Cinematic video game trailers were once the staple of YouTube pre-roll but poxy mobile gaming ads have seized this space on the (wrong) assumption that my gaming love would convince me to download a smartphone title that (probably) requires the alignment and destruction of randomised gems with paid-for power ups and that I’d do this while trapped on the loo or the tube.

Some experienced gamers steer clear of pay-to-play mobile games (after all, it can be argued that they share more DNA with online casinos than they do the titles gracing Xbox and PlayStation) but that’s not the focal point of today’s feature…

It was a single ad that soured me to mobile games. Marketing put me off the median creative designed to promote Game of War: Fire Age and instead made me shake a fist at an entire industry.

The Script

Young people are sitting around a campfire pawing incessantly at their smartphones. A gently spoken woman dawdles from a dark forest, asking: « What are you guys playing? »

A despondent yet inexplicably smug man retorts: “I’m supposed to be playing Game of War but this one player keeps kicking my ass.”

A third party asks: “Is it TheLegend27?”

YouTube’s five second ad skip countdown now concludes that there are 55 seconds left. I will enact the next three seconds.

« Yeah, TheLegend27, » he answers.

« Who is the Legend27? » another asks, opening a can of worms best left shut.

« Some say TheLegend27 is the first Game of War player ever, » it continues to continue… but let’s put a pin in the script here and get to the brass tacks.

This ad was the sole reference point for a particularly dark period of my life – a period that was particularly dark solely because of this ad. As a digital addict, Game of War: Fire Age stalked my YouTube videos patiently waiting to waste them like a gang of bullies occupying the front drive of my house ready to give me a wedgie every time I left.

I finished the ad once after stubbing my toe traversing the living room in the dark. After a minute of debate about the origins of TheLegend27, it concludes with a Shyamalan twist revealing that our lady from the forest is in fact TheLegend27, a deity who demolishes her friends’ armies – a real unfriending offence.

I’ve forgotten the faces and names of people I once loved, yet that tyrannical ad remains etched into my hypothalamus and other cranial apparatus. Now is your turn to watch it.

To this day I don’t know what Game of War is. There’s empire building and siege activity reminiscent of a poor Age of Empires clone from 2004 but that doesn’t seem to matter.

Game of War: Fire Age is very popular

The ad has accumulated 165m views on YouTube; more than 100 times more than Barack Obama’s historical inauguration, 57m more views than Rebecca Black’s hit Friday, four times more than David Bowie’s deathbed single Lazarus.

But most tellingly TheLegend27’s YouTube likes and, more relevantly, dislikes have been obscured by the company for a glaringly obvious reason made more apparent in the knowledge TheLegend27 climbed under the skin of the gaming community and birthed a meme.

It is one of the top five earning mobile games and draws around $578k from the US alone on a daily basis. In 2015 it was earning an average of $550 per paying player.

This is merely a single negative experience worth outlining, and there are many more bad ads out there generated by the almighty biblical flood of homogenised titles spamming app stores with shouty-men avatars and three-word titles like ‘[Something] of [Something]’ evoking superior media properties like Call of Duty, Gears of War and Game of Thrones, all without the charm or cultural gravitas.

​

Mobile Strike is another mobile game that crosses my path often on YouTube. I am thankful it was there to sparsely rain on TheLegend27 parade. In these ads, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in scenes of flashy military action. Typically, the actual gameplay is exhibited at the end in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it style. Vice’s Motherboard recently compared the action-packed trailer against the menu-laden gameplay in a damning takedown of the genre.

George Osborn, the games journalist and content marketer with a working knowledge of top ad networks, analysed the Game of War slot for The Drum. He thinks it is the constant repetition of TheLegend27 that made it ripe for parody, although he thinks it may be a nod to Liam Neeson’s Taken skit in this Clash of Clans SuperBowl ad (below).

​Osborn outlines that the TheLegend27 ad would likely be targeted to males aged between 18 and 35. He blames a lack of network inventory and frequency cap for the game’s invasion of my life.

A successful marketing campaign is measured by the download rates and user acquisition it drives, unlike console games which “take a more typical product marketing approach” where gameplay is previewed, pre-orders used to judge upcoming marketing spend which reaches critical mass upon launch. Game sales are used to levy further activity.

Osborn states that the market is dominated by a few companies who “monetised effectively and successfully in the earlier days of mobile free to play”. They became services focused on lengthening user engagement and spend. “This success allowed the top players to consolidate in the market. As the cost of user acquisition increased, these companies were either able to afford the cost of campaigns necessary to hold their position or use analytics to identify key users and retain them at all costs,” he adds. Game of War is very much one of these games.

