Contrary to popular belief that gamers are primarily teenage boys, results of the study indicate that video games have much broader appeal. On average, gamers are 41 years of age with an average annual income of $55,000. Further, females account for 52 percent of the gaming audience. The average gamer has been online for nine years and 84 percent have broadband access at home.
….When asked about their primary reason for purchasing their last game, the two most prevalent responses among gamers centered on previous gaming experiences, regardless of gaming device used. More then one-quarter of those using each type of device stated that they purchased their last game because they had played it before and enjoyed the experience. Game sequels also drove gamers to purchase their last game. The next most popular responses included “I heard good things about it,” and “A friend recommended it,” indicating the importance of word-of-mouth recommendations in influencing purchase behavior.
….nearly four out of ten heavy games (37 percent) agreed that featuring actual products or companies in games make the games feel more realistic, while 27 percent of light/ medium gamers agreed. Moreover, half of heavy gamers believe that advergaming “is inevitable and will be in all or most games in the future,” compared to 42 percent of light/medium gamers.
Have been a big fan of the EFF for sometime, and am very impressed with them using the popularity of YouTube, etc. to help get one of their recent campaigns across. Excellent concept, appealing strongly to tech-savvy parents, who I presume is one of their largest demographic groups; excellent distribution planning. It’s this kind of thinking about how to talk to real people in the ways that we all enjoy that makes all the difference!
Ok, was in the mood for a good chuckle, so decided to poke around on YouTube a bit, came across the AskaNinja videos, and couldn’t stop laughing!
Ask A Ninja Question 18 "Minjas"
Then go check out AskaNinja.com for more - they’re awesome!
BTW - putting back on the marketing hat - I can’t stress enough how valuable it is to make some part of your product portable away from your site as YouTube’s done above.*1* Give folks the ability to modify / color / flavor / select just what they like, so that they have ownership of some portion of what you’ve done, and they’ll be more than thrilled to take and pass along to friends, family, etc., as I’ve done above, (and loved to do! ).
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*1* Unfortunately, the bit of code that YouTube put out to embed the above screws up the stock Wordpress XHTML Transitional validation, (which could screw up search engines). Luckily, in the case of embedding Flash, since there really isn’t a good way to do without breaking validation or inserting javascript, I’m sure the SE’s simply ignore anything in <object> tags, so think you should still be good.
17 yrs of Marketing, Business Development and General Management experience in Consumer Internet - Search, eCommerce and Online Media; High Motivator; Psycho-Quant. Have headed marketing & created multi-million user populations 5 times in the past 10 yrs. Focus is on using the power of business for social good. If you've come to the point in your life where you're motivated by more than just making your wallet fatter, (which really is the easy part) send me a ping and we'll figure out how to get that hope realized one way or another. More...
