Portal 2 Billboards

Half-Life Series
#21

Outside of the interwebz, I haven’t heard or seen a single thing about Portal 2, and since I already know about it, I’d be more inclined to take notice to such a thing. Outside of Valve related websites that I’ve been to, ModDB and steam ads, I haven’t even seen it anywhere else on the web.

When there are more people that have an idea about what it is, then sure, I don’t doubt the effectiveness of advertising like this. With Portal 2, though, I do. It’s one thing to put up a billboard that says “TRANSFORMERS 3” or “CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 4” with nothing else, but it’s another thing when you put up a billboard and ads that say just as little but about a somewhat obscure game like Portal.

#22

the point of ads is making your product known to a target demographic, not a demographic that isn’t interested in the kind of product you’re selling

#23

Did you miss the part where that was my point? People were saying that the ads could help interest non-gamers in getting the game.

Secondly, a target demographic can also include people that are currently uninterested, but, with the help of advertising, may become interested if they knew more about it.

#24

Hawkeye where are you from?
If you’re not from the US then you may not know that the US is a consumer based nation. Hence all the advertising anywhere you go. Hell I can see a billboard from my house that is out by the highway. No matter where you go out here you cannot get away from it.

      I don't have a TV or cable so most of the shit I end up learning about is through billboards and buses while I'm out and about. I think you are missing the overall idea of advertisement. Yeah when you see Transformers 3 EVERYONE knows what that garbage is. The point of advertising is to get your product in front of consumer eyes so it plants the "seed". You're right compared to other products out there Portal2 is barely known. But that's the very reason why they have to advertise. The original portal was such a HUGE hit that they know if they can get more consumers to know about that the second, it will be an even bigger hit. Kinda of like what Crisis 2 did what with being more gamer friendly instead of only diehards liking it.
#25

Under my name it says that I’m in Chicago. Anyway, that’s fine and dandy for gamers. Again, my point is that it’s probably not going to bring in many new people that normally don’t play games. I’m not saying it isn’t going to work for people already into gaming. Also, not having TV/cable makes you quite the exception for a typical American consumer.

Seed planting works if the seed gets a chance to grow, like seeing it again somewhere else. Non-gamers won’t have much of a chance for their seed to grow. That said, I really don’t think rhe first Portal is anywhere near the same level as the first Crysis.

I compared the Portal 2 advertising to that of something like Transformers because it seems like Portal 2’s advertising is kind of taking that route. Instead of introducing something completely new by explaining it, even just a little, they just stuck their name on it and occasionally have a robot on the ad with it. Another purpose of advertising is simply to remind people about something they already are well aware of. A Transformers billboard would be like that as well as those of Coke, Pepsi, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Snickers, etc. They already know you know about it, they just want to remind you of it, just in-case you aren’t thinking about it. Hungry? Have a snickers, you know it tastes pretty awesome. It just seems like the folks behind the Portal 2 advertising could have added some more information in their ads, that’s all I’m saying. Sure, it reminded Portal fans that a sequel is coming out, but, except for the only video ads, it hasn’t really told anyone what the hell it is. Is it even a game? Half-Life 3 might be able to get away with that type of advertising, I’m just not sure that it’s enough for Portal 2.

#26

I have not even seen a tv commercial of Portal 2 in Norway, only on YouTube.

#27

Cool!

#28

There are at least 5 here in Minneapolis… Just this city alone… There are probably 20-30 int he whole metro area where I live all together.

#29

Well there were a million billboards about L4D2 here in NYC back when that was about to come out.

#30

Last things I saw advertising a game outside of a shopping center were the ODST trucks.

#31

I saw a trailer on TV for Portal 2. On the Discovery channel, no less. And I saw a Portal 2 billboard while riding the bus last week.

#32

You’re wrong, sir.

You need to reassure your existing customers that they made a good choice by buying your goods, otherwise they might start questioning if perhaps there might be some better goods elsewhere.

That’s why Republicans and Democrats have to invest heavily into their long-lasting faithful voters; or why mobile operators have to invest into “brand building” even for those who are already their customers.

In gaming, the reason is the scarcity of resources – a gamer has only so much money he or she can invest into games, and usually, they have many favourite games. Should I buy Portal 2, Witcher 2, Trine 2 or Dungeon Siege 3? Which of these will get the full price, and which of these will have to wait till some price-reducton and get a fraction of customer’s money?

#33

I’m not. Do note my qualification: “to a choir that will already buy the game with or without it”. The people you’re talking about wouldn’t have bought the game without the advertisement. :wink:

Anyway, putting up a billboard with a robot and “PORTAL 2” on it is not very “reassuring”. That was the advertising I was talking about in the post you quoted. The ads you’re talking about would be the ones on gaming websites (and Valve’s YouTube channel) that actually show game-play. I even went on to mention that showing what the game looks like would be a much better method of advertising. Why not show the robot on the billboard in action in a sweet looking level instead of just sitting there?

People keep separating snippets of my posts from their context, and I think I’m about done replying to such posts. If you want to cite a sentence that I wrote and ignore the rest of it, go ahead, but that doesn’t make you right.

#34

It isn’t worldwide;

No billboards,
No TV Ads,

Nothing here in Holland…
(Or VALVe is just taunting us, by putting billboards everywhere except in Holland)

#35

I saw an ad for dead space 2 on the side of a bus, and one for crysis 2 on the side of a bus shelter. When I saw the dead space 2 ad I thought “if people didn’t know that was a game they would think it was a move”. This was confirmed when I pointed out the crysis 2 ad to my mum, and she replied “I thought that was a film”.

I did however fast forward past an ad for portal 2 on the discovery channel.

#36

TV ads change things a bit, because now the vague billboards/bus-ads can be used in conjunction with the TV commercials to remind people about what they saw on the TV ad and get things going in their head.

That being said, I’ve still yet to see either. It also sounds like they’re sticking to the Discovery Channel as far as television ads go, which while pretty limited, is probably a decent demographic to attract new, and “reassure” previous, Portal players.

#37

Well, there were’nt any in Sweden. That’s for sure.

#38


Its not a portal 2 but a l4d 2 in Times Square. So this is what valve is wasting their money on. :stuck_out_tongue:

#39

Games by big companies aren’t games anymore, they’re franchises. And the companies are treating them as such. Even Valve. When game companies put billboards up that only say the name and/or logo such as “Halo” or “Assasin’s Creed” or “Dead Space” or even “Left 4 Dead” people will eventually recognize the franchise and buy the game. Games aren’t just for gamers anymore, and I’m a bit sad. But still, it’s not that games now are not any good, it’s just that they’re just so wildly popular with the mainstream public.

#40

there was tv ads here in Denmark.

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