, I was able to better understand the meaning behind 'human connection' that Deloitte suggests, and intend to incorporate many of their proposals into our growing strategy. Not such a no-brainer after all!


Source: https://www.clickz.com/human-connection-to-shape-marketing-in-2020-according-to-deloitte/260272/

Google – with great power comes great responsibility

Google removed ~600 apps and banned their developers from its Play Store and ad networks, noting ad fraud and disruptive mobile ads. The company defines disruptive ads as “ads that are displayed to users in unexpected ways, including impairing or interfering with the usability of device functions”. Most of these apps were made by developers based in China, India, and Singapore. The biggest impact was faced by Cheetah Mobile, one of the repeat offenders. It saw 40 of its apps suffering a ban. Cheetah Mobile, a Chinese mobile internet company, is by no means a small business. It has US$ 765 million in revenues and US$ 70 million in operating income and employs 1100+ people. This ban would hit Cheetah Mobile dramatically – what can be worse than your app being banned when you are a mobile internet company. Cheetah Mobile has claimed that 23% of its revenues in the first 9 months of 2019 were generated with the help of Google products. There will be a huge financial loss as well as job loss. Ironically, in July 2014, Cheetah Mobile had encouraged its users to uninstall Google Chrome, and replace it with Cheetah Mobile's own browser. Clearly, it seems like there was more to this ban than one sees at the first glance, and Google is trying to teach a lesson to smaller companies that challenge its power. Google had already banned 2 of Cheetah Mobile’s apps in December 2018. Cheetah plans to appeal the blanket ban decision. As a user, I’m glad to see Google realizing and exercising its power for better consumer satisfaction. It even refunded brands whose ads were disrupted by such disruptive ads.

Businesses & Social Media Engagement

Use of social media is an effective way for brands to reach current and potential consumers. However, brands must realize that social media is not just a platform for digital marketing, but a medium in which to interact with users. Brands need to recognize that consumers want an element of personalization - this includes engagement on a one-to-one level in which brands respond to consumers on social media. This expectation is clearly evident in a recent survey completed by Boston Digital. To address interactions between companies and consumers on social media, Boston Digital conducted a survey of 554 people of different ages, genders and geographies and the results are reviewed herein.

Social media is an important forum for companies to advertise and relate to consumers. Most survey respondents, more than 80%, view a brand’s social media while researching a product or service. And, education is the most common reason consumers follow a brand on social media, whether it be regarding a product or interest. For these reasons, brands should focus on disseminating information regarding a product or service in addition to increasing brand awareness using social media. A loyal fan base may translate into a loyal customer base - companies that don’t have a social media presence may be missing out on important digital marketing opportunities since two thirds of survey respondents note that they are more likely to purchase from a brand that they have followed on social media for more than a month. Social media content including promotions and exclusive deals are the two main reasons that customers buy and without a social media presence, companies may be losing out.

Customer loyalty needs to be rewarded with updated and relevant social media content. More than half of consumers will unfollow a brand when they feel that the content is no longer pertinent (more so than if the messaging is “boring”). Also, a brand’s values are just as important as the product or service it sells - of the survey respondents surveyed, approximately one third will disengage with a brand’s social media presence if they do not agree with the values of the company. Thus, brands must understand what their customers want and deliver with clear messaging.

Brands can benefit from positive reviews but must actively manage negative feedback. More than half of followers will reach out to social media if they have a problem with a brand’s product or service, and it is either extremely or very important that they receive feedback; whereas, only 40% of followers will provide positive feedback concerning a brand on social media. Companies will need to earn customer loyalty and strategically manage user-generated content. Thus, social media, is a two-way street for consumers and brands, and diverges from other formats such as television and magazine ads based on the expectations of the consumer to be involved on personal level with the brand.

Voice is the new search tool

The voice assistants like Alexa, Siri or Ok Google are taking over the houses around the world and with it a new way to gather information about the customers and a new way to advertise.

These devices are getting on our phones and places outside our home and with it all those companies are learning that the way people interact is different from the way they do on the web.

 A lot of investments were already made to recognize those differences and now is the job of the Digital Marketers to adapt the keywords that will trigger their content to this new media.

This is especially true amongst the younger generation that is being grown with these devices and are not as concerned about privacy as the older generations.

For an integrated marketing strategy, there is no other way around it and no campaign should consider it without it

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/02/11/3-digital-marketing-trends-you-cant-ignore-in-2020/#5453a28c7f55

Should we like the removal of ‘likes’?

Late last year, various media outlets reported Instagram (owned by Facebook) was considering and beta testing removing the visible ‘like’ counting feature on posts. The move has seemingly garnered support, citing that it would remove a major comparison component “depressurizing… the idea is to try and reduce anxiety and social comparisons, specifically with an eye towards young people” says a November 2019 Bloomberg article.

