Marketing - Something new

I am a big fan of creativity. One of the big reasons i do these Indie games. I get to be creative. Now creativity for me, does not stop at creating games. I try to incorporate creative thiknking in all my walks of life. From helping my kids to housework to erm... Anything really. So what is the point of this post then? I did mention marketing...

Marketing is one of those areas that I feel I can be creative in. I am the first person I know on XBLIG to go to his local gamestop and give them flyers to put in the bags of anyone buying an Xbox game for example. well each time it comes to the marketing section of my game I have to try and come up with something new. Something that could give me an edge, something that will hopefully be informative or just plain fun. Some ideas have not really worked. Like paying for advertising on Xbox sites. A little disappointing, but we ARE the little service that could.

So marketing strats... What is important?
It is important to advertise the Service, the Xbox and also my own Game. Now the order is more interesting, as to which is really the most important ? I am sure most of you reading this think that my game is the most important, but i beg to differ. And here is my rationale. If i advertise just my game, then people might not know abuot the service, and beyond that might not really have a good reason to buy an xbox360. So here is my pecking order and why...
1. Xbox360 - I place this prominantly because without an Xbox I have no sale. So more stuff with the Xbox logo on it must be good for selling more Xboxs and therefore more potential customers for my games.
2. XBLIG - This one is about awareness. We know that a relatively small percentage of those 20 million live users go to XBLIG, we know a lot of people are not aware of it. So once again, growing our customer base is of great import.
3. My Company - Yes, still not the game. Promoting my company could have all sorts of side benefits, from people following this blog to people possibly hiring me for my work. It is also one of the reasons my games have to be of a high quality for the service. Self promotion is BIG, and should not be taken lightly by any company. Ever seen the big boys advertising themselves ? Yes, all the time huh! We need to do the same.
4. My Games - Yup... Last, but not least. Using this games advertising is a vehicle, a vehicle that carries not only itself but also my company and the XLIG service and also the Xbox, which i should include Microsoft as well i guess. But it doesn't stop there, because everyone on the XBLIG service could benefit from my advertising. We are ALL in this Together! Be positive and be Proud.

So here I am nearing the end of another dev cycle on my own game. It must be time to come up with something new to try. I am sure that is really why you are reading this article...

NEW...
I am planning on doing a Live test of my new game at the Local Gamestop. I am intending to setup my Xbox and my 'A Shooter' game at the Shop and let people test it while i watch. This is a great way to grab some info about your game. I will allow people to play my XBLIG game before it is finished, right there in the Shop. I am hoping that i can get some promotion from the shop before i do this, but i do not yet think that is required. Yes it is a 1 dollar game, but the exclusivity is enormous. I will most likely alter my game in some subtle ways after this kind of witnessed playtest as well.
I know you might be thinking that this won't help anything, but maybe the quality of my game. But I believe this will help everyone. You saw my priority list, and this will advertise in exactly that order. What I need is a bunch of stuff ready though. Like my Corporate logo big enough to be seen, an Xbox logo, Game logo etc all on big enough card to be seen easily. Same goes for the XBLIG logo.. Though I am sure I will need permission for that one. So this isn't going to happen next week.
One of the things I will do to promote the game while doing this is having flyers that people can fill out with their name or gamertag or whatever they want. I will then have a special credits screen for anyone who fills out a flyer. This means they will then have a personal stake in the game. hich i hope will at least get them to download it when it goes live. It is also a way for me to get a mailing list for people interested in my games. Everyone should know how golden they are.

Once i get this more formulated and setup i will post again. I am Truly excited about this new campaign idea. I hope you are too.

any Comments? Opinions? Diggs maybe ?

Laters