Brand Guerilla

Laguna Beach has Gone 3D

This is just to let evryone know that Virtual is a new wave of brand communication. There Inc. has just released the beta of the Laguna Beach Virtual World. Now you can create your own avatar in Laguna Beach and interact with all the snooty rich kids and not be ousted because you don't have the clout to match.
The wonderful thing about this is the fact they successfully brought a popular brand into the virtual world seamlessly at it seems. Now granted, it's still in beta, but it would be fun to go and check out and play around with. Go to http://www.vlb.mtv.com/ and sign up for free.

This is just another success story of how to capture either your fan base or a completely different demographic in virtual space. Creating and branding these virtual worlds allows the brand to be lived and experienced instead of just admired. If I was the next band, I would create my own virtual world concert and invite all of those who couldn't get tickets to the show, to join us live on the web. Someone could host a party at their place and watch the concert online and submit posts to the band. Whoever has the best virtual party, wins a free trip to go see the band in the country or city of their choice.

Neat idea huh? Well for more of those cool ideas, call us! Brand Guerilla/Blink Consulting.

How Far do they Go?

The Roots have done it again! Brand Guerilla are huge Roots fans. From Organix to Illedelphlife, the Roots have captured the skills of hip-hop heads all over the planet...literally.
Here's what Pitchfork Media had to say:

On its Def Jam debut, the veteran hip-hop band avoids wilds tangents and trims some of its freewheeling ways; the resulting record is svelte, smart, lively, and one of the year's most pleasant surprises.

They keep us guessing with there eclectic fusion of world and hip-hop. Black Thought brought the heat again with his thought-provoking rhymes. You almost have to listen to the record twice to get it all. We're not going to promote one track because the whole album is good, but if we must, "Take It There" is one of the tightest joints on there.
Get the record!

Contacts! Contacts! Contacts!

The beauty of the Austin Game Conference is the contacts! We made a great contact with There Inc. There whole focus is virtual world branding. Virtual world branding? What the heck is that? The idea of branding has crossed over from the offline world into the online. Think of the potential.
You're Nike and you want to promote and sell your new running shoe. What better place to advertise than in the virtual world.
There are rules of engagement when it comes to branding in virtual worlds. One is, if you're Honda, don't promote your brand in World of Warcraft. Brands are mostly accepted, promoted, and passed along in social worlds like Second Life. Social interactions with the brand help solidify the brand and promote it.
So where does Nike go? They promote in There Inc. and in Second Life. Why? Because of the social interaction with the brand. If Nike's smart, as we all know they are, they would make the shoe re-mixable. Allow the user to create their own version of that particular shoe being promoted.
Virtual worlds are great [laces to make brands re-mixable and enhance user experience. So the next time you want to promote a new brand or enhance an existing one, give a virtual world a shot. You will be surprised by what you get in return.

AGC Day2: It's Party Time!

Well the games have officially begun! The exhibits were set up and the developers were passing out resumes. Today's events were very much in full swing. They even had a bar in the middle of the exhibit room. Lucas Studios gave away a PSP and we even got a few jobs lined up. That's what a conference should be about.
Besides the keynote this morning, the panel that was most interesting was Hollywood and Videogames: A Marriage Made in Hell. Our panelists discussed issues of separation (they called it "racism") among gamers and Hollywood IP's. Now racism was really the wrong term, but we understood where they were coming from.
The biggest issue at hand was the disparity of narrative between Hollywood and the gaming community. Hollywood, being linear in thought, has a hard time incorporating non-linear stories that are very standard in the gaming world, especially among MMOG's.
How does this affect marketing for IP's and the desire to have a stronger foothold within the gaming community? We all know that money talks. The amount of revenue being generated is a staggering statistic in the gaming world. For example, with 7 million subscriptions, Blizzard entertainment generates 1 billion dollars in revenue. 1 billion dollars! One game!
From a branding perspective, there needs to be an understanding by Hollywood for the gaming community. As Hollywood gets younger, the gamers become more frequent. Younger film makers understand that interactivity increases usability.
The issue is the narrative. How can the gaming community come up with a better narrative story line that doesn't involve shields, guild wars, and women running around with a mesh bikini and a sword? That's where Hollywood comes in. The writing skills of aspiring Hollywood film makers can be well used in the gaming world. This will cut down on every crazy fantasy game that comes out every year. Our prediction is that World of Warcraft will run its course and the world of gamers will need something new. Will Hollywood join in this endeavor? We'll see.

