"Have you played (insert game here)?" It's a question most of us have asked when considering a video game purchase, and the answers given are often more influential than marketing campaigns that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A study released today by study released today by global integrated communications agency Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, and Harris Interactive. Industry trade groups, surveyed 507 adult gamers between June 6th to July 27th of this year, finding that 33% of those who had purchased a game within the six months prior to the study cited word of mouth from family and friends as the biggest influence on their purchase.

More powerful than friends are a subset being called "Influence Multipliers," friends who are more connected to other gamers, therefor having a much larger say in what other players play. Of the 507 surveyed, 21% were identified as "Influence Multipliers"

"Compared to all video gamers, Influence Multipliers are a hyper influential subset of friends who are also far more connected to other gamers," said Dan Gallagher, senior vice president, Insight & Analytics at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. "As a result, Influence Multipliers have an outsized network influence effect on their gaming colleagues. By targeting the media channels that Influence Multipliers rely on, marketers can optimize their marketing spending."

Gallagher's advice here is something that politicians have been using for ages. You don't have to influence everyone - just the ones who influence everyone else. Words to market by.

The remainder of the chart shows that advertising and promotions accounted for a mere 11% of influenced purchases, beaten by game reviews, demos, and retail presence.

I'd say that actual advertising is most effective for non-gamers, with gamers being so connected these days that we don't need advertisements to know a game is coming out. We don't need to be made aware of a game's existence, just its quality, and for that, we turn to each other. Group hug, everybody!

Families, accessibility, paunches, sweaters, grandpa, a snarky daughter...yup, they've got this down pat.

Nintendo's Wii holiday commercial [Go Nintendo]

A report in The Times says they'll be used to "read and listen to coursework and practise on-screen tests in confined quarters". It follows a recommendation from Britain's maritime warfare school at HMS Collingwood in, Hampshire, England, aimed at encouraging students to do a little more study, and a little less of the other stuff they'd been doing instead of study, which had recently led to as many of 25% of electrical engineer students dropping out and re-taking courses.

Call me Doubting Thomas, but the PSP sounds like one of the worst devices on earth for the tasks at hand behind notebooks, netbooks, laptops and even the DS. Wonder how much it cost Sony for a little militaristic sponsorship?

Navy hopes the PlayStation will help officers sail through exams [The Times]

2007's World of Warcraft commercial starring Mr. T might have been a lark, but Blizzard is serious this time around, with not one but two Mohawk-themed ads airing on televisions across the nation. This is the second, in which Mr. T is determined perfect by advanced technology.

Unfortunately, we've already established in the previous commercial for the Mohawk grenades that Mr. T is indeed a computer hacker, so we can't believe anything that computer says. Sorry, Laurence!

"It a fully featured studio that runs on a pocket-sized device," says an instructor at the school. "They're able to learn music theory in a different format. It's the same information; just a different way of presenting it".

According to a piece on CBS - which spends a great deal of time dealing with how many budget cuts the school is facing - East Side students are just thrilled, one saying "This is music. You're making your own music and it's really fun", with another, Isiah Martinez, adding "I learned that you can make beats on the PSP".

Education as advertising? It's worked before, and by golly Rockstar, it's working again.

Instruments In 1 NYC Music Program Replaced By PSP [CBS]

The Guardian goes on to report that the campaign will run for six weeks, using games like Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed II and Left 4 Dead 2 to gauge players' skills in quick-thinking, problem solving and team work.

In which case, they really don't want me. When I'm not leaving my teammates to die in Left 4 Dead 2, I'm busy getting lost in airplane fuselages in Modern Warfare 2 until somebody's good enough to come knife me. And I haven't even bought Assassin's Creed II yet. Oh, and I'm American.

Here's what the British government has to say of its campaign:

"As well as tackling 'traditional threats' GCHQ's work is also about helping government departments, such as the Ministry of Defence, to protect their information and communication systems," said a GCHQ spokeswoman.

"This means we can offer excellent training and careers for people with specialist technical skills. However, the fact remains that many potential candidates remain unaware of GCHQ and what we do. Using video on Xbox LIVE helps carry our message to the right people in a creative and innovative manner," she added.

Government intelligence organisation targets recruits with Xbox Live ads [The Guardian]

Thanks for the tip, Josh!

