Everybody’s an expert

July 24, 2006 on 6:31 pm | In Advergames, Brands |

Marketing managers often fall into one of two categories.

The first kind is looking after the whole marketing cake. Of this, advertising is a small chunk. Of this, online is a small chunk. Of this, games are an even smaller chunk. So we’re there on the radar — but we’re off to the side.

The other kind of marketer has all these things to do too, but has a bit more freedom. This marketer likes games, and gets right into it. Advergames become almost their whole radar and the other stuff becomes less interesting and just falls away.

But whether the marketer is focused on marketing in general or advergames in particular, the briefing process should still begin with the question: “What are you attempting to achieve here?”

We don’t kick off the conversation by saying a game is necessarily the right thing. We start by asking what they are trying to do. Then if we think a game can help, we’ll push them in that direction.

But there are times where we’ll say, “Why do you want a game? I don’t think it’s really going to work.” After all, it’s much better to be honest and have these guys come back with a better brief rather than proceeding in a way that isn’t going to do them any favours or make anyone any money.