Last week I headed out to Eurogamer 2012 at Earl’s Court to get some hands on time with the new titles coming out at the end of this year and 2013. Which games will I definitely be getting my hands on after watching/playing them? Tomb Raider, Gears of War: Judgement, Halo 4, Assassins Creed III, Resident Evil 6, Borderlands 2 and DMC: Devil May Cry. Tomb Raider in particular had a great little demo giving you a real feel for the new style and gameplay of the latest title, with some very realistic voice acting that pulled you right into the game – decent headphones are a necessity!

I took plenty of photos, which you can check out after the jump!

These awesome Mass Effect posters, based on the loyalty mission series, were first posted on Tumblr user Miri’s blog.  Since then they’ve been shared thousands on times on multiple Tumblr threads, have made the rounds on Reddit and have even made their way onto Pinterest, demonstrating once again that nothing escapes the eye on those speedy pinners. Unfortunately, due to ownership issues over the background image, it doesn’t look like they’ll be available to buy anytime soon…

The role of a PR communicator has had to adapt to embrace the challenges social media presents; it could be argued that the role of a PR practitioner is very different to how it was perceived two years ago, as audiences, communications channels and the individuals that require influencing have evolved dramatically. This dissertation’s research proved that nowhere is this truer than in the video games industry.

Video gaming is an industry that has had to adapt particularly quickly to the development of the social customer; the secondary research of my dissertation demonstrated that the average gamer is much more aware of technological advancements, and also is much more dependent on and attached to the Internet. The video games industry also experienced rapid growth at the same time as social media, inviting an influx of these technology adept customers into a new arena. The industry has had the chance to learn from the mistakes made by other industries, such as the hesitance to embrace new technology and fear of the ‘amateur publisher’ as displayed by the music and film industries.

Interviews with individuals working within in industry have shown that large organisations are embracing the change to communications, and are already developing strategies to make use of the new emerging influencers, whose audience does not read magazines or broadsheets, but instead consumes video, news feeds, blogs and social channels. These online influencers have a symbiotic relationship with games publishers, and are given content, titles and access to events in return for exposure of the brand they have built up a connection with. The relationship of an influencer is seen as just as powerful as that of a journalist; these individuals are therefore just as important to the communicators working within the industry, who now have to recognise that their tactics and outreach strategy has changed from simply accessing a journalist database, to connecting with individuals online.

Channel management has also begun to form a large part of the role of the video games PR practitioner. Facebook and YouTube provide companies with an effective way of engaging and building up a relationship with a huge audience of both existing and potential communicators, and also provide the brand with a way of putting across a more local and personal front, as well are providing a creative and engaging way of allowing consumers to engage with campaigns.

These channels have also provided ways for companies to combat the issues of the ‘pre-owned market’ as discussed in the literature review. Rather than being viewed exclusively as a threat to the industry, these consumers can now be engaged on social channels and relationships can be formed, increasing brand loyalty and turning a one off ‘trade-in’ customer into a long-term high value customer.

Each channel also presents its own potential outcomes, each with advantages and disadvantages; research showed that though Twitter was more time consuming and required more constant monitoring, it also was the most successful form of communicating with fans and journalists for video games PR practitioners.

With the importance of channel management comes the role of online monitoring and measurement, vital to proving the business value of social media. Whereas offline media measures coverage pieces and AVE, social media measurement has had to create a new way to validate its use within a company and demonstrate that it adds value to the bottom line. Secondary research demonstrated the reasons for social media monitoring, including reputation management for a brand, tracking campaigns, audience insights, business insights and identifying the ever important influencers discussed above.  The quantitative and qualitative primary research identified the methods those within the industry used for measuring social media; quality was seen as more important that quantity, and individual metrics included sentiment, growth and effectiveness.

Research has also demonstrated that social media can bring huge benefits to both large titles and smaller indie developer games too. Though those in the industry said both types of games stand to gain from social media support, it is the smaller lower budget titles such as Katherine, the ‘long tail’ as discussed in the literature review, that can truly reap the rewards of social media.

The benefits of social media also bring the potential challenges and threats to brand reputation. Research demonstrated that a strong crisis communications plan is paramount to companies hoping to build strong online reputation; social channels are the first place the online community will turn to air their opinions and launch attacks. However, with the right brief and a strong strategy in place, an online communications crisis can be turned into a platform to demonstrate to customers that the organisation is listening to customer opinion and doing everything in its power to address their concerns and answer their feedback and fears in real time, something that was never possible before.

