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10 Bizarre Video Game Marketing Campaigns

10 Bizarre Video Game Marketing Campaigns

By Paul SmithPublished 2 years ago 8 min read

10 Bizarre Video Game Marketing Campaigns

By Paul Misfud

The lifeblood of sales is marketing. Without some sort of marketing, it will be difficult for the public to respond favorably to a brand's new introduction unless it has previously established itself as a dominant force in the market. Sometimes a product's success on the market is the direct result of a well-executed marketing strategy. Every industry invests in marketing for this reason. There have been both successful and ineffective marketing strategies in the field of video games. Strange marketing campaigns, however, are something for which we are not ready. These marketing initiatives are quite odd and out of the ordinary. Some of these campaigns were so out of the ordinary that they drew criticism and even the attention of the law. Ten of the strangest video game marketing initiatives are listed here.

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10Call of Duty: Black Ops III Issues Fake Terror Alert

When they live-tweeted that a terrorist incident was occurring in Singapore, the Call of Duty developers went too far. To promote their latest game, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, they made the fraudulent assertion. We find it strange that a video game developer would falsely declare that a terrorist attack had occurred, but what is even worse is that this unprecedented publicity ploy was completely unneeded. Already a popular video game franchise, Call of Duty. The marketing strategy rapidly backfired, with several individuals tweeting that the publicity stunt was offensive. The majority of people would concur that the video game developer should have done better given that terrorist acts actually occur in the real world and that there is a widespread fear of terrorism. There is no denying the absurdity of this marketing strategy.

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9 Electronic Arts Causes Gridlock in London with Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

The storyline of the video game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is simple. The main character wants to assassinate the Venezuelan president. The game's marketers actually linked the game to a real gas station, or maybe they were aiming to set the planet on fire in real life—we may never know for sure—because the game's scenario also incorporates Venezuelan oil facilities. One thing we do know is that a £20,000 worth of free petrol was given away at a single gas station as part of a marketing prank to advertise the game. Drivers started fighting as a result of the lengthy line of cars heading to this petrol station. The game's marketers gave each driver £40 worth of free gas. Police quickly shut down Electronic Arts' operations as a result of the resulting commotion. In fact, a member of the British Parliament sought an apology from Electronic Arts, alleging that the makers of video games were attempting to incite fuel riots in London along the lines of those that occurred in Venezuela. Any marketing initiative that draws the attention of the police and results in an MP being asked to apologise is uncommon. The most courteous method to tag the offer is in this manner. [2] The similar promotion seems to have gone ahead without a hitch in the U.S. the week before. Actors recruited as mercenaries were seen directing traffic and holding posters advertising free petrol at a gas station on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.

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8 Zynga Vandalizes City Sidewalks with Counterfeit Money

Despite being a major player in the online gaming industry, Zynga let us down with its absurd Mafia Wars promotion. The business adhered phoney advertising bills to Manhattan's pavements. This is merely vandalism against public property. The San Francisco City Attorney's office eventually had to launch an inquiry into the heinous conduct. Along with the fake currency that Zynga distributed, stickers representing gang violence were also created by marketers to promote the video game. Even after garnering criticism for the action in the City by the Bay, they continued to glue the dollars to the pavements in Manhattan. The marketing strategy was described as "illegal and actionable" by the deputy city attorney. Not sugarcoating this incident—any marketing effort that receives criticism from the City Attorney's office is suspect.

7 Electronic Arts Stages Protest Against Its Own Game

We are presented with yet another bizarre video game promotion approach that we cannot understand just when we believe we have seen the worst of it. Electronic Arts has appeared on our list twice for the same reason. The game publisher recruited 20 fictitious protestors in 2009 to hold a demonstration against the upcoming title Dante's Inferno outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. The most absurd aspect of this story is how these phoney demonstrators discovered the ideal justification for staging their protest—religion! These twits claimed that the upcoming game exalted eternal damnation. People were encouraged to "Trade in Your Playstation for a Praystation" by the bogus protesters as they put up picket signs. In an odd turn of events, Electronic Arts turned around and acknowledged that the demonstration had been orchestrated by their marketing department.

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6 Splinter Cell: Conviction Roleplay Leads to Police Intervention

The action-adventure game Splinter Cell: Conviction places a strong emphasis on stealth, but the stunt used to promote it went too far and almost cost someone their life. Police were summoned to the scene when a guy in Auckland, New Zealand, threatened bar goers with a fake gun while wearing bandages on his hand. The peculiar thing about this specific marketing effort, in our opinion, is that even the responding police officers took some time to realise that the gun the promotional agent was waving around was phoney. We start to wonder what would have happened if the police had pulled the trigger immediately. What would have happened to the employee with the promotions? Is the end of a video game marketing campaign justified by death? No matter how hard we looked, we couldn't locate the answer. However, we are confident that this video game promotion effort is not typical.

