Assignment #1 – Advertising Campaign
Marketing Communications
Lori Scott
Professor: Mimi Kawwaff, DBA
Marketing 312
May 25, 2015

Promoting a Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG)

Marketers are inclined to focus on the generation called the Millennials. This typical demographic description is of customers for the MMOG that are males 18-34 years old. This group has always been a highly used category because they have disposal income and are not yet married with families or homes that they would have fixed expenses as would an older demographic group. Men 18 to 34 are an enormous target for the MMOG market and are considered to be one of its primary core targets for gaming developers and the model they use when developing the programming. It is suggested that for the males aged 18 to 24, game play seems to be their primary focus and what the majority of them in this range are engaged with the most.
A study of MMORPG players were identified, 60% of MMO players are male, 36% of MMORPG players are married and 50% of MMORPG players are working full-time, while 22% are full-time students, and 12% are part-time students/workers. The lifetime earnings are reported to be $80,000/year for males in this category. Data shows that half (51%) of all young male adults aged 18-34 had never married, and only one-third (32%) had children. It also revealed that over one-third (36%) were married, another 8% were cohabiting, and 5% were divorced or separated. Age 20-24: 68% were employed in December 2007. By June 2010, that had fallen to about 60%, the lowest since WWII. Age 25-29: 79% were employed in Dec. 2007, falling to approximately 74% in June 2010. (source: Sullivan & Ray, Young Invincibles brief)

Based on prior year (2004) annual incomes, 18% of young adults age 18-24 had household incomes below the poverty line compared with a poverty rate of 12% for those ages 25-34.
Among those employed, women work in fields with higher occupational statuses than men. However, at every age group among those employed, men have higher earnings than women. Video games keep on growing in fame, developing from a niche hobby into a hugely well-liked activity. Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) is one of the fastest growing segments of the video game market.

The promotion mix that would be suitable for integrating and communicating MMOG to the chosen target market should be a mix of advertising, sales promotion and public relations. Advertising refers to all the decisions related to promotion of sales of products and services. The promotion mix process includes deciding what advertising media, use of publicity and public relations outlets and what promotional techniques to employ. Advertising in male oriented magazines such; as sports, cars, mechanics and adult magazines for men should be utilized. The study shows that the 18-34 year old demographic of males are not really watching television, nor do they want to be sold to. MMOG is online and does not require fact-to-face contact which is also the case in advertising. It creates a monologue not a dialogue. Decision can be made without the pressure. For this reason, popular magazines would prove to be a more useful tool. The advertisement pull effect as advertising tries to pull the product by directly appealing to customer to buy it. It is an impersonal presentation where a usual or common message about the merits, price and availability of product is given by the creator or seller. However that is also one of the disadvantages of advertising. Secondly, Sales Promotion should be incorporated into the promotion mix for this group. Sales promotion refers to short term use of promotional activities and enticements items that encourage and motivate the customer to buy the product. Sales promotion techniques are helpful because they bring and/or produce immediate effects on a sale, and have the ability to move inventory. Sales promotions persuade customers as well as distribution channels. The use of discount, refunds and premium gifts are all effective tools used to encourage the buyer and close the deal.
Another instrumental tool of marketing that should be used in this effort is Public Relations. Public relations simply means sustaining a relationship with the public. In this instance the community of MMOG users. Keeping the public relations open by staying in touch with those who are gamers and ensuring that information is up to date and relayed in the MMOG community. Public does not mean only customers, but it includes shareholders, suppliers, intermediaries, customers etc. The company’s success and achievement depends upon the support of these parties. The consumers’ group is the most important part of public as success of business depends upon the support and demand of customers only. (http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/)

The first step in formulating a strategy is to set the goals for what needs to be accomplished and ensure that the social goal solves the challenges. The goal would be to make sure that the media chosen is being tracked to see if the site traffic has dipped. Low website traffic can determine if profits will be realized and if customers know you are in the market. Ensure that the social team focuses on creating links directly on the site or use an influencer site.

The second step is to extend the efforts throughout the company. Creating a fully integrated social media marketing campaign will need to involve integrating several departments or the entire company to ensure that the mission brought into and is followed by everyone.
The third step is to focus on networks that add value. For the MMOG initiative like site should be used. All sites even if they are popular may not be the social site that will drive the correct traffic and subsequent customers to purchase. The focus will be to place our efforts on networks that hold the key to the target audience and objectives. The effectiveness of traditional and electronic media as part of the integrated media program is important to know. Using the new technologies, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social sites along with traditional forms of marketing can have a profound effect on the success of a marketing and promotions campaign. Collaboration in bringing the two industries together does not have to mean the annihilation of the other resource. In some instances purging, capacity building, and harnessing technology advances will benefit both industries.
The potential for increasing reach to users worldwide must be explored and exploited.

Three metrics that should be used to measure the effectiveness of different media used in the integrated marketing program for MMOG. Organizations use different ways to evaluate and track performance indicators “Key performance indicators (KPI’s), Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Marketing investment (ROMI) would be the three that should be the measurement for the MMOG. KPI would track how well the marketing efforts are going, the ROI would be a measurement based on the monetary returns and lastly the ROMI would access how well the promotions proved based on the return on the marketing investment.

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