WotC's New Player Strategies - Thoughts?

[Ashrem Bayle]

MTV? Oh... on that I disapprove. Are they naive? The channels that would be best to advertise to are Cartoon Network, Tech TV, and Comedy Central.

I believe the refference to MTV was in regards to an article in MTV magazine or some-such. I don't think they said anything about advertisements on the MTV channel.

They may as well though, they surely aren't showing music videos.....

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

The channels that would be best to advertise to are Cartoon Network, Tech TV, and Comedy Central.

No doubt. I'd also like to see adults in the advertisements as well as a few teens. Ideally, there'd be a few shot of teens and adults playing together.

We all know that kids around the age of 12 or so would buy into it if they saw teens doing it, so targetting them is kinda redundant.

 

[WizarDru]

MTV? Oh... on that I disapprove. Are they naive? The channels that would be best to advertise to are Cartoon Network, Tech TV, and Comedy Central.

Maybe, maybe not. Remember who their target market is going to be for a good deal of the campaign: tweens and young teens. Comedy Central, in general, skews much older than that. The Daily Show isn't pulling the 12 year-olds, demographically speaking. Tech TV? Not enough market penetration. I can't imagine a single cable carrier hasn't had MTV for over a decade-and-a-half...I don't have Tech TV, and I don't know anyone who does, locally and about the country. It hasn't penetrated to enough locations, yet. And I think G4 would skew to a better audience, but not having either, I can't be sure.

Cartoon Network? Dead on. Most likely the best bang for their buck. The Toonami block or the Saturday Video Game System are good places to target. Hitting Nickoldeon during the SNICK, TeenNick and maybe the U-Pick Live blocks isn't a bad idea, either. I mean, if they could do those M:tG TV ads, it'd be nice if Hasbro would throw some change behind this.

One of my favorite things about 3e were those all-too-brief print ads showing four people waiting in a train station, and their iconic D&D counterparts battling on the station billboard behind them. Put one or two of those on Disney Magazine or TeenPeople or Nick magazine or something.

If Hasbro would just flex their muscles a tad, and get D&D basic sets on the shelves at Target and Toys'R'Us....well, that'd be schweeeet.

 

[Creamsteak]

Maybe, maybe not. Remember who their target market is going to be for a good deal of the campaign: tweens and young teens.

I have two younger brothers who have their friends over every day of the week, in bulk. I have the video game hook-ups, so they like it over here. About 6-8 kids on weekends, 2-4 on weekdays. Out of all the 12-15 year olds, not a single one watches MTV. These are all boys, of course, but I think that these kids fall directly under the target audience. They watch South Park religiously (though I don't think they watch anything else, save possibly Kid Notorious on Cartoon Network, and I can confirm that they HATE it when I want to watch the Daily Show). They don't watch nickelodean (at least not over here, though I imagine since Cartoon Network isn't available on the local cable network, they probably watch that as a poor substitute).

Tech TV might be off beat though. It's a great channel, between their tech shows, help shows, vdg shows, and occational (inferior) animation. My younger brother watches it, but I doubt his friends do.

Just trying to say, MTV is not what these particular little (pre-gamers) are watching.

 

[Nightfall]

Better off advertising on Nickeloden and Cartoon Network man. Comedy Central too.

 

[Ranger REG]

Maybe they should ask Joss Whedon for a clip of Xander, Giles, Andrew, and a girl Chosen playing an all-nighter D&D on the finale episode of Buffy.

 

[WizarDru]

Tech TV might be off beat though. It's a great channel, between their tech shows, help shows, vdg shows, and occational (inferior) animation. My younger brother watches it, but I doubt his friends do.

Just trying to say, MTV is not what these particular little (pre-gamers) are watching.

Well, all I've got to go on are neilsen demographics...and they show that amongst the 12-15 market, MTV has a big share, particularly for shows like "Real World" and "Road Rules". For the 9-15 market (tweens, remember), Nickelodeon is King, and his name is Spongebob.

I think you'd find that if you took those gamers and actually monitored them, you'd find that their actual viewing patterns might not match what they say....I doubt the 12 year-old would admit to watching something the 15 year-olds would say was for kids, for example.

Hell, when I was a kid, I didn't go around telling folks that I stayed up late to watch the local spanish-language station change into a japanese-language station on weekend nights...but I did it all the same.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Well, all I've got to go on are neilsen demographics...and they show that amongst the 12-15 market, MTV has a big share, particularly for shows like "Real World" and "Road Rules". For the 9-15 market (tweens, remember), Nickelodeon is King, and his name is Spongebob.

So, what we need is Real World: Your Parents Basement
When it stops getting real, and gets all dicey!

I bought my first red box in a department store (Zayre's?) and remember Toys R Us selling them. I'm not sure the large stores are the greatest though. WHat I think they need to do is get the stuff in the video game area and stores like EB Games (I've seen some D&D stuff there, but they're stacked behind game magazines, need more front shelf space and exposure)

 

[Creamsteak]

I don't think you realize how much of a 12 year old I still am...

 

[Koewn]

Maybe they should ask Joss Whedon for a clip of Xander, Giles, Andrew, and a girl Chosen playing an all-nighter D&D on the finale episode of Buffy.

Whedon would never do it - but imagine; the final episode of Buffy, the final scene:

The scene fades, and the camera zooms out from a table covered in a grid map, with miniatures and dice, to see those 4 characters, and a fifth, unknown person playing DnD.

The unknown person says: "Ok, guys, that's it for tonight, and for this campaign. Good job; you successfully defended Sunnydale against all manner of threats. We'll talk about a new direction and new characters over email."

The whole show was a DND (well, d20 Modern I guess) campaign. That'd make heads a'splode.

(caveat: I've never watched it, and there's Buffy d20 anyway, is there not?)

I dunno. Just struck me as funny.

I hope some enterprising ENWorlder gets the commercials on video for us to gander at.

Koewn