Austin game Conference:Day 1 Wrap Up

Well the end of the day got pretty interesting when it came to the discussion of Virtual Worlds. Our panel was Cory Ondrejka from Second Life, Mike Wallace, editor of 3pointd, and Corey Bridges (Pirate Corey) from Multiverse. The discussion primarily focused on the future of virtual worlds as a medium for online community. Now, we at Brand Guerilla, haven't been involved in too many of these worlds, but you can see the impact these could have on education, entertainment, and even government.
One of the interesting facts that was brought up when the pnel was asked about their aspirations when it came to virtual worlds, was the issue of identity. Where does the real world identity turn on and off? Does your your online identity create a disconnect from your offline one?
These, we believe, can be a vital issue in the future of the online world.
Now, how does this issue impact branding and marketing? Well, the benefit is creating virtual worlds (games already master this sense of community) to enhance user experience. Think of an online campaign that drives consumers, or prosumers, to a URL that spawns them into a virtual world where they will not only interface with the brand and it's commnity, but give suggestions on how to enhance the user experience with that brand. That brand could be anything.
This is a win win for the consumer and the company. So in that aspect, your offline will become your online, and vise versa. Now that will create a lot of buzz becasue the brand, product or service becomes remixable by the consumer for the consumer. Besides, wasn't that one of the things this country was founded on? Imagine a brand created, or enhanced, by the people for the people. That's the power of the virtual world.

Once again, if you want a "feed the monkey" t-shirt, just look for one of our representatives. They'll be wearing one.

Day 1: AGC

Well not too much to report on day one. There are however some staggering numbers on subscriptions. We started our morning off at a breakfast with Chris Sherman of Sony Online Entertainment and Shawn McMichael of Microsoft Casual Games.
The whole panel was abut the increasing number of gamers out there and how to effectively reach those  people.
Now the gaming landscape is 100 million strong! That's a lot of people either not working or using Prylosec. The interactive gaming industry alone is a 9 billion dollar industry. Wow!!

Now what does this mean? If the online subscription base is reaching 13 million a year, well that means there's a wealh of potential out there for branders and marketing professionals. So how do we interact with this demographic. That was a topic of discussion today.
First, advergaming is increasingly popular but you need to cater the advertisements to the game. For example, if you're playing Everquest, the last thing you want to see is your character with a big Nike swoosh on his shield. LAME!
But allowing the end user to interact with the bigger brands is a good thing. The famous "/pizza" campaign with Pizza Hut was awesome. Type "/pizza" and can order pizza online. AWESOME!
Remixable branding at it's best.
We have more to come so stay tuned.

If you're looking for a "Feed the monkey" t-shirt, find me. I'll have one on and will be passing them out.

Let the Games Begin

If you grew playing pole position and Zelda, this is where you need to be. Brand Guerilla Media Group will be spending 3 days at the Austin Game Conference letting the world know what's on the horizon in the world of gaming.
The gaming world is one that, in the beginning, everyone thought it was a joke. But in recent years, it's gained so much respect that big advertisers and brands are clamouring just get a piece of the pie. So what does this say? Well it says that you can reach a powerful audience in the gaming world and have a very good chance of getting your message across. It also says that there needs to be increasing support on a corporate level for the gaming community. Nobody goes into the war without backup!
In Jennifer Rice's August 17th post on What's Your Brand Mantra?, she reviewed an article on Trendwatching.com about Microsoft's efforts to support the influencial independane gaming community by providing them software for game development.                                                                

“(Microsoft) will make available a stripped-down version of its game development tools for $99. The XNA Game Studio Express software will have everything someone needs to make a working video game…. The strategy is part of a plan to make the Xbox 360 more attractive by putting consumers in control of the content, much the way that consumers are taking to grass-roots entertainment on YouTube or on their iPods…”

This may be old news to some, but huge news in the world of brand development. Why? It allows tthe brand to be remixable. Just wait, we'll stay on this theme of "the remix" in the hours to come.

If you grew playing pole position and Zelda, this is where you need to be. Brand Guerilla Media Group will be spending 3 days at the Austin Game Conference letting the world know what's on the horizon in the world of gaming.
The gaming world is one that, in the beginning, everyone thought it was a joke. But in recent years, it's gained so much respect that big advertisers and brands are clamouring just get a piece of the pie. So what does this say? Well it says that you can reach a powerful audience in the gaming world and have a very good chance of getting your message across. It also says that there needs to be increasing support on a corporate level for the gaming community. Nobody goes into the war without backup!
In Jennifer Rice's August 17th post on What's Your Brand Mantra?, she reviewed an article on Trendwatching.com about Microsoft's efforts to support the influencial independane gaming community by providing them software for game development.                                                                

“(Microsoft) will make available a stripped-down version of its game development tools for $99. The XNA Game Studio Express software will have everything someone needs to make a working video game…. The strategy is part of a plan to make the Xbox 360 more attractive by putting consumers in control of the content, much the way that consumers are taking to grass-roots entertainment on YouTube or on their iPods…”

This may be old news to some, but huge news in the world of brand development. Why? It allows tthe brand to be remixable. Just wait, we'll stay on this theme of "the remix" in the hours to come.