The Forge Archives

Go check out the popular webcomic Something Positive, and you'll see the ad for Dead Inside there. This is awesome, because:[list=1]
[*] It's the right market. (SP has in its readership, among other things, disgruntled gamers.)
[*] It's a new avenue. (Webcomics are hungry for advertisers. Designers are hungry for advertising. And they share similar or related markets.)
[*] EXCELLENT USE OF THE TERRITORY. The ad uses the webcomic's own characters and art: Mike, a rather despicable and hateful example of the "bad gamer" archetype, almost straight out of kpfs - and yet, he is a sympathetic character who sometimes wants to do right, and still screws it up.  The ad excellently uses this to demonstrate what Dead Inside is about. Mike is the example of someone who has lost their soul, but perhaps can get it back.[/list:o]

Perfect synergy on all of these levels by Chad. I'm curious to hear how effective this turned out in practice, but in any case this is an excellent case of marketing done damn well.

Any other good examples of game ads that really use the territory/market/venue they're on?

Quote from: DevI'm curious to hear how effective this turned out in practice

Let me preface this post by saying I'm a fan of S*P, but ultimately whether this was a good decision depends on what the ad has done to increase Dead Inside's sales.

I will say, though, that it seems as though it might be more cost-efficient to advertise on second-tier webcomics.  For ex, according to the S*P webpage, they get "between 35,000 and 40,000 readers" per day, and charge $15/day for the side banner. (see http://somethingpositive.net/advertise.shtml)

OTOH, Misfile (which is run by my friend Chris) gets between 12,000 and 15,000 unique visitors per day, and he's charging $20/week for the side banner. (see http://www.misfile.com/?menu=advertise) Note: Misfile might not be the best for RPGs b/c it's aimed at a different audience.

Just my $0.02

Cheers

Let me preface this post by saying I'm a fan of S*P, but ultimately whether this was a good decision depends on what the ad has done to increase Dead Inside's sales.

Chad responds to an inquiry in his Livejournal http://www.livejournal.com/users/chadu/215560.html">by suggesting the ads have moved Dead Inside to #15 on the RPG.now non-D20 list of monthly top sellers, up from somewhere in the low #40s last month.

(Personally, that's not quite as transparant a response as I'd have wished for. I'm a heck of lot more interested in a unit sales comparison. Anyone have insight into unit sales at the various ranks on the RPG.now non-D20 monthly top sellers list? Danielle, my fiancé, is a big fan of S*P, and actually emailed Randy Mulholland an inquiry about advertising My Life with Master back in early December. He didn't respond, and we didn't follow up. So yeah, now I'm pretty curious how it's working out for Chad.)

Paul

Quote from: Paul CzegeLet me preface this post by saying I'm a fan of S*P, but ultimately whether this was a good decision depends on what the ad has done to increase Dead Inside's sales.

Chad responds to an inquiry in his Livejournal http://www.livejournal.com/users/chadu/215560.html">by suggesting the ads have moved Dead Inside to #15 on the RPG.now non-D20 list of monthly top sellers, up from somewhere in the low #40s last month.

Yup.

Quote from: Paul Czege(Personally, that's not quite as transparant a response as I'd have wished for. I'm a heck of lot more interested in a unit sales comparison. Anyone have insight into unit sales at the various ranks on the RPG.now non-D20 monthly top sellers list?

As of right now, unit sales on DI at RPGNow for Feb 2005 equal 17 copies. I have no idea what sales at e23 might be (well, not until next month), but I did get an LJ comment from someone who works there -- IIRC, Fade -- who said that there was an noticable increase of sales.

Quote from: Paul CzegeDanielle, my fiancé, is a big fan of S*P, and actually emailed Randy Mulholland an inquiry about advertising My Life with Master back in early December. He didn't respond, and we didn't follow up. So yeah, now I'm pretty curious how it's working out for Chad.)

Same thing happened to me, twice. I made two attempts, a year ago and six months ago, to buy adspace at S*P. No response.

It turns out that Randy has an excellent spamblocker, and my emails from the yahoo domain would get eaten. I'm unsure if my gmails got through, or if it was the fact that I also contacted him through mutual friends at the same time.

I'm currently having the no response problem from other venues. . . Mostly, I think it's the spamblocker stopping legit business.

CU

Hey Chad,

As of right now, unit sales on DI at RPGNow for Feb 2005 equal 17 copies.

That's some powerful results. Thanks. You gotta be pleased. (Danielle's going to be pissed at me for not having been persistent.)

Paul

Quote from: Paul CzegeAs of right now, unit sales on DI at RPGNow for Feb 2005 equal 17 copies.

That's some powerful results. Thanks. You gotta be pleased.

Yup!

And, here's some info for free:

Online ads seem to follow a wave pattern. Ad inception = no sales, 1 to 3 days = sales, 4 to 5 days = peak sales, 6+ days = sale slow, ad ends = sales end. Six to eight days seems to be the optimum, continuous run for an ad.

Its possible to have a second peak into this wave, but I haven't yet identified what does it. Tweaking individual variables over several (banner) ad runs hasn't made it clear yet.

Quote from: Paul Czege(Danielle's going to be pissed at me for not having been persistent.)

Just try different avenues -- Randy has an ljfeed for S*P, and his own LJ account. I doubt he'll turn away ad money.

CU