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5 Bethesda Wants a Baby Given a Dragon-Themed Name

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was created by Bethesda, a video game studio. Any kid born on the day the game was released was eligible for a contest, but there was a catch: The infant's parents had to choose the name "Dovahkiin," which in dragon language means "Dragonborn." The kid would receive free Bethesda games for life if the parents did this. Unrelatedly, the day the game was released, November 11, 2011, at 6:08 p.m., Megan and Eric Kellermeyer had their first child. And the contest just so happened to have been launched at the perfect time, as they yearned to give their kid a special name. There is no denying that this marketing strategy may have gone too far. That a business would advise parents to give their child such a name is just plain strange. What was going on in Megan and Eric Kellermeyer's heads is unknown to us, but whatever it was, it was highly strange. Can you already hear the playground taunting? You shouldn't be shocked, though, to learn that this campaign has been run before. For the first child named Harland (the Colonel's first name) and born on Colonel Sanders' birthday in 2018, KFC provided a college scholarship. So when little Harland Rose is old enough to attend college, she will have money. Well, at least Dovahkiin wasn't it. poor child

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4 Resident Evil 6 Experiments with a Weird Meat

Capcom, the company that created Resident Evil 6, made the decision to use a highly unconventional promotional strategy. In this advertisement, a butcher shop was made with meat that resembled human flesh. The name of the butcher business was "Wesker & Son." The meat that was being sold was actually edible animal meat that had been expertly crafted by a chef to resemble human organs. Before closing, the butcher shop was open for two days. In connection with the release of Resident Evil 6, there is yet another strange development. The first marketing prank entailed setting up fictitious crime scenes in front of well-known media outlets in London.

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3 Acclaim Painted Pigeons for Virtua Tennis 2

Virtua Tennis 2 was released by Acclaim using an odd and unusual marketing gimmick. Homing pigeons were painted with the game's logo by the firm, and they were released over Wimbledon. Given the location, this particular marketing campaign was targeted at tennis fans. Although Wimbledon is well known for the sporadic pigeon descents, this would be the first opportunity for visitors to view a painted pigeon, particularly one that carries a message. Some people won't ever forget this strange marketing gimmick. If only video game marketers would stop painting the helpless, innocent birds and instead utilize their influence for good.

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2 Acclaim Offers to Pay Parents to Name Their Child Turok

Once more, acclaim! A $10,000 prize was being offered by the New York-based video game publisher to the first parent who named their unborn kid after the dinosaur-slaying protagonist of Turok: Evolution. The child must be named Turok for the parent(s) to be eligible for the award. We view this as a peculiar sort of marketing for the understandable reason that the unfortunate child is burdened with the name and must live up to it. Makes you question what's going through these parents' thoughts. It's also important to note that Acclaim Entertainment as a business has previously had success with similar creative marketing strategies. The corporation received hundreds of answers when it offered £500 and an Xbox game console to anyone in Britain who was ready to alter their legal name to Turok in the same month that it announced the "Turok" challenge. We'll never know if these individuals were simply eager to claim any prize, no matter how modest, or if they were in love with the name. Unexpectedly, Alan Lewis, a spokesman for Acclaim, claimed that the intense rivalry in the video game industry made the novel promotional strategy necessary for survival. A staff writer for VG247 made the decision in 2020 to find the five people who were rumoured to have gotten the cash. He hit a number of dead ends before finding the truth. Each of the five individuals was a paid actor who claimed to have changed their name. In reality, nobody had done it. Nevertheless, it generated a lot of buzz when the campaign first launched.

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1 Mass Effect 3 Discs Shot into Space

This one is the most unique of them all and should be at the top. Mass Effect 3 players were given a special chance to play the game early by Electronic Arts. The initial versions of the game were launched into space after being hauled up there by weather balloons. Thanks to the GPS trackers that were attached, people on the ground could monitor the descending games. Fans could keep track of the location of the closest game. New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Berlin, London, and Paris were the cities that were targeted. To obtain any of the copies, a fan had to register for an EA (Electronic Arts) online account and use the company's GPS technology to locate copies of the game as they descended to Earth. When the game touched down, it turned into a free race. All of the copies would be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to the first group of fans to arrive at the landing places. We applaud Electronic Arts for this outstanding demonstration of scientific prowess, but we find it utterly incomprehensible that a video game business would send video games into space.

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About the Creator

Paul Smith

I love writing stories on things that inspire me, I love to travel explore

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  • Steven9 months ago

    These are great marketing stories. I also highly recommend this post which is great and I highly recommend reading this post: https://gamerseo.com/blog/8-most-effective-video-game-promotion-ideas-you-should-try/

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