Overall, social media is seen as adding to the responsibility and role of a communicator in the video games industry, but at the same time giving a level of one-to-one engagement with customers not previously possible, providing a higher level of feedback and customer service. Though the field is still relatively new, robust measurement systems have already been developed to demonstrate how social media engagement translates into sales, proving its business worth. As online media becomes increasingly important, it is likely the amount of time a PR communicator in the video games industry dedicates to social media will increase, bringing with it the increasing value of two-way communication and a new model of conversation with the target audience.

Last week I was invited to write quick guest post on the Power Up blog. You can catch the first quick snippet below, and read the rest here.

2012 was the year of social media at E3, with all the industry giants releasing some form of social tech alongside or within their big titles.

Nintendo announced its social platform for the upcoming Wii U, MiiVerse. Dubbed as a ‘safe social network’, MiiVerse will be integrated heavily in upcoming Nintendo titles, including the New Super Mario Brothers U. The company says the game will feature a real-time social window, allowing the players to connect with others; though the ‘real-time’ part is up for debate considering Nintendo plans to use human screening on all messages before posting.

(Continued)

In case you missed it, I wrapped up the news for last week over on the Wolfstar Blog, with everything from Reddit to E3 and the Daily Mail… Give it a read over here

An experiment into using social media in a whole new way – not to raise awareness for a brand or an election campaign, but a rebel leader who has enslaved, tortured and killed over 30,000 children in Uganda.

Jason Russell has set a challenge for the connected online world to make Joseph Kony famous and help make capturing him and making him answer for his war crimes a reality by December 31st 2012. The entire campaign is based around using social media tools, such as sharing on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, targeting celebrities and policy makers on Twitter, email and blogs, geotagging images and tracking impact in real-time and changing the conversation of of culture, and get people asking: Who is Joseph Kony? (video after break)

It’s a lengthly video, but also pretty inspiring and definitely worth half an hour of your time

The search results for “Kony 2012″ are pretty interesting (though expected i guess).

As is the source for much of the conversation.

I’m currently putting a lot of time in to the literature review and methodology for my final year dissertation (that’s thesis to any readers from across the pond). The title is ‘How has the role of a public relations practitioner in the video games industry changed with the advent of social media?’ and some of the subheadings contain little nods to the gamers that will probably fly over the heads of any marker, therefore being a bit pointless. Oh well.

One of the themes I’m looking at is Chris Anderson’s idea of several industries, such as film, music and literature, being ‘hit driven’, with certain titles expected to be a commercial success being afforded much more budget and marketing activities in the hope that they will generate profit. Mark Harris discussed the idea his GQ feature ‘The Day the Movies Died’, with studios afraid to try anything different or new, risking going against the industry and profit loss.

The same can be said for the video games industry. Games aren’t getting any cheaper to produce (in fact, the opposite is probably true), so publishers have to be sure the game they are pumping a huge amount of money into will give them some return. This has resulted in many games having a very similar feel (I’m not going to name any, mainly because I’m probably guilty of purchasing them on release date and pumping way too many hours into them).

However, Andersson argues that internet has given the ‘long tail’ of music, film, books and games purchases (the titles that aren’t big enough to demand shelf space) a new platform in which they can become visible (and therefore purchasable) to a customer who would not have previous had access. Think Amazon for books, iTunes and Spotify for music, Netflix for films and platforms like OnLive and XBOX Live for gamers.

What I’m interested in is how these platforms communicate with their customers, and how social media to do so, such as encourage customers to share purchases, etc. I’m also interested in how the social media activity for a PR practitioners varies between pushing a ‘hit’ as opposed pushing one of the ‘long tail’.

Below is an excerpt from part of my literature review that attempts to analysis this idea. Hope you find it interesting

In February 2011, Mark Harrison published an article in GQ titled, ‘The Day the Movies Died’. He discusses the break down of the movie industry, with filmmakers and producers afraid to try anything new and 2011 being a year of comic book adaptations, remakes, sequels, prequels, sequels to prequels, sequels to sequels and children’s book adaptions. In the film industry there is a formula for what works and what will make money; the film business it is a ‘hit industry’.