I rock Adblocker, so I actually haven't seen these in a while. Which is a pity. If ever an ad was going to make me reach for the "disable" button, it would be these more recent Evony ones, what began as an attempt to cash in on Lord of the Rings having obviously become a rush to secure the services of girls appearing on porn movie box art from the 1990's.

And no, I didn't make that last bit up.

LazyGamer have posted a great gallery (recently updated to encapsulate the game's recent offerings) charting the "turn" of Evony's ads, from their humble beginnings in the Tower of Gondor to the boobs smorgasbord they offer today. Sad/fun reading awaits.

A History of Evony Ads – The insanity continues [Updated-Again] pLazyGamer, via JeffGreen]

Yes, Mohawk grenades. Available today in North America and later this month in Europe and Korea, find a Night Elf Mohawk NPC in your favorite World of Warcraft starting location and they will grant you a five-charge Mohawk grenade, capable of turning anyone in the blast radius into a Night Elf Mohawk. I almost wish I was making this up...almost.

This "Eyes" ad, created by advertising group Cutwater with help from Anonymous Content, shows off the eyes of death - the eyes of Ezio's victims - before shifting over to some gameplay footage for those unmoved by those icy orbs. The ad becomes a bit more chilling when you realize that there's a clock somewhere striking 22 o'clock. Go ahead, count.

Assassin's Creed II | Eyes [Brainstorm #9]

I preferred the footage in this TV spot back when it had story and context to it, but the original version was far too long for the TV audience. No, slice that puppy up, toss in some catchy music, and the TV-viewing public will be cemented to the screen for all of 32 seconds.

Look for these ads to run on your magical box sometime early next week.

One of those trucks was spotted by Kotaku reader Britt, who not only supplied us with photos and video of the four-wheeled Left 4 Dead 2 billboard, but did some research. Who's ready for some L4D2 fuel efficiency stats?!

"There are two trucks in the Seattle area, one in Downtown Seattle around UW, and one in Bellevue," writes Britt. "They started driving around yesterday, and are on the job for at least 1 month. The trucks are bio-diesel, but still only get about 13 MPG."

But wait, Britt got even more technical detail from driver Henry, who I'm sure is doing a bang up job of obeying speed limits and keeping an eye peeled for pedestrians.

"The trucks can hold a maximum of 10 shots, that cycle at 6 seconds. Though for L4D2, they just have 2 pictures at 10 seconds," Britt says, a fact that can be backed up by windy cell phone video, footage that's about as exciting as using one's scrollbar in the gallery below.

Bloggers, as reported earlier, are specifically mentioned by the recommendation, which has obvious implications for the specialty press covering video games. "The post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."

The pivot here is what constitutes an in-kind payment. Games do have a value, but is agreeing to review a game an endorsement, regardless of whether the review recommends it or not?

It's also important to note these new guidelines do not themselves have the force of law. They are:

"[...] administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act."

So there are two layers here: One, that it's not even law and two, does it even apply to video game reviews? Either way, the singling out of a blogger's endorsement is significant.

FTC: Freebies Must Be Disclosed [Game Politics]

The original Left 4 Dead sold like gangbusters, thanks largely to word-of-mouth, positive reviews, and the $10 million that valve sunk into making sure everybody knew what the game was. The company now reaches even further, adding another $15 million worth of advertising for a game that is already one of its bestselling titles.

"We'll be supporting Left 4 Dead 2's launch with a $25 million campaign," said Doug Lombardi, Valve's vice-president of Marketing. "Left 4 Dead 2 has already set the record for greatest number of pre-orders in our company's history, and we're still over a month out from shipping."

In the U.S., that money translates into billboards, banner ads on gaming sites, and televised advertisements to run during UFC events and Monday Night Football. Europe will also see a ramp up in outdoor advertisements, along with print, television, and website ads.

It sounds like Left 4 Dead 2 will be everywhere you want to be over the coming month. Those of us already aware of the game will just have to wait patiently for release, practicing our "Yes, yes - we know" expressions."

Sony Computer Entertainment America says the pair of Chilean promos were "totally fake." And so does the president of BBDO Chile, who said in a statement that the spots, one featuring Nazi imagery and the other a heart transplant from Joan of Arc, were "never approved" by Sony. Oh, and he has a public apology to go along with it.

