Savvy Gen Y isn't buying traditional sales pitches
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When game developer Electronic Arts released its latest "Need for Speed" game, it did extensive research on the "tuner" culture — the world of young car buffs who customize their vehicles — for lessons on how to market the game to youth.
It doesn't seem like it should be so difficult. Selling video games to Generation Y sounds like an easier job than selling water in the desert.
But marketers say it's harder than ever to reach this sophisticated group of youth who are overloaded on technology and short on time. Generation Y — which generally covers ages 13 to about 25 — is maturing more quickly than previous generations and is very savvy about advertising.
"They're faster, they're doing more, they're aware of more, and that's the big difference in terms of marketing," said Sean Denny, senior manager of strategic marketing for LucasArts Entertainment, which develops video games set in the "Star Wars" story line.
Denny spoke last week at a panel discussion of video-game industry experts about marketing games to Generation Y. The panel was part of the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Exposition, the annual video-game convention known informally as E3.
Reaching out to this age group is a serious business to the video-game industry, which is trying to broaden its customer base beyond the hard-core gamers in the 18-to-34-year-old crowd. Executives from Sony and Nintendo said last week they want to get their game systems into the mass market, having saturated the core gamer group.
The companies are devoting time and money to figuring out Gen Y, hosting focus groups of young adults and hiring research firms to find out about their tastes.
The research is showing that this generation seems to have enough cash to buy things they want, including video games, but they don't have enough time to play them, said Eric Johnson, chief executive of Ignited Minds, a marketing firm in Marina del Rey, Calif. Now, they're on their cellphones, checking e-mail and sending instant messages to friends. They're still watching television, although not as much as earlier generations.
"We're competing with all these other media, and the companies that figure out how to reach these people at these points are the ones that are most effective," Johnson said.
When this generation does play games, the ones they choose are often those designed for an older crowd, said Beth Featherstone, senior director of product marketing for Microsoft's game division. They like to play games like the "Grand Theft Auto" series, which allows players to steal cars and shoot weapons, she said.
This group seems to have matured faster, she said.
"It's one of the issues that has made them as sophisticated as they are, that they've lived through wars, they've lived through a lot of instability in their life," she said.
All of those behaviors are sending marketers back to the drawing board, because the same formulas that resonated with earlier generations no longer work. The music industry in particular learned that lesson the hard way, the panelists said, as sales declined and record labels struggled to appeal to an audience that seemed to have no problem downloading pirated music.
So what's the secret to reaching this elusive group? Using humor and surprise are popular strategies, said Jane Buckingham, president of Youth Intelligence, a market-research firm focusing on young people.
This generation likes beer advertisements because they're funny, she said. They have also responded to Burger King's odd subservient-chicken Web site, at www.subservientchicken.com, which features video clips of a chicken that responds to typed commands from Internet users.
The iPod marketing campaign is very popular with Gen Y, the panelists said, as well as Sprite's Mr. Thirst, a 10-inch-tall doll with attitude.
Video-game publishers are spending more money on marketing budgets and brainstorming unusual ways to get their games noticed above the din of a teenager's life, the panelists said. In some ways, they said, the games are also competing with each other for that attention. Several hundred video games come out every year, but a player might only have time or money to buy a couple dozen or so.
Generation Y doesn't trust the traditional news media as much as earlier generations and goes online for information about products, including video games. Youth in this group trust their friends' opinions and hate being ad targets, the panelists said, which makes word-of-mouth buzz the best advertising.
Microsoft plans to make a big splash this year for the Xbox game "Halo 2," and it will look to the Steven Spielberg film "A.I." for help.
The 2001 film used a stealth guerrilla marketing campaign, placing unusual messages in the film's credits and creating an elaborate and mysterious Internet game to generate buzz for the movie. Microsoft will do something similar with "Halo 2," Featherstone said.
Ubisoft created a two-minute video last year to run on MTV showing scenes from the game "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time." The video showed a DJ spinning records and was designed to promote a game without having the audience feel like they were being advertised to.
One tactic that helped Ubisoft promote the game "Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow" was when the Web site Penny Arcade featured a 16-page online comic based on the title, said Tony Kee, Ubisoft's vice president of marketing. The comic basically made the main character in the game look like an idiot, but it helped the company build the game's brand and got customers interested, Kee said.
Electronic Arts has begun viewing its titles not just as video games, but as entertainment properties, said Jeff Karp, vice president of marketing. The company is integrating mainstream music into its games and getting more endorsements from celebrities and athletes.
"To be legitimate and authentic in this culture, you really have to strike at the core of the consumer you're going after," he said.
Kim Peterson: 206-464-2360 or kpeterson@seattletimes.com