you guys know how to make me extraordinarily happy, you know that?
![Smile [smile]](./images/smilies/dsmile.gif)
this is why i love IAT, noisy as assembled some of the best attitudes and most informed geeks on the web. bravo to each of you in this thread for your many points.
two-fisted- the NERF thing totally is a point i've used on several occasions, they're advertising to people our age, and completely neglecting my kids. i have two boys, what do you think the odds are that i walk down a nerf aisle and they don't light up like it's xmas eve and they're getting to stay up late? they love the swords, the maces, the axes, all that stuff, and guess what is, without question, the single toy that gets pulled out most often when other kids come over? the nerf stuff. more often than video games (though that's often because i force the kids outdoors), more often than any action figure, and even more frequently than the water guns, the nerf weapons come out and the kids stage a massive brawl. the blasters don't come out as often, in part because we've discovered the terrible truth about nerf guns... they're a blast to play with but NO ONE wants to search the yard for the expended darts. and they're not as accurate as bb guns. (though i won't make the mistake of letting them have BB fights like i did as a kid... just too many hazards there.) but the swords and axes go over extremely well, and everyone enjoys them, even the two girls conned into joining up one afternoon. and i laugh when the subject of he-man role play stuff was brought up... you make nerf-style foam weapons and tomorrow, my kids will be playing he-man and skeletor in the back yard. but you have to move fast, cuz the period of me marketing to my kids is drawing to a close. at 8 & 10, they're developing their own tastes in things, and not everything i hand them is greeted with a smile of wonder anymore. you know why action figures are losing to video games? cuz skylanders is doing a much better job of marketing to my kids, and my wife, and they're having fun w/ those products. no room for DCU in there, not in my wallet or in their minds.
zedhatch- i know exactly what you mean, that advertising has "seemingly" reached its markets, but the truth is, and we all know it, new products come, old products go, and there's a constant barrage of marketing aimed at us in other industries for good reason... example, do you think no one out there remembers that the mcrib exists? of course they do, everyone who's ever eaten at a NorthAm mickie dees knows the mangosteen mcrib, so why do they advertise it the twice a year that it's on the menu? because by making it available during limited times, and advertising it reminding us that it's going away, they create a false sense of demand, driving attention to the featured menu item and ensuring sales. mickie dees doesn't own the friggin globe by accident. they know EXACTLY what they're up to when it comes to marketing. if mattel wants to be the big fish in a big pond, they need to take a look at what other big leaguers are doing. you HAVE to advertise.
and totally, toy commercials on geek programming is great, cartoon network, the hub, G4, hell even discovery kids, should be viewed as a renewable resource, the advertising equivalent of solar energy. it's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nonstop ad space just waiting to be thoroughly bukkaked w/ plugs for your video games, your action figures, your dress up toys, your movies, your social network website, the whole friggin lot.
and of course, on media themed at the geek... imagine how many units mcf could have moved had they been advertising the toys during airings of "the walking dead?" imagine how many iron man units they could have moved if tony had been seen in the movie signing one for some kid? or if cap has saluted a kid in a cap mask? a not even 5 second edit could have tripled or quadrupled sales just by engaging and involving the customer in the product. imagine, for a second, if hasbro had a run thing were if you bought a hasbro product, you could go to the website and register your UPC code (or better yet, a unique barcode number inside the packaging) and register your name, and you would get added to the thanks at the end of the credits in the DVD release? sounds dumb, but people respond to that "15 seconds of fame" mentality.
but you know what the grail of advertising is? video game, in-game space. think about this... let's say i was mcfarlane toys. and let's say i bought a banner in the halo multiplayer board "hang 'em high." if a conservative 450,000 players are on at any one time, and of them, we take assume that only 10% of them are playing that one board, for a single hour... that's 45,000 hours of exposure to that ad in a single day. in a week, we're already at 315,000 hours... how often does a 30 second TV spot need to air to get that kind of eyeball? 37,800,000 times that ad has to replay to get the same time exposure. and that could be a static ad, something as innocuous as graphiti on a wall, or a damaged billboard in the setting that features the website, or an old broken neon sign... it could totally be integrated into the board, and explainable, and VERY cheap to produce vs a 30 second TV spot. and imagine the face time of that son of a bitch. sure, not every video gamer is a toy person, and not every toy person is going to respond to the advert... but you're marketing towards a population who are already invested in the property too. and again, w/ that kind of ad time, the bang for your buck is ENORMOUS. what's more, if mcf were paying for that ad space, you could, theoretically, defer the cost of game production a bit, lowering the end user price point and thereby encouraging new buyers to get into the franchise... and thereby increasing the number of faces exposed to the advertising... it's really a perfect circle jerk, everyone gets their nut. think about it.