Osborne concludes that “most of the top grossing free to play mobile games look rubbish. Game of War, for example, has a pretty uninspiring art style and the majority of its mechanics revolve around menus, making it a hard sell for a visually appealing TV slot.”

Simon Spaul, the EMEA managing director of AppLovin, a leading mobile ad network which helps to monetise mobile titles marks a shift in the marketing, explains: “We’ve noticed a massive shift from trailer ads to game footage, gamers want to see exactly why they should download that game, something that will entice them.”

Was TheLegend27 rhetoric about friends destroying each other’s armies a keen driver of downloads? Developer Machine Zone has kept pushing TheLegend27 campaign, hamstringing any sentiment that the ad was ineffective.

Companies like AppLovin look to show the right people ads at the right time using programmatic buying and machine learning. If a web user clicks one of its gaming ads, AppLovin learns more about that person’s tastes and can refine future ads. Furthermore, once it is established that a player is willing to part with money they can be baited with promotional offers on in-game items. If you’re a lecherous adblocker like myself, these guys have less data than they would like to work with.

Recent research from Soomla discovered that 20% of mobile users account for 80% of ad revenue. These high value individuals are sometimes called ‘whales’, dubbed so by gambling and casino circles. However, Spaul asserts that many of the top mobile games chase casual gamers who can typically deliver a 100% return on ad spend within 60-80 days.

That’s all fine and well for casual gamers, but hardcore gamers – those intense Counter-Strike Go or fanatical World of Warcraft users – are surely unimpressed by parting with their cash to make games either easier (with power-ups) or more accessible (with lives). Spaul disagrees: “Hardcore users want to game 24/7, so there is a place on mobile.”

Developers just need to hit them with the right game and the right creative – maybe a mobile extension of a game they already love.

Will there ever be another TheLegend27?

Looking to the future, Spaul underlines that the state of play is improving. The proliferation of video ads more transparently shows what players are buying in to. It accounts for 77% of mobile ad spend in the network. Also on the horizon are playable ads, facsimiles or trials for the games which the devs hope you’ll download.

Maybe one day I will have to play my way through three minutes of Game of War before accessing the content I’m intent on watching. That is the dark timeline. It may not come to be.

It is a relief to hear the networks are pushing machine learning techniques and making better use of the data they may already be processing. At the end of the day, they want you to engage with the ads they are serving you.

But out there somewhere there’s a devious marketer twixt a desk and a three-monitor PC tenting his fingers into a Cheeto-dusted, evil finger pyramid of contemplation as he says: ‘Send him one more Game of War ad, he’s had a few* already, what’s one more?’

*Probably a few hundred

The humble music video has been reinvented for mobile by a whole host of high-profile artists, from Gorillaz to Madonna.  We’ve seen interactive music videos, second-screen videos, and of course plenty of VR music videos – but a dynamic, AI-directed music video is a new one on us.

That’s exactly what Muse has done, to promote the band’s new single, Dig Down.

The video searches TV news broadcasts on a daily basis for clips that match the song’s lyrics, edited and synced up by an AI tool. The effect is to essentially replace the vocals of singer Matt Bellamy with snippets of everyone from Donald Trump to Mark Zuckerberg.

Created by tech agency Branger Briz, the video is pieced together by an AI tool and refreshes on a daily basis, using fresh footage to create a new version.

“AI is so often deployed in a very invisible way, so it was exciting to collaborate on a project with the band that brings it to the fore,” said a spokesperson for Branger Briz. “We think it’s important to have public discourse about the promise and perils of these emerging and incredibly influential technologies and it’s great to work with Muse to instigate those conversations.”

The latest version of the video can be viewed on a branded microsite.

Don’t forget to enter the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards. The Early Bird deadline for submissions is 22 July. More details here.

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Traveling to and speaking at conferences and events affords me the ability to meet and exchange ideas with other industry leaders. If you have not seen the first two videos from my Industry Leaders Success Tips, check out parts one and two of this series.

When I spoke earlier this year at Pubcon South Florida Interactive Marketing Association (SFIMA) Summit 2017 in Fort Lauderdale, I had the opportunity to catch up with Kat Haselkorn. Haselkorn is the director of content at Go Fish Digital, a Washington, D.C. full-service digital marketing agency. Go Gish Digital offers search engine optimization, online reputation management, content marketing, website design and paid advertising services.

One of Haselkorn’s best marketing tips is to set up a digital marketing presence online early in the startup phase. This means buying your own personal domain name as well as your business domain names early on in the process. Be sure to set up your social media accounts early as well. That way your brand is assured it has reserved its space online.