This creative design did not involve and was never approved by Sony Computer Entertainment or Sony. This "mock campaign" was developed by BBDO Chile staff and was submitted to various creative competitions/festivals without prior notification or approval from SCE/Sony, and it is not representative of the views or advertising policies of SCE/Sony. BBDO Chile apologizes for using this creative concept without authorization or prior approval, and for its misrepresentation of the PlayStation brand and its values.


Cristián Lehuedé B.
Presidente Ejecutivo
BBDO Chile

Apology accepted! After the PlayStation thumb dick ad from last year, we can understand how BBDO Chile might think that all bets are off.

These two award-winning print ads, put together by Chilean agency BBDO, depict a Regular Joe - presumably someone who has bought, or is about to buy a PS3 - on a hospital bed. In one, he's giving a heart transplant to Joan of Arc. A flame-resistant suit may have been a better option, but then, it's not as touching.

But in the other? The same Regular Joe is in a Nazi hospital (complete with swastika bed heads) giving a blood transfusion to the Desert Fox himself, Feldmarschall Erwin Rommel. Who, despite escaping the war with his reputation (if not his life) in tact, was at the end of the day still a Nazi general. So...if you buy a PS3, you can...save Rommel, and...win the war for the Nazis?

Update: Hey! Those aren't PlayStation ads!

Erwin Rommel, Joan of Arc resurrected by PlayStation 3 [copyrant]

According to reports citing a statement from Nigeria's Minister of Information and Communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili, the African republic is up in arms over Sony's latest PS3 ad campaign. Specifically, it appears one line from one of the commercials is an "unwarranted attack on the reputation and image of the country" according to Nigeria's federal government.

That would be "You can't believe everything you read on the internet. Otherwise, I'd be a Nigerian millionaire by now." Fictional director of rumor confirmation Kevin Butler says so in this ad, which is only amusing to me because I'm not Nigerian.

Nigeria "demands an unconditional apology from Sony Corporation for this deliberate negative campaign against the country's image and reputation" according to a cited press statement.

Update: Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications at SCEA says that the company pulled the ad shortly after it first began airing in response to customer complaints. The official PlayStation web site features the following apology: "It has come to our attention that a recent TV advertisement for PlayStation may have offended some members of the Nigerian community. We never intended to create a situation that would upset anyone, and we have taken action to immediately remove the advertisement from the air. We apologize to anyone this may have offended."

Sony Corporation portrayed Nigeria as home of fraud – FG [Vanguard - thanks, Paul!]

The Transport Accident Commission of Victoria, a state in Australia's south-east, have signed a contract with Massive - the Microsoft-owned in-game advertising provider - courtesy of which they'll beam their creepy anti-speeding commercials into the homes of the TAC's target audience: young Australian males.

The ads will appear in Guitar Hero 5 but, more importantly, in Forza 3 as well.

The TAC are famous not just in Australia, but throughout the world, for their insistence on promoting road safety via graphic, violent TV commercials and billboards. So it'll be interesting to see how the ads go down in Forza, a game about...driving really, really fast.

Below is one of the TAC's more notable efforts, from a few years back. Be warned; it's a little rough.

Video games to get local road safety ads [The Australian]

A team of U.S. and European researchers found that, even though players spent less time looking at them, ads associated with violence were more memorable than ones not. The test subjects played a racing game (named AdRacer, pictured above) in which the goal was to run over targets on a road course. Ads were displayed as billboards on the roadside. When the targets became pedestrians, running over them spattered blood all over the screen.

Now, the utility of this memory association has its own costs. Namely, what happens to a Dr. Scholl's or a Betty Crocker when they're the hit ad in Manhunt 5. Certainly an advertiser could expect some controversy if not only their brand was associated with a nasty-violent game, but was deliberately (warning: corporate word alert) leveraging the violence for extra (incoming buzzword alert) mindshare.

An Advert for In-Game Violence [MIT Technology Review via Game Politics]

While that close-up shot of John may border on slightly creepy, the blend of footage of the band and the people who could conceivably play The Beatles: Rock Band is well done. Charming maybe. Classy definitely. And the transition from Abbey Road to Rock Band note highway? Someone's clever!

Wonder how the competition will respond, TV commercial-wise...

"The ad has been removed from WipEout HD", a Sony rep told Eurogamer, "and we are investigating the situation to ensure that any in-game advertising does not affect gameplay".

Note this doesn't mean all advertising in the game has been removed; only the ad that was causing the annoying, increased load times.

Sony removes naughty WipEout advert [Eurogamer]