Christmas season is upcoming yet again so I thought it would be appropriate to introduce something that will be quite popular over this holiday season. Great gift ideas depending on your budget…

Guitar Hero World Tour

Guitar Hero has an interesting marketing campaign out trying to build awareness for their latest release. As you may know, they are directly competing against the Rock band series of music video games. When Neversoft developed the original Guitar Hero they had a first mover advantage with it’s release, but Harmonix Music Systems eventually released Rock Band and took away a lot of their built up hype.

Rock Band is the main competitor for the Guitar Hero series as it essentially has the guitar hero game built into it (not the exact game).

So what have they done to compete with Rock Band? Well, the release of Guitar Hero World Tour (Previously referred to as Guitar Hero IV) tells the story.

Guitar Hero World Tour maintains it’s main guitar-shaped controller which users have come to love. It also however features drum and microphone controllers which perform the percussion and vocals for the game. Now you may be thinking…so, they have released Rock Band??? Well, essentially yes they have…just in their own unique way …

Like Rock Band you are able to download new songs to use in the game. They are introducing the ability to upload and share songs that you have created within their “Music Studio” mode.

Below you can see some commercials for Guitar Hero World Tour

Heidi Klum Guitar hero ad

Guitar Hero World Tour ad – Kobe Bryant, A-Rod, Phelps, Tony Hawk

Guitar Hero World Tour Trailer

Check Out Ebay For Guitar Hero And Rock Band Deals!

Rock Band 2

When Harmonix Music Systems developed the original Rock Band it quickly began to gain very positive reviews. Now they have released Rock Band 2 and critics seem to be maintaining their positivity. In it’s first 2 weeks following it’s release 363,000 copies were sold.

Over the original game, Rock Band 2 has improved it’s drum and guitar controllers, but if you have the older version controllers they are compatible. They now feature a drum trainer mode along with a unique battle of the bands mode, and online capabilities that offer merchandising opportunities for the players in your virtual band.

Below you will see some commercials for Rock Band 2.

Rock Band 2 Commercial – AC/DC “Let There Be Rock”

Microsoft XBOX 360 Rock Band 2 Commercial

Overall, if you are stuck choosing between purchasing Guitar Hero and Rock Band, take a look at what they both offer and choose the one that offers the extras that you prefer. They both have their own unique upsides.

Microsoft has recently released their “Live Your Moment” Campaign for the Xbox 360.  Sources are saying that this campaign could even be bigger than their monsterous Halo 3 campaign.

Live Your Moment

What do you think of this first video? Myself, I think it could have been much better made.  Since it is an xbox commercial they could have actually shown what it is capable of doing.  To me, this ad doesn’t build up any anticipation to make me want to buy an Xbox 360, and I’m a gamer.

Yes, they do show Rock Band 2 being played (The people in the girls head are playing Rock Band 2 it seems), but this seems to be too small for many people to distinguish. They also do directly advertise the Xbox 360 deal that starts at $199, which I’m sure will entice quite a number of sales.

Care to fill us in with your thoughts?

Mark Garland

So today I was on one of my regular YouTube endeavors when I found my way to a music video. I like music videos, always have, but there are some that I like better than others. The one I happened to stop at was an Ice Cube video called “Today Was A Good Day”.

However, this post isn’t meant to bring attention to the music video or even the music itself, but instead I want to point out what was done with the video.

Ice Cube, you may like him or you may not, but there is no doubting that the man has been quite successful in many areas. This campaign is unique for these music videos because of how the 2 songs were combined to essentially play one video. Yes, they are separate, but this is essentially what was done.

Below you will find the 2 Ice Cube music videos I am talking about along with some further explanation below. They are called “Today Was A Good Day” and “Check Yo Self” respectively.

Check these out and let me know your thoughts. (Make special note as to how they were combined together…)

As you should have seen in the videos above, they were combined together with a “To Be Continued”. This is quite rarely seen in music videos because of among other things, the shortness factor, but in these videos a story is built up using video (played out by Ice Cube) that builds suspense towards the end. The suspense that was built up is then played out further in the following music video.

Think about when you watch your favorite tv show and it is a great episode. You are right into it and then you see the dreaded…”To Be Continued”. Oh crap, right? Now you have to wait until it is next aired to watch the rest, but since you were right into the show, you want tune in next time to find out what happens. This is the same general “idea” that these Ice Cube videos seems to use. Suspense is built, not in the lryics of the songs, but in the video itself and from there the next video is started.  Instead of only watching the one video like expected, you ended up watching 2 … how’s that for music video marketing?

The point I want to get across here is this: In your marketing you DO NOT have to be like everybody else. You can be innovative and you should be in order to stand out from your competitors. Think of ways that are appropriate to your situation, but will allow you to set yourself apart and run with it (at least seriously consider the idea). Don’t simply do what others do or you will always be behind those you follow.

These Ice Cube music videos could have very easily been cut off and made into a normal music video, but instead they weren’t and they had me watching another video … this I’m sure was the point too!

Why not think about combining a few promotions that you run together? This is similar to an upsell idea, except that you don’t have to “upsell” anything. You just want some more exposure so your visitor will know what is available to them. There is no forcing anyone to do anything and no pressure is applied, but since they are already intrigued they will advance through your sales stream on their own terms and purchase whatever is right for them.

I hope this makes sense to you, if not please leave a comment or email me.

To Your Success,

Mark Garland