Chris Anderson discusses the idea of a ‘hit driven culture’ in The Longer Long Tail (2009), whereby the film industry shares its huge marketing budget over a portfolio of titles it hopes will make profit, though not expecting all to breakeven. Earls (2007) discusses the same problems in the music industry in the book Herd, with the powerhouses behind the hits is afraid to put too many resources in the new bands they worry won’t make it.

The same issues face the video game industry. High definition graphics, high performance gameplay and cross platform titles might be a plus for players, but for developers and publishers increased production costs mean increased risk (Takatsuki, 2007). Large companies may be able to absorb the costs, but it can be life or death for a small developer (Morris, 2010).

The video games industry can also be describes as a ‘hit industry’, with much of the sales concentrated of a few products; for example, a quarter of UK houses own a title from the Call of Duty franchise (EDGE #233, 2011). Horizontal integration has occurred as large publishers buy up smaller ones, as well as vertical integration where publishers and monopolies, such as Microsoft, also acquire developers. Microsoft owns the platform (XBOX), the publisher (Microsoft Development Studios), several smaller developers and the online platform (XBOX Live). The reason behind this integration is a way to exploit ‘economies of scale’ and scope, in order to control distribution and maximise potential global sales (Gil and Warzynski, 2009; Kerr, 2006).

With so much profit at stake, publishers have to ensure the success of their hit reflects the time and money put into development, and develop clever marketing strategies. One way of doing this is to take advantage of the audience sat behind mobiles, laptops, computers, tablets, consoles and interactive televisions, and use social media.

The long tail

Professionals in the video games industry, however much they focus on the hits, cannot forget about Anderson’s ‘Long Tail’ of titles, whereby a large number sales come from ‘niche’ titles not available to purchase in supermarkets or retail stores. One example Anderson uses is Amazon for the sale of books; buying niche books was previously hard to do, with retailers only storing the top few hundred or so in popularity and supermarkets perhaps only the top 50. However, an online catalogue like Amazon has both the opportunity to increase the amount of ‘shelf space’ for books, as well as reach a huge audience. The result is a seemly ever increasing long tail of purchases, with every new book listed being purchased at least once a year and the tail therefore amounting to an increasing proportion of Amazons sales (Anderson, 2009).

The video games industry has also begun to take advantage of this trend made possible by online distribution, with services like Microsoft’s XBOX Live Marketplace, XBOX Indie Games and XBOX Games on Demand (XBOX 360 and XBOX originals), PlayStation Store and WiiWare. New cloud gaming platforms have also emerged to create large gaming catalogues. GaiKai (Japanese for ‘open ocean’) allows users to stream game demos into various platforms, such as websites, mircosites and social sites (including Facebook). After the demo has been trialed, players can then order the game or download directly (GaiKai site, 2011). A similar service, OnLive, allows players to rent or purchase a large selection of PC games, which are played online and hosted on the OnLive server. Games can be played on a range of devices, including on televisions with the OnLive Games System, and has a huge array of social options, such as watching other users, connecting to social networks and Facebook, voice chat and clip sharing (OnLive website, 2011). Though just targeting the PC gaming market at the moment, in the long term this could be a threat to the console games industry as OnLive begins to eat into the target audience (Nuttall, 2009).

On the one hand we’re pretty good at using the social site to spread news such as the political pressure in Egypt, the devastation of Japan’s earthquake and Bin Laden’s raid. However, it seems we still play into the hands of the celebrity culture, preferring to spread news of Beyonce’s baby bump, Rebecca Black’s musical genius and Justin Bieber’s latest hairstyle.

What does that say about us? I guess it says quite a lot about not only the way we share and what we like to talk about, but also the user base of Twitter. It’s easy to think that Twitter seems much more mature and ‘grown up’ in comparison to Facebook, but Twitter still has a large amount of active young users, both below 18 and in the 18-25 demographic. And evidently, they’re pretty good at sharing news. (Yes, other demographics no doubt shared news about celebrities too, but it’s pretty likely that many of Justin Bieber’s biggest fans sit pretty closely to the younger Twitter demographic.)