But is this not merely a band-aid type fix, that isn’t actually touching the root cause? Users will still apparently be able to view their own number of likes, but the number will not be publicly visible. Additionally, there are other metrics which can easily be interpreted in a competitive way such as number of followers. It seems to be a bit of pomp and circumstance to diffuse tension and calls to action around the addictive nature of social media and how it has affected users, primarily youth.

With the rise and domination of ephemeral content, posts are increasingly out of fashion so perhaps the point is moot and won’t have large-scale impact for better or worse.

Consumers Continue to be Enticed by Click and Collect

A recent article on emarketer expounded on the rapidly growing popularity of click and collect. According to the article, almost 9 in 10 US internet users expressed interest in picking up their online order at the register (according to a National Retail Federation survey in October 2019). Among participants in the survey who had tried this service, click and collect was also the most popular choice followed by curbside pickup. According to a September 2019 survey from Field Agent, 51% of US online shoppers considered themselves very or entirely likely to use click and collect this past holiday season.

         Click and collect is especially popular among the big-box retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. These retailers have build advanced click-and-collect operations that have contributed to these types of orders representing an increasingly larger share of online sales (rising from 19% in Q4 2017 to 22.5% in Q3 2019 according to Rakuten Intelligence).

         The article goes on to illustrate the importance of click and collect further by explaining how Target CEO Brian Cornell singled out the activity during an earnings call last year, citing that it was a key source of the Target’s momentum. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as services and options that give the end consumer increased speed and convenience are easily becoming the preferred fulfillment choices for these consumers (e.g. such as same day delivery).

        The rise of click and collect is something I would expect to continue as the online consumer persists in desiring a better shopping experience with increasingly faster delivery fulfillment and convenience. Aside from retailers investing the resources needed to even offer this shopping option, they must also invest in the marketing and site assets to properly inform the consumer that this option is available. Target especially does an excellent job of this (seen in the third image below as an example). On Target’s site, they clearly display same day delivery on their navigation as a shopping option while showing in the upper left corner, the store hours of the consumer’s closest store.

https://www.emarketer.com/content/consumers-continue-to-be-enticed-by-click-and-collect

Digital marketing in the gaming world

According to Entertainment Software Association report, 2018 was a record-breaking year for video game industry, with total video game sales exceeding $43.4 billion. Over 164 million adults in the United States play video games and three-quarters of all Americans have at least one gamer in their household. As the leading form of entertainment today, video games are an integral part of American culture. In addition, as per Microsoft, there are more than two billion gamers around the world. By 2022, experts forecast the gaming industry will produce around $200 billion in revenue.

The gamers include people from those playing free games on their cell phone to pro gaming with using a state-of-the-art computer fitted with the latest hardware. Video game players represent a diverse cross-section of the American population spanning every age, gender, and ethnicity. Given the growth and popularity of the gaming industry, I was wondering how digital marketing plays a role in the gaming industry.

Based on some research, it seems that digital marketing is an absolute necessity in the gaming industry. The following are a few examples of digital marketing strategies chosen by popular gaming companies:

·       Heroes Charge

Heroes Charge is a mobile game that got a 15-second ad during the 2015 Super Bowl. Even though the company must have a paid a whopping amount to get that ad spot, millions of people watched the ad. This marketing strategy was a great way to get the much-needed push for that company.

·       Call of Duty

With their mind-blowing trailers and near-perfect games, this franchise has won the hearts of gamers. They set the bar very high for others launching their own video games. Even though they created amazing trailers to attract customers, the franchise was careful to not include unrealistic elements in their marketing materials. The company wanted to make sure that the consumers were not disappointed, and their expectations were met.

·       Sony PS4

Sony used the reputation they built over the years when they launched PS4. In the new campaign for PS4, Sony decided to take the consumers through a nostalgic walk down memory lane. The fans were reminded of the reasons why they owned a Sony console and why they should buy a new one.

All of the digital marketing strategies mentioned above were done through social media, YouTube and other online digital media that allowed their fan base and other internet users to get to know their games or fall in love with them. As more and more people play video games via mobile devices and online, the importance of digital marketing becomes extremely high for the gaming companies to reach and convince the games to buy their products.

A couple of successful strategies recommended and shared by digital marketers:

·       Game Marketing on YouTube

·       Branch out to Multiple App Stores

·       Facebook and Instagram Game Marketing

·       Appear on Gaming Podcasts

·       Game Marketing through Review Websites

·       Game Influencer Marketing

·       Facebook page for Game Marketing

Interestingly, as per article “AI or digital marketing heavily used in the gaming industry”, video gaming draws on AI for digital marketing tools to help personalize marketing efforts and convince potential consumers to spend money, both in the game and out of the game. For instance, many free-to-play apps and video games show ads to players in-game. Often, the ads are the only free way to advance in a game and act as a sort of pay wall.