In terms of long-term success, Haselkorn suggests that you understand your industry well. She encourages her clients to spend as much time as possible in online discussions that center around the industry. That way they can become a community influences and stay tuned into what others are concerned about. Haselkorn also suggests that people interested in becoming thought leaders establish themselves by blogging on their own website and on other sites as well.

In terms of the future of marketing, Haselkorn says, “Everything is visual. It’s about visual storytelling. It’s about creating a compelling story either for your brand or business.” She encourages business owners to humanize their situation by using visuals.

I’ve learned from experience that creatives, especially videos, are the best way to connect with an audience. Videos allow us to connect with the viewer on a more personal level. They also are one of the best ways to demonstrate a product, add emotion to the messaging or tell a story. Videos don’t need to be professionally produced anymore to be effective. A smartphone, webcam and a quality microphone will work in many instances.

Watch more videos from MetroNY on their YouTube channel. 

Related: How to Use Social Media as a Public Relations Tool

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Michelle Held

Michelle Held is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and an online marketing consultant. She is the founder of digital agency Metrony, LLC. Michelle helps businesses and brands improve their online marketing strategy through social media…

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SPIRE wins four awards from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions

SAINT PAUL, MN (July 7, 2017) — SPIRE Credit Union has been honored with four awards from the Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC).  The MAC Awards have been recognizing the best of the best in marketing achievements since 1986.

Winning a Gold Award, the SPIRE 2016 Annual Report was designed around their Minnesota roots, and signifies their core values, branch footprint and membership base.  Iconic landmarks were drawn on the cover, representing everything from the downtown Minneapolis skyline; CHS Field, home of the St. Paul Saints; Rochester’s Mayo Clinic; Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge to the world’s largest ball of twine in Darwin, Minnesota.

A Silver Award was received for the SPIRE TV Series, Driven by Midwestern Values.  Now 7 years strong, SPIRE employees nominate members who have a genuine love for SPIRE for television spots.  The results feature authentic, unscripted testimonials with real members having casual conversations with their charismatic and approachable President/CEO, Dan Stoltz.

A Bronze Award was given in the Outdoor Advertising category.  In 2016, SPIRE launched a campaign at Xcel Energy Center, home of the NHL Minnesota Wild Hockey franchise, and a one-of-a-kind, multi-purpose facility located in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  With more than 150 sporting and entertainment events, and approximately 1.7 million visitors throughout each year, this was an exceptional opportunity to increase SPIRE’s brand awareness, as well as membership and product penetration.

Also winning a Bronze Award in the Video category was the SPIRE Annual Meeting and Member Appreciation Day video. SPIRE’s integrity and values were demonstrated in this piece, giving the viewer an overall feel for the event.  The resulting video creates a strong emotional connection with the viewer, SPIRE members and prospective members.

“We are absolutely humbled to be recognized on the national level by the Marketing Association of Credit Unions,” said Dan Stoltz, SPIRE President/CEO, “I am so proud of our dedicated and creative team.  They live and breathe the SPIRE Credit Union mission of being the best financial institution, and improving the lives of our members.”

ENG’s new video is part of an enhanced focus on sales and marketing efforts to increase brand awareness and sales pipeline

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., July 06, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — PositiveID Corporation (OTCQB:PSID), a life sciences company focused on detection and diagnostics, announced today its E-N-G Mobile Systems (ENG) subsidiary has launched a new video as part of an enhanced focus on customer acquisition efforts to promote sales growth. The video can be found in the About Us section of ENG’s website.

ENG has delivered purpose-built, customer-focused solutions since 1977, and has built more than 1,500 specialty vehicles for customers around the world. ENG’s expert design process turns complex ideas into operationally-friendly solutions. Vehicle applications include communications, radio frequency testing and monitoring, cellular and wireless support, command and control centers, broadcast, mobile labs and first responders.

ENG is a leader in the mobile laboratory market, which is expanding as concerns over food and environmental contamination, and biological and chemical weapons increase. ENG has built over 400 mobile labs, more than any other specialty vehicle manufacturer, due in part to its team of scientists who provide turnkey laboratories and the proper training to run them.

“Emphasis on sales and marketing has to be a top priority for any company looking to grow,” stated Lyle L. Probst, CEO of ENG. “While these activities have always been important to us, we are expanding our efforts to not only increase awareness of our brand and increase sales, but also to showcase the ways we innovate using new technologies like drones for utilities line inspections to help improve efficiency and safety for our customers.”