So, do the results below surprise you? Do you feel like more of the people you follow talk Tsunami or world news?
(Click read more to view infographic)

Source: http://frugaldad.com

(Edit: As depicus pointed out via Twitter, the results are skewed by event vs. personality, i.e we will spend all year discussing a personality but only a limited amount of time discussing an event).

5. Gears of War 3

Anyone who’s played the GOW series will know just how special this final game was; sending off our Delta squad heroes – whom have been with us through gore, bro-mance and some pretty emotion scenes – into the distopian sunset. The GOW is a particularly interesting series, a trilogy that started with little social activity leading to the final episode that made the most of online tools to ensure it’s success.

Gears of War 3 gave its online fans much to keep themselves occupied and engaged in the run up to the COG last stand, from an online led campaign to decide the fate of our final recruit from the Carmine family, to fans getting a say in which maps made the final cut in the multiplayer maps and beta codes being released online to those lucky enough to gets their hands on them (like me!). The final game was hyped and promoted well online and the final product didn’t disappoint – I’m sure there weren’t many dry eyes from hardcore fans by the end of this game!

4. Minecraft

2011 has undoubtedly been the year of Minecraft. The beta of the game was released at the end of 2010 and since has sold over 4 million copies on PC. Minecraft also debuted on Android with the Xperia PLAY, as well as being released on other Android devices and iOS. There’s also an XBOX 360 edition lined up for 2012, though don’t expect those block-style graphics to change!

The game has always had a huge amount of online social support. The Mojang team lists six official online sources for news and updates, such as Notch’s (the Minecraft creator) blog and Twitter feed, a wiki, forums, Facebook and a feedback community. There’s also a huge amount on non-official fan sites and blogs, including the UK’s hugely popular Yogscast, who usually make up the entire top 10 most watched list on YouTube.

To celebrate their super-keen fan community, Mojang hosted MineCon in Las Vegas this year, complete with online streaming of the entire event via the recently launched website. All in all, a fantastic year for the whole Mojang team for a sterling social effort!

3. Mass Effect 3

Technically a bit of a cheat title as it won’t be released until early 2012, but still worthy of a mention in my view. Mass Effect has already kicked off its social activity in full swing, from releasing an epic trailer on YouTube, to releasing hints and tips online on how the final showdown against the Reapers will go down, to letting us know just how our actions from the first two games might affect the ending for Commander Shepard and his/her team in the final space showdown. There was also online viral marketing with the BioWare Pulse channel, posting weekly videos.

However, the most memorable social activity so far has to be the fan created female hero character of the series, the so-called ‘Fem-shep’. As a huge fan of the series, I’ve kept my female Shepard character from the start of the series, shameless self-stylised, and have always been grateful both for the inclusion of a female lead and the fantastic voice acting of Jennifer Hale which has made played the female role both an exciting and rewarding experience. So hearing that BioWare were planning on creating a female Shepard to be used in the promotion for the final game was pretty awesome. Admittedly it was a little late coming and the look of the character was a little bit ‘over-sexed’ as the guys at The Mary Sue have pointed out, it was still pretty amazing to vote on each characteristic via the BioWare Facebook page (unfortunately my own appearance votes didn’t make the final cut!) and even more impressive to see the female character used as the lead marketing asset at my local GAME store. So nice one, BioWare!

2. GTAV

It may be a tried and tested tactic, but nothing really beats an old fashioned countdown for excitement and buzz around a launch. Another technically cheating title, GTAV might not be in stores until next year, but the launch of the trailer certainly got tongues wagging and key tapping online.

The big draw of a GTAV title comes from not only the story and the characters, but from the setting in which the game takes place. In the open ended, free-roaming nature of a GTA game, the location is everything; from the landscape you’ll have chance to explore, to the freeways you’ll be leading cop chases down and the entire feeling and atmosphere you’ll get from the game. Knowing just how important this fact was, Rockstar ensured it was also its most closely guarded secret, offering no reassurance or confirmation on the many rumours floating around – and so ensuring all eyes were on the trailer when it was launched on 2nd November. I made sure I had my countdown timer for the trailer release ticking away in the background and eagerly tweeted throughout, but I was still surprised at just how many people were discussing the trailer online. The location isn’t actually mentioned in the trailer, nor are the sory or key characters given away, so many of the tweets were rife with people guessing just where the location could be, from car license plates to landmarks, and suggestions of which charcters could be making a come back.

