Advertising for Rock Band?

[BodhiWolff]

So, the horrible Target advert posted here got me to thinking ...

Is there going to be a Rock Band media blitz?

Here we are, two weeks before release, and I haven't seen any actual advertising yet. Oh, sure, I personally check this forum daily (more than once daily now that we're getting closer to release!) but I have friends who don't know anything about Rock Band. They know all about Guitar Hero 3, 'cause of the television commercials which are peppered liberally throughout the programming and the print ads that you can't escape, but we're now getting close to release date and a lot of the "straights" are still woefully ignorant. I mean seriously, a lot of "normal" people (read: non-gamers with money in their pockets) have no idea what Rock Band is ... but if they did, they'd probably be interested!

The Target advert (shudder) might be taken seriously!

I know that MTV is coupled with this project, but in all honesty, every time I flip over to MTV all I see are more MTV-produced reality/game/dating/lifestyle shows, so I haven't sat and watched any music for awhile in order to see if there are any Rock Band commercials intersperced between the videos on MTV.

I know that they're expecting big lines at the stores, and a run on the pre-orders, but a lot of people who are out of the loop only know about Guitar Hero 3 right now (due to brand name recognition), and have no idea what innovations are about to hit the streets in two weeks.

Or is word of mouth enough? Is gamer cred enough to build the audience, sell the first production run of units, and then worry about expanding the buyer's base until after the holidays (which seems counter-intuitive?)

Thoughts? Anecdotes? Recollections of past releases which put this all in perspective?

[Bakkster]

With the announcement that RB supply will not keep up with holiday demand, I don't think they need regular commercials quite yet. MTV has lots of product placement (the top tour bands will be playing on TRL, VH1 did a Rock Band Band special) and there are in-store demos. This should be enough advertising to sell their holiday supply.

I expect we'll start seeing TV spots around January, in order to catch everyone who has missed the word of mouth and product placement. You know, the people who won't miss the game if they don't have it this month. ;)

[Edgehopper]

The best advert really is those demo units; the demo is what got me to buy the first Guitar Hero, and I have yet to see anyone play a Rock Band demo and not come away wanting to pick it up as soon as the store opens on Nov. 20.

Aside from that--Best Buy is also showing the venues trailer on its in-store ad channel, and I'm sure we'll see lots more coverage with time, and those trailers on the website can't just be for the internet :)

[Xanthous]

I agree with the posts above.

There is going to be a very limited supply of RB bundles available this year. Word of mouth and the demo units alone will be enough to sel through that supply.

There was a topic a few days ago talking about MTV's personal advertising for the game. They're playing a unit on the next version of Real World among other things.

The first Guitar Hero didn't need a multi-million dollar advertising blitz to move copies. I'd expect the RB experience will encourage people to spread the word. The Best Buy and Wal*Mart demos will also help.

[AVC808]

i think there's a good chance you'll see a lot more mainstream media coverage on rock band and maybe they're counting on it for free advertising.

it could be the hotselling holiday item and mirror the scarcity of the wii last year attracting lots of free publicity.

[sporkBrigade]

Just to add some percpective from a gamer who pays attention to these things, we're still not in "Advertising for everyone" time yet. Pre-release advertising is always word of mouth and gaming sites. Fact is, us gamers are the only ones who care about a game before it's available for sale. Everyone else only cares to see a commercial for something when they're able to go and buy it that same day.

Those GH3 ads are a great example. I didn't see a single GH3 commercial until after it released, and that's very very very common. It's gonna be the same with RockBand. Start watching MTV Nov. 21st. That's when we're going to see what MTV brings to the table, if anything.

[Jimmik]

I think if they had enough supply to meet the demand there will be of this game post-advertisements they would have started the media blitz. It makes sense that they're not being too loud about the game, since, really, everyone's gonna mooch off their friends anyways and the cool kids will have already bought up the initial supply.

[BathTub]

Rock Band Band.