About PositiveID Corporation
PositiveID Corporation is a life sciences tools and diagnostics company with an extensive patent portfolio. PositiveID develops biological detection and diagnostics systems, specializing in the development of microfluidic systems for the automated preparation of and performance of biological assays. PositiveID is also a leader in the mobile technology vehicle market, with a focus on the laboratory market and homeland security. For more information on PositiveID, please visit http://www.psidcorp.com, or connect with PositiveID on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Statements about PositiveID’s (the “Company”) future expectations, including the likelihood that the mobile laboratory market is expanding as concerns over food and environmental contamination, and biological and chemical weapons increase; the likelihood that the Company is expanding its efforts to not only increase awareness of its brand and increase sales, but also to showcase the ways it innovates using new technologies like drones for utilities line inspections to help improve efficiency and safety for its customers; constitute « forward-looking statements » within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and PositiveID’s actual results could differ materially from expected results. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the Company’s ability to compete in the specialty vehicle industry; the Company’s ability to attract and retain new customers; as well as other risks. Additional information about these and other factors that could affect the Company’s business is set forth in the Company’s various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those set forth in the Company’s 10-K filed on March 31, 2017, and 10-Qs filed on May 15, 2017, November 18, 2016, and August 12, 2016, under the caption « Risk Factors. » The Company undertakes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

/EIN News/ —

Contacts:
                    PositiveID Corporation
                    Allison Tomek
                    (561) 805-8044
                    atomek@psidcorp.com
                    
                    Paul Knopick
                    E  E Communications
                    940.262.3584
                    pknopick@eandecommunications.com

My advertising industry colleagues tell me that this vague, non-existent call to action type of advertising is, in fact, ‘brand building’. Other people would venture that it’s art, created to win awards and has little commercial merit.

Things are quite different in the mobile advertising space. Mobile marketers need to be bold when it comes to asking for product or service purchases from a cellular consumer.  

Because mobile marketing is about supporting consumer behaviour in ways that are personalised and relevant to the individual shopper in their time of need, we’re not afraid to talk about the rands and cents.

This clear pursuit of real purchasing behaviour is paying dividends. Forbes Magazine says it is ‘difficult to overstate’ the importance of mobile marketing. The obvious reason for this is the fact there are a whopping 35 million mobile users in South Africa alone, with another 900 million or so throughout the rest of the continent’s 54 recognised countries.

That’s quite a market, and it’s becoming more accessible. People can use their cellphones for more than just calling and texting. Mobile data prices have declined from about R700 for half a gigabyte of cellular data in 2005 to just over R150 a gigabyte (on Telkom Mobile, for example). The wide availability of quality smartphones, new from leading retailers, is also boosting the total audience for mobile campaigns.

A lesser-known reason why mobile marketing in South Africa is set for continued stellar growth is the recent limited commercial launch of a brand spanking new nationwide LTE-A wireless network.

LTE-Advanced represents a major enhancement of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile communications standard. Owner Multisource has already invited a small number of clients to trial the new LTE-A network and, interestingly, for the local mobile marketing sector, it’s already public knowledge that Vodacom has concluded an agreement to roam on the new network.

It’s great news that local mobile networks are increasing capacity through smart roaming agreements, as mobile marketing specialists work with clients to develop even more engaging and data-intensive campaigns. This is driven by the fact that social media posts that include video and images produce 650% more engagement than text-only posts.

Most clients new to mobile marketing tend to equate mobile campaigns with SMS, and that’s perfectly acceptable. The text message was the original mobile marketing tactical instrument and with SMS coupon redemption rates as high as 30% to 50%, it remains a vital part of any mobile marketer’s arsenal.

For more information, visit www.intarget.mobi. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook or on Twitter.

Laura Forer is the manager of MarketingProfs: Made to Order, Original Content Services, which helps clients generate leads, drive site traffic, and build their brands through useful, well-designed content.

LinkedIn: Laura Forer

Your customers are crying out for video from you. At least that’s what the experts are saying. And it’s true – if all your sales and marketing (and support for that matter) is text-based with the odd image, it can get a little boring.

Look at it this way: A picture (image) is worth a thousand words. The brain can process 30 images a second. For a 60 second video, that equates to 1.8 million words (30x60x1000). That is the stat that Forrester’s Nick Barbar offered in a recent video presentation he did for a TwentyThree.net online video conference.

Another stat Barbar offered: The brain can process video 60,000 times faster than text.

Why wouldn’t you want to provide video to your customers and prospects? Why wouldn’t they expect it?

But video is too expensive

There was a time when you could pull that excuse, and everyone would nod in agreement. It can be expensive, especially when you are thinking of the high production videos that you think you need to produce. The special camera equipment, the special room, the best speakers, great animation, and the list goes on. You’re thinking like a news producer from five years ago; it’s time to shift your mindset.