The trailer release was well planned from the Rockstar team, and subsequent announcments and releases will ensure conversation, both online and offline, continues right up until the release, which will no doubt be just as successful.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

A little bit of a given or ‘easy call’ perhaps, but you can’t really fault the consistently flawless execution of the Call of Duty titles. From MW2′s red carpet celeb filled ‘Hollywood style’ launch to Black Ops’ Facebook tab streamed live launch, the guys at Activision really know how to get it right. MW3 was no exception and really laid it heavy with social interaction – much to the delight of fans everywhere.

For the UK launch, Twitter fans were invited to enter a competition to attend the official launch at XXX. For those not lucky enough to win a ticket (read: me) then all hope was not launch as the star studded bash, hosted by avid gamer, Assasins Creed’s nerd and writer Danny Wallace, was all streamed live on YouTube. Not only could fans watch the action online, but they could also submit questions that would be asked live at the event and were also encouraged to use hashtags and join in the conversation from those at the event as images and news were posted online as the announcements were made. The trailers used both online and on TV adverts, Vet vs Noob, were also fun and shareable, adding to the buzz both in the leadup to the release and the weeks afterwards, helping to keep the title in number one position.

Well, those are the campaigns I really liked, mainly for their fantastic social engagement tactics that keep fans involved and active. If you have any to add, let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear them!

Ben Cotton produced a fantastic post this month on the 2012 PR graduate schemes. So if you’re looking for a job after graduating this year, why not check out the list collated by Ben below and be sure to check out his blog and recommended posts below for more information and tips.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been researching and speaking to industry colleagues in order to create this years list of 2012 PR Graduate Schemes.

Despite growth stalling in the wider economy, it’s great to see the PR industry in rude health (judging by the number of grad schemes that is). The list is broadly the same size as previous years and as we’ve come to expect, it is predominantly made up of the larger, international agencies with London offices.

This years list makes one thing abundantly clear. Whilst final year students will be acclimatising to their most important year at university and thinking about dissertations, the race for a graduate PR job has already begun.

On a personal note, I’ve received some amazing comments over the years thanks to the grad scheme lists and it’s always fantastic to meet somebody who landed a position having read about in on Social Web Thing. I hope this years list proves just as useful for the class of 2012.

I’ve also linked to some posts at the bottom which discuss online reputation management, Personal SEO and employability that students may find useful.

One final thing, feel free to publish the list elsewhere online. But if you do, please can you link back to this page with the anchor text ‘PR Graduate Schemes’. This is for SEO purposes as people are searching for that phrase and it’ll help drive some more traffic to the blog.

2012 PR Graduate Schemes

Blue Rubicon
Open
Closes: 22 January 2012

Burson-Marseller
Does not run a PR graduate scheme, but is open for internships all year round, many of which lead to permanent positions.

Chime Comms
Open: November
Closes:

Diffusion  
Open
Closes: 31 January 2012

Edelman 
Open: 1 December 2011
Closes:

Fishburn Hedges
Open
Closes: The deadline for the April 2012 intake is 12 December 2011 and the deadline for the September 2012 intake is 3 February 2012.

Fleishman-Hillard
Open
Operates a six month training scheme all year round. On completion of the Graduate Scheme the candidates performance will be reviewed and, if satisfactory, graduates will be considered for a permanent position.

Four Comms 
Open: TBC

Hill & Knowlton 
Closed: 28 October 2011

Hotwire Group (encompassing Hotwire and Skywrite)
Open: TBC

Ketchum Pleon
Open
Closes: 30 March 2012

Lexis PR 
Open: December 2011

Speed Comms
Open: 30 November 2011
Closes: 19 January 2012

The following posts may also come in useful when applying for a PR Graduate Scheme:

• So You Want to Work in PR? Here’s My Top 10 Tips
• 10 Tips to Boost Your Personal SEO
• 5 Tips to Pitch Yourself to a Potential Employer Using Social Media
• 10 LinkedIn Apps Every Student Should Know About
• 5 Basic Things You Should Be Doing to Manage Your Online Reputation

Related posts:

1. 2011 PR Grad Schemes
2. 2010 PR Grad Schemes
3. Edelman Grad Scheme Closing Shortly
4. Q&A with Fishburn Hedges Graduate
5. Gradu8 Recruitment Fair