What Every Marketer Can Learn From Guitar Hero
It’s a challenge that prospective clients call ad agency offices with daily, sometimes hourly when things are brisk. “How do we increase relevancy within a particular market segment, and more importantly convert that new found relevancy into sales? How can we drive purchase and purchase consideration by our intended audience – an audience that currently doesn’t even know that we exist?”
As I wrote a few years back for Chief Marketer Report, creative teams address these questions every day. Often, agencies don’t seem to land on the correct answer. That may explain why the business so often resembles a revolving door. But every once in a while someone finds a way to shift perceptions to drive purchase.
The Red Octane and Activision-published videogame Guitar Hero is a perfect example of how you can get an audience interested in anything if you use a clever engagement mechanism that stimulates customer involvement.
I’m not referring to the game sales. Clearly, it’s an amazing game. I have it set up in our house with multiple guitars and everyone still fights for their turn to play. The game sells itself.
Of late, classic rock hasn’t dominated the radio airwaves, nor has it flown off the record shelves. For that matter, it isn’t even being illegally downloaded frequently by today’s younger generation. This all leads up to one very important question that was asked to me by a 9-year-old boy.
“Erik, can you take me to Best Buy to get a Lynard Skynard CD?”
At this point there are several reasons I almost hit the floor. One is that I grew up in the southeast and live with the running joke of someone screaming “Freebird” at nearly every concert I’ve ever attended. It didn’t matter if it was REM or Lenny Kravitz