Video does not have to be expensive, and it doesn’t have to be world class, academy award winning. You can even produce it from your desktop. As long as the content is relevant, timely, and high quality, your customers will consume it.

That’s why you see video hosting providers offering solutions to create your own videos right from the comforts of your office chair. One of these is Wistia. Wistia recently introduced a free Chrome extension called Soapbox that lets you record, edit and share video. It allows you to do a split screen, recording your webcam and screen simultaneously. You can even switch between the two if you don’t want them both up at the same time.

A few other things you can do with your custom made videos in Wistia:

• Customize the player
• Include a CTA at the end of the video
• Create a custom video thumbnail
• Trim the start and end
• Re-edit the video after you share it

Wistia is not the only video hosting provider that offers this kind of capability. Vidyard offers ViewedIT and Vidyard Studio, and TwentyThree.net also enables you to create videos and clips directly in your browser. You have no excuse.

If you’re concerned about the quality, then a few tips I can offer can help:

• Keep your background clean. That doesn’t mean a blank wall (I have pictures my kids drew in my background), but don’t have a bunch of crap cluttering the background that will drive people’s eyes away from you.
• Have the camera at eye view. Don’t be looking down at your screen in the video. Bring your camera up to your eye level, so you are looking straight into it. There’s nothing more annoying and amateur looking than someone who is starting down at you.
• Don’t read off a sheet. If you’re experienced, you could have cue cards behind the camera, but more than likely you sound like you are reading off them (and your eye will wander side to side). Looking down to read off a paper doesn’t look good either. The best presenters know their topic well enough to look at a few bullet points and speak to them conversationally. Practice beforehand and know your topic inside and out.
• Have clean, but useful slides. Don’t clutter your slides up with a lot of text or images. The KISS principle is important for presentations. But I will also note – make them useful. I’ve looked at far too many slides on Slideshare that are a waste of time without the audio that went with them. You want to reuse these slides for other content marketing assets, so make sure you spend time ensuring the content is useful.

I wouldn’t wait for the big budget to start making your videos. Yes, you can screw them up, but just taking some time to prepare a well thought out discussion or presentation and then making the video yourself, I think your customers will appreciate it. As my daughter has told me “practice doesn’t make perfect (because there is no such thing as perfect), but it does make you better.”

How do I track video performance?

Performance is another key question. Like every content asset you develop, you need to know how useful it is to your business objectives. In Barbar’s presentation, he makes the point that video views are pure “vanity metrics’. All your hosting providers offer statistics on viewing, and you can do a lot with what they provide, but it’s when you integrate video scoring with your CRM and marketing automation solution that you can assign value and see the impact your videos have on revenue.

To track performance and value to the customer journey, first separate your videos by stage of the customer journey. Different videos work best for different stages of the journey; separating them in this way allow you to assign more appropriate lead points. A table that I saw on a Wistia post seems a good approach to define lead scores.

The columns were as follows:

1. Video: name of the video
2. Stage of Journey: where you use it in the customer journey
3. Persona: go deeper by defining videos for specific personas (or leave this out if you can’t get that detailed)
4. Points Assigned: the points you want to assign for the video to add to the lead score.
5. Greater Than 50% watched: additional points you would assign if the viewer watched over half the video
6. Total Video Score (Points Assigned + Points from Greater than 50% watched)

When a prospect or customer watches the video, you add the lead score to their contact record in your CRM, or you use it in your lead nurture campaign to figure out what the next best step is to continue the nurture process.

My take

Another element of videos that I think will take hold this year is the personalized video. Vidyard provides the ability to personalize a video that enables you to capture the attention of someone. It’s the same video everyone gets when they go to Vidyard website and click on the personalized video section. (It’s free, but you’ll need to enter your name and a few more details).

It arrived in my inbox. If a company sent me a video with my name on it, I would click it. But it needs to do more than just put my name on it. It has to offer me something of value, so when you start thinking about how you can get more personalized – think past the simple things to what would catch your customer’s attention and make them act.

My point in all this is that you need to stop worrying about making expensive, high-quality videos and start thinking about the high-quality content presented via video. Take advantage of all those employees who love to talk about the business, its products and services, the market topics and the support topics. For most, making a video may seem a lot less intimidating than writing a thousand word article.

Image credit – Surprised woman browsing internet in home office, webcam view © leszekglasner – Fotolia.com

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Cassie Nelson is marketing revenue manager at Salesfusion, a leading marketing automation provider to small and medium-sized businesses.

LinkedIn: Cassie Nelson